Issues

Time For Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts 2.0?

Time For Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts 2.0?

I don’t see kids adding skills they’ve earned to their social networking profiles yet, I mostly see check-ins, bands, movies and status updates. While historic groups like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are sometimes associated with camping and selling cookies for many – I think there might be something new ahead. A peer to peer way of sharing and celebrating skills using the internet (think Khan Academy) and I think the scouts will ultimately go this way too, becoming “Scouts 2.0”.

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Aerial Drones and U.S. Law

Aerial Drones and U.S. Law

My post last Friday (Making Money with Drone-Based Businesses) was long on enthusiasm and short on facts. Thanks, as always, to our fantastic commentariat for helping me get up to speed. The story of drone entrepreneurship is, in fact, emerging, but the technology and the willing entrepreneurs are mostly in place, already, and the action, for now, is about the law and how it’s changing.

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Soapbox: The {Unspoken} Rules of Open Source Hardware

Soapbox: The {Unspoken} Rules of Open Source Hardware

I truly believe open source hardware is here to stay — it’s established itself as a great community, a great effort, and, for many, a great business. I spend most of my days working on open source hardware in some way, and I wanted to talk about some of the {unspoken} rules we all seem to follow. Why? Because the core group of people who’ve been doing what we’ve collectively called “open source hardware” all know each other — we’re friends, we overlap and compete in some ways, but we all work towards a common goal: sharing our work to make the world a better place and to stand on each others shoulders and not each others toes : ) I’m sure there will be some folks who agree strongly with what I’ve outlined, other will completely disagree with many points too. That’s great, it’s time we start this conversation.

OK, let’s go!

Continue Reading Phillip Torrone109
How Makers, Hackers, and Entrepreneurs Can Save the U.S. Postal Service

How Makers, Hackers, and Entrepreneurs Can Save the U.S. Postal Service

As I spent the days and nights shipping, I thought it would be interesting to consider how we could transform and evolve the postal system. I think makers, hackers and entrepreneurs have unique ways of looking at things and I’d like to share some of the ideas I had. Most of all, I’d like your ideas. Together we could start some conversations on how we could utilize this national logistical treasure. That’s this week Soapbox, “How Makers, Hackers And Entrepreneurs Can Save The US Postal Service”…

Continue Reading Phillip Torrone166
If You Can Make It in NYC, You Can Make It Anywhere

If You Can Make It in NYC, You Can Make It Anywhere

Over the years a common question I get asked is “Why New York City”? And “Why run a business there it’s so hard/expensive/crazy/weird/intense” – “just move to Vegas, no taxes!” – and that’s what this week’s SOAPBOX column is all about – “If You Can Make It In NYC… You Can Make It Anywhere”. I’m going to talk about why I think this is the best city, for me, for now, to run a business – my goal is article is for the maker businesses out there from one person to many, to post up in the comments on why THEIR city is the best city to run a maker business. Let’s get started.

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Zen and the Art of Making

Zen and the Art of Making

This week for my bi-weekly soapbox columns I thought I’d share some of my notes I’ve jotted down recently about making things, working with and supporting beginners. Lately, I’ve been thinking about how much fun it is when you’re a beginner at something as opposed to being an “expert”.

At some point, we all become experts at something. I really want to avoid being an expert in some things, only so I can continually look forward to learning more without the overhead of being an “expert”. Being an expert means your journey is somewhat over. I was going to call this column the “expert problem” but I hope you enjoy this semi-stream of conscience collected over the last few weeks. Be sure to post up in the comments about your experiences with learning a new skill and how you keep motivated to keep learning more.

Continue Reading Phillip Torrone88