Sustainable Local Foods Farming Program at John Wood Community College

JWCC’s new Sustainable Local Foods Farming program provides courses and hands-on training in sustainable fruit and vegetable production, entrepreneurship, and marketingJWCC’s new Sustainable Local Foods Farming program provides courses and hands-on training in sustainable fruit and vegetable production, entrepreneurship, and marketing. More athttp://www.jwcc.edu/instruct/agriculture/LocalFoodsFarming/default.asp


Course brochure (pdf) athttp://www.jwcc.edu/instruct/agriculture/LocalFoodsFarming/docs/SustainableFoodsBrochure.pdf

Startup Funding FAQ From Y Combinator

A nicely written quick read on startup funding and dynamics at How to Fund a Startup
by Paul Graham of Y Combinator.

In 1995, Paul Graham and Robert Tappan Morris created the systems of Viaweb which became Yahoo Store (as shown in the Waback Machine from 1998.)

I've been following Y Combinator for a couple of years now; very refreshing perspectives. I particularly find his take on incubators spot on. Old post of mine Growing Startups has some other resources.

Adding on a copy of Guy Kawasaki's Reality Check would be a good "required reading kit" for the n00b or pro on either side of a deal.

My review of Reality Check

"This is one that I wish I had had during several startups. Long on common sense, and many good sources identified throughout "for further study.""

SIU Innovative Systems Conference SIUIS4 First Light

A very quick look at some photographs from the Southern Illinois University Innovative Systems conference, SIUIS4.

Flyover Country No More!!!

Tight security involved gas powered weaponry capable good for three to five rounds of T-shirt bombardment in this backpack-mounted platform. I'm sure 2.0 will be good for ectoplasm.

I'm all for elegant code, but there's something about cannon that just says one *really* cares about the project.

See also http://www.punkinchunkin.com/ for more insights into the Sport of Geeks. Now *that* is art.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Anil Mehta, sweating the small stuff to make a good conference even better.

The weather's been outstandingly North Sea here in the Carbondale Illinois area, but I say that will make the Seattle area visitors feel right at home.

There was a nice level of enthusiastic chaos amongst the student volunteers pulling together services for the conference, and a pretty comfortable, smiling group of people moving through the event.

Like a said in another post: World View, Intimate Venue. Nice, bright folks pumped about what they're doing and the potential of it all.

Cheeze Pizza Cheese Pizza Cheese Pizza

The "Green Room" loaded with Pizza, coffee, and volunteers. (And hungry people like me sneaking pizza.)

Logistics were a little shaky, but this is the kind of conference where a few more bucks would really make it sing. Parking permit in advance would have been nice, 'frinstance.

I want to see another conference here in six months, oh please.

Low cost, low hype, high content, real people. Sahweet mercy what a refreshing spin on tech. All here in Southern Illinois.

Robots? Got 'em. UAVs? Sure.

These guys had just torn down a 4H robotics demo from the night before and bless their cotton sox were back putting it together for this conference. The group's also working on some interesting UAV concepts and I hope DARPA, et.al, pick up on the potential.

All for now. Two more good days of the SIUIS4.

-30-

The Illinois Way of Beautifying the Farm 1914

From the Internet Archive:

University of Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, 1914

The Illinois Way of Beautifying the Farm

Chamber of Commerce Membership

Just took a look at the .doc application. Somewhere, there's got to be an abused MS Word application support group.

The writer exercised all possible font collections.

But wait. There's more.

$175 could get me, among other things, "INCLUDED IN CHAMBER BUSINESS DIRECTORY ON WEBSITE. FREE LINK TO YOUR WEBSITE."

So how much to keep them from linking to my website?

Verizon Growth from Soaring Inside Wire Maintenance

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/verizons-quarterly-earnings-drop-10-2009-10-26

1969 Trabant: Was für ein süßes fahren!

From archive.org

More information about the (in)famous Trabant can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant

World View, Intimate Venue: SIU Innovative Systems Conference October 29-31

Thursday, October 29 through Saturday October 31, the SIU Innovative Systems Conference will afford a world view in an intimate venue.

If you are a coolhunter, this little event will, I am confident, amaze you.

Go To The Conference

If the conference were in New York, Mumbai, Melbourne, Santa Cruz, Seattle, Toronto, Beijing, Moscow, etc., you would want to go. Don't assume because it's here that it will not be amazing.

It's in Carbondale, Illinois and I am glad that I will not have to fly to it.

Innovation isn't a new-fangled thing here. We had R. Buckminster Fuller and Anne Fuller right here, and there's even one of his surviving domes in town just a short hop from the conference. (The local non-profit taking care of restoring the dome could use some bucks so cough some, please at http://www.buckysdome.org/)

Thought Leadership from Leading and Emergent Technology Companies

Speakers represent, generally, technology leaders from senior positions in companies with a heavier emphasis upon network systems and electronics. Topics include exploration of new algorithms for network design in wireless communications, panel sessions on the economy, dynamics of networked information, a MATLAB tutorial, and topics which I would characterize as growing Social Entrepreneurship.

Companies: Cisco, LSI, Mathworks, Motorola, The Danda Group, Teradata, Calit2, Colorado Timberline, Avaya Labs, New Blankets Inc., Cadence Design Systems, Synopsis, Columbia University, Joule Labs, Equitech International LLC, The Element, Medergy, Bell Laboratories, Z.S. Associates and others.

This small conference has assembled truly impressive slate of presenters from the thought leadership of global technology:

Amar Nath Ray
Amit Sethi
Bonnie Horner
Brian Savin
Dewayne Hendricks
Dinesh Hiripityage
Flavio Bonomi
George Vanecek
Giampiero Campa
James Debelina
John Waclawsky
Joseph Deken
Nathan Nobbe
P. Krishnan
Paul Fleming
Qi Wang
Rich Goldman
Terry Galloway
Vijay Gurbani
Viswanath Annampedu

Das Blinkenlights! This kit rocks.

Based upon what I saw at the recent SIU Technology and Innovation Expo (TIE 2009), the serendipitous, intelligent, and enthusiastic demonstrations of student project demos will be the hidden gem of the conference.

Wind and water power, new interactive and immersive display technology, prototypes and "almost ready for prime time exhibits" are well worth the time. Many of these innovations need comparatively little funding (say, from a few thousand up to $500,000 to get product out the door, if even that much.) I've been calling it the milli-loan emergent market to contrast with the wee and wonderful micro-loans.

Rapt Musing: Human Beings At Conference! Hooray!

This is real. This is not synthesized by a soulless corporate puke (and I have been a corporate puke, albeit soulful). Yes! The guys with the pocket protectors who if I did not see during a due diligence meeting or a "strategic partnership discussion" with a somethingdotcom I'd move along fast to the next conversation. At the TIE 2009 last month, someone was having a problem with a demo (it was only batteries) but that is a wonderful experience. Real stuff. Maybe some blue sparks and flames. Something that does not represent distillation into a mega media sound byte.

Friends.

Some of the SIU student work evokes the efforts of organizations like Stanford University's Social Innovation Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability and very much reflects a growing maker culture (DIY, but I extend maker philosophy to manufacture of artifacts of all sorts, including code, hence techne in the name of this blog.)

In short: local (to me), smart, inspiring, and making me get "all hope up" which my great grandma Keneipp always warned against over in Saline County here.

The conference, now in its fourth year, owes its beginnings to the efforts of Anil Mehta, here also pictured in an article on the First SIU Intelligent Systems Exposition in 2007.

conference schedule is provided here at the main website.

PS: Fall Colors all over the place down here.

More Information Below

Website: http://innovativesystems.siu.edu/

Location:

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Viva Las Vegas

Very good friend is heading out to that joint.

This little homage seemed appropriate:




The town can be found here:

View Larger Map

USDA Policy Encouraging Local Economic Growth

USDA changing policies to encourage local food production in an All Things Considered interview with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsak.

Know your farmer know your food is focusing on creating wealth in rural communities.

Note that the policy of emphasizing the economic clout of smaller scale producers on the local economy has become more of a focal point for policy: entrepreneurs matter, throughout the network that produces food.

This production network goes well beyond the farmer or rancher. It encompasses the systems and people supporting markets. Distribution companies, information technology, newly transformed landscape companies, web designers, broadband providers, retailers...

So the first law of ecology from Garrett Hardin: "You cannot do only one thing."

More of the story at: NPR.org - Farmers Markets: Fresh, Local, Government-Approved

Get People to Food to People

Transportation systems for schools have high utilization at peak times and no utilization at others.

The Gothamist reports "Real Seniors Take School Buses To Buy Fresh Food"

This has been a recurring issue for me for a couple of years now: how to use things like transportation systems more intelligently.

Other things to fix:

• Integrate scheduling for county-based transportation systems in Southern Illinois (now only 5 days a week, inter-county complexity in routes/fares/extra fees/etc.
• Examine more efficient utilization of transport (for example, to pick up or deliver food) and manage health and safety issues through "intelligent boxes"which have telltales regarding handling of foods. These could even have features to allow only a certified operator to open the box (e.g., with a little bluetooth app for the food person at either end).
• Design for multi-use (buses with removable seats, etc.)

Ok. Time to weatherstrip the front door.... chilly day here.

Oh yeah. Most of the code for this exists in open source, I'd wager. Google Apps work too.

Reporting on SIU Technology and Innovation Expo (TIE 2009)

Back on the network, just in time to cover Technology and Innovation Expo (TIE 2009) at Southern Illinois University on Friday 9 October 2009.

The event will showcase SIU research projects.

I'm sorry that it's on a Friday before a three day weekend, but looks like a solid crowd.

And who could resist "'Electronic Nose' Research at SIU"?

They opened for Jefferson Airplane, I think....

New Look For More Widgets

Finally changed the look of Techneblog to take advantage of google widgets.

City of Littleton Annual Report

The city of Littleton Colorado has produced a visually impressive annual report found at http://www.littletongov.org/bia/docs/biacc-report-2007.pdf

Will Allen: Urban Farming

Good summary article of Will Allen's commitment and innovations in urban local food in the New York Times Magazine, 5 July 2009. Good summary article of Will Allen's commitment and innovations in urban local food in the New York Times Magazine, 5 July 2009.
Street Farmer
By ELIZABETH ROYTE
Published: July 5, 2009
Can Will Allen make the inner city the next front in the good-food movement?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/magazine/05allen-t.html

Mama Don't Take My Kodachrome Away

When I first got seriously into photography as a spoiled an only child, my first serious camera was a Canon FT-QL with a 50mm f1.4 lens. It was my eighth grade graduation present. I still have it.


In the meanwhile, Kodak has 86d Kodachrome.

There's a stack of slides circa 1968 with a lot of experimentation using Kodachrome. Long night exposures of backyard flowers using a small aperture and a flashlight, intentional oversaturation, some blurs on purpose.....

I want a drop in 35mm gizmo to allow me the benefit of the old, comfortable optics, but that may be a while. Of course, I might need a caddy to carry the damn thing around.

But, I did find an Adobe plug-in in a quick search at DxO FilmPack that might do the trick with my wee digital camera. All sorts of simulated films (about 50). For Open Source, GIMP offers Silicosaur PhotoFX

Memo: Ephemeralization. All kit is a lathe.

PS: A nice article at Wired on the The Cheap Russian Camera That Could: Lomo Turns 25 also contains some nice tweaks of lens and film effects.

Milli Market Segments for Local Food

Although Eric Sink, managing partner of Champaign, Illinois Source Gear LLC, writes about the software business, his article "Whining by a Barrel of Rocks" applies to ways of thinking about the structure of food "as a business" and the many opportunities for collaboration and economic growth with both large "production agriculture" firms and more narrowly focused specialty/local/boutique businesses.

Mr. Sink writes:

"Now let's suppose we're considering a market opportunity with realistic potential for $3M USD annual revenue. The big vendors can't even consider pursuing a market that small. It's not worth their time. But a $3M annual revenue stream will easily sustain a small company of 15-30 employees. That niche is an opportunity, and somebody is going to build a nice company inside it.

Identifying all the opportunities for software products is like filling a barrel with rocks.

We start by putting in the really big rocks like office suites and desktop operating systems. Soon the barrel is full and will hold no more large rocks.

But smaller rocks can still be added easily. In fact, we have to add a surprising number of small rocks and pebbles before the barrel can be considered full."

More at http://www.ericsink.com/bos/Whining_by_a_Barrel_of_Ro.html

The Need for Broadband Networks in Local Food Systems

Although some "local" farm telecommunications can take place with relatively slow speed private networks (such as those which support remote low data rate sensors for water or nutrients) and basic "telephone" calls, the bulk of the information needed for the Local Food farmers and eaters has trended along with the Internet traffic patterns generally: more and more information comprises richer media: video and audio.

"Digital Divide" has been used to describe the disparity of computer and network access - typically in the context of relative incomes. In other words, poorer people use (or have access to) significantly less computing (and networks) than wealthier people. With respect to Local Food Systems, the Local Food System digital divide breaks along geographic disparities - especially population densities - and the willingness of incumbent network providers (telephone companies and cable companies) to provide access to the "thinner" parts of their service areas.

And these poorly served areas are rural, holding farmers, ranchers, and consumers who cannot reasonably gain access to higher capacity networks. The network potential benefits resemble the effects of Rural Electrification during the 1930s. Illinois citizens - particularly at the south end of the state - are merely one generation removed from kerosene lanterns and battery powered radios.

History Does Not Repeat Itself But It Often Rhymes

Attributed to Mark Twain

Regarding Rural Electrification from http://newdeal.feri.org/tva/tva10.htm

"In 1935 the Rural Electric Administration (REA) was created to bring electricity to rural areas like the Tennessee Valley. In his 1935 article "Electrifying the Countryside," Morris Cooke, the head of the REA, stated that

In addition to paying for the energy he used, the farmer was expected to advance to the power company most or all of the costs of construction. Since utility company ideas as to what constituted sound rural lines have been rather fancy, such costs were prohibitive for most farmers. [ footnote]

Many groups opposed the federal government's involvement in developing and distributing electric power, especially utility companies, who believed that the government was unfairly competing with private enterprise (See the Statement of John Battle ). Some members of Congress who didn't think the government should interfere with the economy, believed that TVA was a dangerous program that would bring the nation a step closer to socialism. Other people thought that farmers simply did not have the skills needed to manage local electric companies.

By 1939 the REA had helped to establish 417 rural electric cooperatives, which served 288,000 households. The actions of the REA encouraged private utilities to electrify the countryside as well. By 1939 rural households with electricity had risen to 25 percent. The enthusiasm that greeted the introduction of electric power can be seen in the remarks of Rose Scearce.

When farmers did receive electric power their purchase of electric appliances helped to increase sales for local merchants. Farmers required more energy than city dwellers, which helped to offset the extra cost involved in bringing power lines to the country."

Small Business Econometric Study / Trends From SBA

Highlights from " An Empirical Approach to Characterize Rural Small Business Growth and Profitability"

• Education was a significant explanatory variablein assessing the growth of rural small businesses.The number of high school graduates increases thenumber of rural small businesses. Moreover, one of the challenges facing rural communities is how to retain a younger, more educated population.

• The amount of “natural amenities” available in an area can impact rural small business growth. This is defined as the attractiveness of a place to live,based on factors such as climate, topography, and proximity to surface water.

• Rural areas have difficulty attracting profitable,high-tech businesses, primarily because of a lack ofboth an educated labor force and necessary infrastructure.

• Rural policy initiatives are geared primarilytoward specific topics or regions, which often proveseffective when there are sufficient resources to helprural small businesses. According to individualsinterviewed on the topic, rural development centersand non-profit organizations are vital components foreconomic development.

• Some explanatory variables were specific to particular states. These range from the number of ruralprimary care physicians per capita in North Carolinato immigration growth in Maine.

Interesting read (for wonks and mortals).

The New of the New

If one looks at the real and virtual "stuff" we produce and consume, one of the big state changes comes from new economies of scale mediated by networked information.

Adoption rates for all sorts of things begin more and more to look like vertical lines (e.g., faster broadband versus slower) and better product architectures afford no small degree of modularity and component based systems.

What used to be called information float has become, to a great extent, less of a factor because federations of "smart friends and strangers" can rapidly vet vapor and mojo.

This new "component based and interoperable" lot of hardware, software, bio, and info means that the friction of creation and status quo form less of a barrier than before. This is the kind of environment that welcomes punctuated equalibria (evolution by jerks, as they say!) and disintermediation.

Removing (or mitigating) other frictional issues such as health care in turn improves the formation of new, and I assert, generally smaller organizations. From personal experience, I can say that the 1990s recession spawned a good number of high quality companies and think tanks.

With the provisioning of fractional services (payroll, HR, storage, webservers...) that reflect almost atomistic (and often "free") marginal costs compared to the big box running at 1% capacity, the formula for the production function begins to take rational, versus whole number or integer, steps. Again, with health care, the exploitation of the quaint statistic of large numbers in a common pool.... well, you do the math.

Trust in God but lock your car... I do believe that opportunities will be exploited if only from the fatigue of status quo and the inertia of the known.

Conservation Economy (via Ecotrust)

Portland Oregon's Ecotrust.org has made extensive use of a pattern language (see Christopher Alexander Pattern Language) as a design framework for sustainable systems.

"A Conservation Economy

When the health of ecosystems and communities is not integrated into economic activities, all three suffer. In turn, economic dependence on destructive activities creates apparent conflicts between work, nature, and community. How can we create an economy that effectively meets human needs while regenerating natural systems? An economy which grows organically — and fills new niches — by working with nature and enriching human capacities?

In A Conservation Economy, Economic arrangements of all kinds are gradually redesigned so that they restore, rather than deplete, Natural Capital and Social Capital. This will create extraordinary opportunities for those who foresee and drive these changes. The Fundamental Needs of people — and the Ecosystem Services which sustain them — are the starting point for a different kind of economic prosperity that can endure generation after generation."

The details can be found at http://www.conservationeconomy.net/conservation_economy.html