Anderson@Large

The Twilight Zone

I live online. If it’s at all possible, I’m spending even more time glued to my laptop as I work on the trailer for the video about entrepreneurial-minded black innovators.

Last weekend, I did a Google search for images of black innovators. You can imagine my surprise when I saw my face among innovators like Dr. Charles R. Drew, Aretha Franklin, Katherine Dunham, Michael Jackson, Jackie Robinson, Madam C.J. Walker, Stevie Wonder and Benjamin Banneker.

Sure, I share lots of news and information. But I think you can blame it on SEO.

Cue the music.

Money for War, None for Transparency

With the threat of a government shutdown looming, the White House reportedly has offered an additional $20 billion in budget cuts for the current fiscal year. And while there’s no money for open government initiatives, the week old war in Libya has already cost $600 million.

Nancy Scola of techPresident reports:

Open government advocates are freaking out about what the continuing budget resolutions being considered in the House and Senate would do to federal transparency projects like Data.gov, USASpending.gov, and online collaborations, which is to defund them, or to cut their funding to the bone; under the measures being considered on the Hill, the appropriation for the E-Government Fund for the remainder of the year would be cut to 1/17th of what it was in FY 2010, from $34 million down to two. OpenCongress’s Donny Shaw puts the numbers in perspective: “The value of data openness in government cannot be overestimated, and for the cost of just one-third of one day of missile attacks in Libya, we can keep these initiatives alive and developing for another year.”

In his address on Libya, President Obama said we’re in Libya to avert “a looming humanitarian crisis.” Obama noted:

I know that some Americans continue to have questions about our efforts in Libya. Qaddafi has not yet stepped down from power, and until he does, Libya will remain dangerous. Moreover, even after Qaddafi does leave power, 40 years of tyranny has left Libya fractured and without strong civil institutions. The transition to a legitimate government that is responsive to the Libyan people will be a difficult task. And while the United States will do our part to help, it will be a task for the international community and –- more importantly –- a task for the Libyan people themselves.

Count me among the unswayed. Edwin Starr’s anti-war anthem is more than 40 years old, but it’s still spot on.

Jobless Recovery is No Joke

The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its monthly jobs report on Friday, April Fools’ Day. But it’s no joke that millions of Americans are no longer counted among the unemployed. They are “jobless” and no longer counted, period.

And that’s a low-down dirty shame.

Christina Romer, former chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, recently said:

I frankly don’t understand why policy makers aren’t more worried about the suffering of real families. I think there are tools we have tools we have that we can use, and I think it’s shameful that we’re not using them.

Romer added:

We need to realize that there is still a lot of devastation out there.

Romer called the official 8.9 percent rate “an absolute crisis.” The rate would be over 10 percent if the jobless were counted.

Gallup found the unemployment rate in mid-March was 10.2 percent.

March madness, indeed.

Five Steps of Innovation

Earlier this week, I checked out an exhibition at the National Museum of American History, “Lighting a Revolution: Five Steps of Innovation.”

The exhibition provides an overview of the process of innovation:

Step 1: “preconditions” or prior knowledge that inventors build on
Step 2: the act of “invention” itself
Step 3 : “promotion” of the invention
Step 4: “competition” to the invention
Step 5: “consequences” stemming from use of the invention

It is illuminating that even though Thomas Edison was renowned as “The Wizard of Menlo Park,” he had to promote his inventions to “get money from investors.”

Fast forward to today. Black innovators are largely invisible to venture capitalists. So it should come as no surprise that the overwhelming majority of black startups have not raised any money.

A ChubbyBrain study found:

Despite the fact that over 1/2 of BlackWeb2.0 startup have launched, have traction and/or revenue, a significant number, almost 9 of 10 (88%) had not received any funding from venture capitalists, angel investors or government grant programs. This was much greater than aggregate statistics which saw 63% of startups not being funded. Given the maturity of many of the startups, BlackWeb2.0 startups were notable in that many seem to have gotten somewhat far along without external financing of any kind to-date.

To borrow a phrase, startups without finance don’t stand a chance. Black innovators need money.

Black Innovators: An Underreported Story

My plan to produce a web documentary about entrepreneurial-minded black innovators has struck a chord. I am heartened by the offers to help me crowdsource the production and funding.

I'm a social media evangelist. So in response to requests for more information, I storified the project.

Black Innovators and Entrepreneurship

Last week, I tuned in to Startup America Partnership’s webinar with its CEO Scott Case.

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In response to a question about women entrepreneurs’ lack of access to VC funding, Case said:

One of the things we can do is to celebrate entrepreneurship of all shapes and sizes. And one of the challenges we have in the United States is that we have fantastic women entrepreneurs. Right, unbelievable. We also have unbelievable African American entrepreneurs. We have unbelievable Hispanic entrepreneurs. We have unbelievable Asian American entrepreneurs.

The challenge is that they’re not visible to us. They might be visible in their own communities. Maybe they got an entrepreneur of the year award from Ernst & Young. But we need to celebrate entrepreneurship in this country and to profile those amazing people to create the level of inspiration that will allow people to step up.

Well, that got me to thinking about what can I do to make black innovators more visible. Then the light bulb came on: I’ll write and produce a web documentary and tell the story of some of those amazing African American entrepreneurs.

And faster than you can say South by Southwest, the trailer for the webdoc popped into my head. So stay tuned.

For more info, send an email to blackinnovators@gmail.com.

Open Data Business Plans

I spent most of this week with “my people,” open government advocates whose work is animated by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’ observation that “sunlight is the best disinfectant.”

They say you can do well by doing good. During his appearance before the National FOI Day Conference, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra shared how some companies have flipped the script and are using our good work to do well for themselves. They are repurposing open datasets from federal departments and agencies and creating new products and services.

Companies like Bloomberg Government, a subscription- based service that aggregates and filters raw data to help subscribers “understand the government’s impact on business.” Yesterday, @BloombergGov held product demos at Union Station.

VC-backed BrightScope is using data from the Department of Labor, Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal agencies to rate 401k plans.

Weatherbill, a crop insurance company, is mashing up open data from the National Weather Service to help farmers adapt to climate change.

The good government folks who created the Open Data Manual ask, So I’ve Opened Up Some Data, Now What?:

While we’ve looked at how to make government information legally and technically reusable, as well as easy for the public to find, those who publish open datasets may wish to do more to proactively encourage others to make interesting and useful things with it. This section looks at additional (optional) things which can be done to promote the reuse of your data.

Well, the Institute of Medicine is looking for citizen developers and innovators. The Health Data Initiative is a public-private partnership that encourages innovators to use data from the Department of Health and Human Services to develop apps that promote prevention and wellness.

For more info, sign up to attend the “Community Health Data Forum: Harnessing the Power of Information to Improve Health,” which will be held on June 9, 2011 at the National Institutes of Health.