Brewed Fresh Daily

Perhaps someone can explain this to me…

Here are a couple of very interesting videos of Lawrence Lessig discussing problems with Congress – essentially the influence of money on policy. Money + Congress = Mistrust (or worse).

(20 minutes)

(1 hour)

In the first video Lessig goes through examples of money interfering with solid policy and I agree with most of what he says. One of the items eluding me is this:

On the one hand Lessig says that when our congressional representatives receive funds from corporations or special interest groups, it does not mean there is corruption but there is certainly the appearance of impropriety. Money destroys the conditions for trust. Money destroys trust.

He goes on to discuss global warming policy. Gore is now a venture capitalist investing in green technology and as far as I can tell he intends to profit from these investments. How can you on one hand say that money yields mistrust and then cite an example where the standard bearer clearly stands to receive economic benefit from promoting a cause?

These venture capitalists are making investments with the expectation of receiving returns on their investments. If they are so concerned about the environment, why don’t they loan the funds, put a cap on their return or not even take a return? Lessig points out (in the second video) that since Wikipedia does not allow any advertising, they leave ~$100,000,000 of revenue on the table. Wikipedia does not allow advertising specifically to avoid any taint of quid pro quo.

Gore is a private citizen and free to make investments as he sees fit. However, when you are the standard bearer regarding global warming and your message is that we need to make massive changes now, yet you are also positioned to profit from these changes, how is that not, at least, the appearance of impropriety?

From Al Gore’s next act: Planet Saving VC (Fortune 02/12/08):
They argue that to halt global warming, nothing less will be required than a makeover of the $6 trillion global energy business. Coal plants, gas stations, the internal-combustion engine, petrochemicals, plastic bags, even bottled water will have to give way to clean, green, sustainable technologies. “What we are going to have to put in place is a combination of the Manhattan Project, the Apollo project, and the Marshall Plan, and scale it globally,” Gore continues. “It’d be promising too much to say we can do it on our own, but we intend to do our part.”

“Doerr understands the complexity of what’s ahead. Most venture capitalists are judged on return on investment alone. Asked how he’ll judge the success of the green initiative, he reels off five measures: “the company we keep, the quality of the companies we help grow, the quality of the partners we add, returns on the investments we make, and by the CO2 that’s taken out of the atmosphere.”

I don’t see how this can be glossed over…

—
Lawrence Lessig, a professor at Stanford Law School, is a leading thinker on technology and Internet policy. He is the founder of Creative Commons and author of Code, The Future of Ideas, and Free Culture.

Image via Wikipedia

Akron-Canton Airport changes administrators; eyes record year in 2008

Akron-Canton Airport doing well and growing steadily

A few months back Tom Breckenridge at the PD wrote a story about efforts to make Northeast Ohio more attractive to immigrants. The people down in Wooster were paying attention and last week the Wooster Growth Corp. voted to spend $50,000 to apply for the EB-5 program with the Cleveland Council on World Affairs. Wooster Growth hopes to attract foreign investors for a planned $7.5 million building in its bioag business park being developed near the Ohio Agricultural Research & Development Center (one of the region’s world-class assets). I’ve written a little more about it here and you can read the Wooster Daily Record story here. Kudos to Breckenridge for highlighting the need, and kudos to Wooster for being willing to pick up the ball and run with it. It will likely be more than a year before any of this produces a building and jobs, but it’s great to see organizations willing to take the risk necessary to get it started.

Not too long ago I was an active participant in heated conversations that went something like this:

Person 1: “There aren’t any promising new businesses in Northeast Ohio worth investing in.”

Person 2: “You’re wrong. What’s missing is smart investors willing to take a risk and smart enough to turn a good idea into a great success.”

Being a world-class flip-flopper, I’ve played the role of both Person 1 and 2 in those conversations. But I no longer have such conversations, and I believe it’s because we’ve addressed both concerns (or at least have made significant progress in addressing them).

Turning Technologies, Hyland Software, MemberHealth, NDI Medical etc. have all shown there’s lots of good ideas being turned into high-growth companies in Northeast Ohio.

And today we’re reminded again (this time by the Third Frontier program) that there’s a fair amount of capital available for entrepreneurs to pursue. Importantly, there’s now a new fund being formed to help minority entrepreneurs. Yes, more capital is needed. And so are more entrepreneurs with great ideas. But we’ve moved onto other important conversations, and for that I’m grateful.

Congrats to Joe (a Clevelander) and Junta42 (a Cleveland company):

I was surprised and honored yesterday to receive the Custom Media Innovator of the Year award presented by American Business Media at the Union Club in New York City…

Junta42 blog: Custom Media Innovator of the Year

Nice post by Ivana:

Gratitude is an essential part of getting, keeping and attracting the kind of clients and customers who will value your offering — at any price. Not because of some woo - woo new age philosophy, but because of how the human brain works…

Strategy Stew: How to Use Gratitude in Your Business Strategy

Think it’s hokey, doomed or otherwise flawed? Warren Buffet and Nike invested $100 million in it. I’d watch if I were you. And if you want to talk about joining and bandwagons? This would be a good one for doing both.

The Girl Effect

Major hattip to Human Folly. Visit The Girl Effect.

Had coffee with Joe Pulizzi this morning, and he was telling me about his latest blog post:

We have decided to take a family vacation this year to LEGOLAND in San Diego (Carlsbad, CA actually) and it has everything to do with LEGO’s custom magazine. I’ve discussed LEGO magazine before, and it never ceases to amaze me how they are a clear leader in content marketing and custom publishing.

I’d just like to spend a bit of time on some of the behaviors that we, as a family, have initiated directly because of receiving LEGO magazine every two months.

Sounds like a fun trip and definitely a teachable moment.

Junta42 blog: We’re Going to LEGOLAND! How Custom Print Magazines Drive Behavior

Joe from FaithfulGeek.org emailed my asking if I’d like to a survey to gauge interest in their business. Happily:

Conveniently located in Rocky River, FS15 is the premier coworking environment on the west side of Cleveland. The 1500 square foot space will be configured to provide both formal and informal collaborative work areas, as well as more private areas. A professional reception area and fully appointed conference room will also be available…

FS15 - For the Independent of Cleveland

Had lunch yesterday with Mike and Gary of Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative. It’s always a pleasure talking to them, and their passion for what they do is contagious. If you’ve never heard about ELI, is suggest you head out to Corporate College next Friday and get a preview. Here’s a PDF for the Opportunity Found! event. Make sure you check out who the keynote speaker is. To register, call Corporate College at 216.987.3075 (use course number #54243).