Essmart ~ They Deliver Essential Goods!

Check out Essmart's 90-second pitch video -- they deliver the goods!

A Dangerous Delay ~ Oxfam & StC Disaster Rept

The BBC writes Slow response to East Africa famine 'cost lives' according to Oxfam and Save the Children...

"...it took more than six months for aid agencies to act on warnings of imminent famine. Between 50,000 and 100,000 people died in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. The agencies say governments, donors, the United Nations and NGOs need to learn from the mistakes. In a report titled A Dangerous Delay, the agencies say a culture of risk aversion stalled a large-scale aid effort. They say part of the problem was that the governments of Kenya and Ethiopia were unwilling to admit the scale of the disaster, but also that aid agency staff felt they had seen the problem many times before. "Many donors wanted proof of a humanitarian catastrophe before acting to prevent one," the report says. "Sophisticated early warning systems first forecast a likely emergency as early as August 2010, but the full-scale response was not launched until July 2011." By that time it says, "malnutrition rates in parts of East Africa had gone far beyond the emergency threshold and there was high profile media coverage of the crisis."

Epic Manhattan ~ Architectural Record Covershot!

Stunningly beautiful fold-out cover photo by Iwan Baan of Epic Manhattan on the Architectural Record issue ten years after 9/11... (FYI, this is just the best of several 9/11 covers noted by SPD)

Constellation of Companies ~ WSJ on 2011 IPOs

Check out interactographic by WSJ & Tableau on Constellation of Companies in 2011 for a look at how over 100 American-listed IPOs have performed since going public...

MIT Neuroventures Finale ~ Top New Ideas 2011

Super to have our MIT Neurotechnology Ventures 2011 class finale today with eight compelling new opportunities presented to special guest venture commentators Steven Schachter, Alain Hanover, and Christian Wentz. This year's neuro-ventures included...

• Fallback ~ Accident Detection & Avoidance
• GoodSomnia ~ Sleep Disorder Solutions
• NeuRisk ~ Behavioral Risk Avoidance
• NeuroAgents ~ Patient Symptom Tracking
• Neuronect ~ Movement Disorder Metrics
• Mind & Hand Science ~ Neuro-Education
• ThinkingCap ~ Cognitive Effectiveness Tracking
• Nudge ~ Point-of-Decision Behavior Influencing

Very cool indeed! We look forward to helping these teams make their ventures real!

MIT Development Ventures 2011 ~ Final Projects

Fantastic to have final presentations this morning in our emerging market innovations class, MIT Development Ventures! 2011 is the 11th year Professor Alex (Sandy) Pentland and I have run this entrepreneurial action lab! Nearly three- dozen new venture concepts this year, including both for- and non-profit, across multiple sectors including health, energy, education, commerce, and civic. In reverse order of presentation, we have (plus start geo-locations)...

• GoGlobal ~ Startup Network (China, Africa, Americas)
• CharityFunds ~ Giving Portfolios (Global)
• Corruption Beacon ~ Civic Rights Media (Africa)
• Luma Light ~ Off-Grid Electricity (Africa)
• Roti ~ Affordable Foods (India)
• FarmDoctor ~ Mobile Vet Services (Africa)
• GreenRide ~ Delivery Network (Americas)
• LaborBand ~ Maternal Health Monitor (Global)
• Ubuntu Financial ~ SME Bonds (Africa)
• Essmart ~ Essential Retail (India)
• Healthy Hearts ~ Lifestyle Change (India)
• coursehound ~ Kayak for Courses (Americas)
• Educate Lanka ~ Diaspora Edu Net (South Asia)
• Group-Aid ~ Commerce Tithing (Americas)
• MedSight ~ MD Skillsharing (Americas)
• APS ~ Affordable Private Schools (India)
• Mamasanas ~ Maternal Health Tools (Latin)
• Llifelog ~ Info Exchange (Americas)
• ReciclaJusto ~ Wastepicker Tools (Latin)
• Real Life Transitions ~ Career Education (Americas)
• WeCyclers ~ Recycling Info Tools (Africa)
• Sundry Fruits ~ Food Processing (Africa)
• Baby Circle ~ Parenting Network (China)
• E-Stops ~ Transport Informatics (Africa)
• True Africa ~ Mobilized Yelp (Africa)
• AgilAgro ~ Farmer Tech (Latin)
• Billion Entrepreneurs ~ Talent Market (Brazil, India)
• My Free City ~ Urban Info (Global)
• The Matatu Project ~ Transit (Africa)
• Urban Launchpad ~ Informatics (Asia)
• RemitWise ~ Money Tracking (ASEAN)
• Digital DNA ~ Health Info (India)
• MobileConnect ~ Yelp for Emerging Mkts (Global)
  

Most of these have app prototypes, websites, exploratory field-research plans, trial-runs, and substantive action-plans going forward!

2011 Hurricanes ~ Lovely Storm Timelapse

NOAA timelapse shows this year's hurricanes...

"The 2011 Atlantic hurricane season officially ends on Nov 30 and produced a total of 19 tropical storms of which seven became hurricanes, including three major hurricanes. This level of activity matched NOAA's predictions and continues the trend of active hurricane seasons that began in 1995. [...] This animations merges both the visible and infrared imagery taken by the GOES East (GOES-13) satellite every 30 minutes over the Northern Hemisphere from June 1 -- November 28, 2011."

Occupier Humor ~ Idiots, But With a Sense of...

Yes, they're idiotic anarcho-socialists, but the Occupiers do have a sense of humor...

Media Lab Livestream ~ Open Webcast Week...

I hope you checked out live MIT Media Lab webcasts past few days!

Occupiers ~ Reason.tv Groks the "Movement"...

Reason.tv interviews the Occupiers, attempts to grok the "Movement"

MIT ID Fair ~ All International Development Fri

MIT IDF 2011 -- the International Development Fair -- is this Friday, 30 September from 1 to 3 pm in the Student Street ground floor of the Stata Center, Bldg 32!

"Interested in International Development? Want to get involved? Have an idea but not sure how to get support for it? Come meet the many departments, labs, centers and student groups supporting International Development at MIT."

Urbanized ~ New Film by Gary Hustwit on Cities

Thanks to Subrealism for spotting trailer of new film Urbanized...

"...a feature-length documentary about the design of cities, which looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers. Over half the world’s population now lives in an urban area, and 75% will call a city home by 2050. But while some cities are experiencing explosive growth, others are shrinking. The challenges of balancing housing, mobility, public space, civic engagement, economic development, and environmental policy are fast becoming universal concerns. Yet much of the dialogue on these issues is disconnected from the public domain. Who is allowed to shape our cities, and how do they do it? Unlike many other fields of design, cities aren’t created by any one specialist or expert. There are many contributors to urban change, including ordinary citizens who can have a great impact improving the cities in which they live. By exploring a diverse range of urban design projects around the world, Urbanized frames a global discussion on the future of cities."

Screenings around US and on November 4, 2011 in Boston MA at the Museum of Fine Arts...

MIT Africa Business Club ~ Innovate Action 2011

Very good to see the MIT Sloan Africa Business Club kickoff this Tuesday, 20 September 2011. Building on the successful first-ever MIT Africa 2.0 conference this past Spring, the leadership aim to dial things up this year with Innovate! Africa initiatives, including conference, speakers, trek, and more. Plus they're building up the cross-MIT connections -- e.g. with Media Lab's Africa Initiative and the DUSP Urban Africa effort. Plus, fully 40% of the people in our MIT Development Ventures class this Fall 2011 have an Africa interest, which is disproportionate -- and quite exciting and promising.

Understanding MIT ~ How Research Uni's Work...

My colleague Bob Simha and I are hosting our Understanding MIT seminar again this Fall 2011 every Tuesday afternoon 4-6pm starting this week September 13th to survey research universities and how they work. Each week, we invite a different senior academic, administrative, and trustee leader of MIT to share with us what they do to help the Institute stay vital in the short, medium, and long term -- and, in turn, we ask what we can do to be pro-active in improving MIT as well.

MIT Neurotechnology Ventures ~ Minds+Money

My MIT colleague Ed Boyden and I (with Rutledge Ellis-Behnke in Germany) are again hosting our Neurotechnology Ventures class this Fall at the Media Lab starting Thursday afternoon 8 September 2011 from 2-4pm. This course is all about envisioning, planning, and building startups (both entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial) to bring neuroengineering innovations to the world. Compelling venture themes include Neuroimaging, Neuromarketing, Neurology/Psychiatry Screening & Diagnosis, Mood & Behavioral Influencing, Rehabilitation, Neurosurgery, Neuropharmacology, Brain Stimulation, Prosthetics, Sensory and Motor Augmentation, Regenerative Neuromedicine, Learning, Memory & Cognitive Influencing, and more.

MIT Development Ventures ~ D-Lab Action 2011

My MIT colleague Alex (Sandy) Pentland and I are again hosting our D-Lab Development Ventures class this Fall 2011 at the Media Lab, this time in close coordination with Founder's Journey which demystifies the startup process and Building Mobile Apps which is about rapid prototyping solutions on smartphones! As always, we look forward to the latest new venture concepts our students propose -- in domains ranging from Health, Energy, Education, Commerce, and beyond -- and we try to help the most motivated teams and promising ideas actually start and thrive!

Imaging Irene ~ Timelapse Weather Satellite View

Check out more NOAA visualizations, here timelapse satellite imagery of Hurricane Irene starting East of Puerto Rico...

MIT Nuts & Bolts of Business Plans ~ IAP 2011

This week Tuesday, 18 January 2011, Joe Hadzima runs the latest incarnation of our MIT Nuts & Bolts of Business Plans course over the MIT Independent Activities Period (IAP). Joe will give an overview of the essence of a business plan and special guest speaker Bob Jones will share his lessons-learned in marketing and sales. Stay tuned this week in MIT Stata Center room 32-123 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm on Tue, Wed, Thurs (plus a special session on Friday) and again next week Tue, Wed, and Thursday. I host the entrepreneurs panel on Tuesday, 25 January 2011, featuring Owen Johnson, Conor Walsh, Satayan Mahajan, and Michael Cima!