Broadcast Multi-media Outlets

So that you realize my technology includes the ability to translate multi-media into lots of different languagues. This will be the up and coming wave of the future - especially now that we have web-based TV outlets starting up.
Anyway - I've been off trying to get my agreements signed with three companies that will be providing live streaming mechanisms to also provide simultaneous translation - how cool is that?
The live broadcast systems are in trouble and technologies such as this will surely force the major broadcasting systems to either change or get help from the federal government - they lose their revenue stream constantly. Even major events such as the SuperBowl are starting to lose revenue for the network broadcast as people get into the internet technologies.
What do you think - can they survive in the face of the technology breakthroughs?

Off-line for a couple of weeks

Ok - rough start since I went off on a project for a couple of weeks. I've got to make these blogs shorter!

Local Small Business Resources

Today on one my listgroups, there was a question about how to get on a schedule for the government. Personally I don't think a schedule is always that useful at least for a company that is starting out but it is another way for a customer to get to you if you want to sell within the public sector. Today I'll show you some local resources that any small business can reach-out to get yes "FREE" help. This is not completely true across the board as some charge minor fees. But the costs are fairly low.

If you want to work in the defense sector, you can contact a Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC).
http://www.dla.mil/db/procurem.htm

For any small business, you can contact a Small Business Development Center.
http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/sbdc/index.html

For woman-owned businesses, you may contact a women's business center.
(The SBA website is broken) so I would google WBC or look them up in your local phonebook. They are not in every location.

Also a final resource is SCORE,
http://www.score.org/

Hopefully this is helpful advice to my average readers.

Small Business Technology

Today, a business associate showed some interesting technology relative to security. While it was interesting, it appeared to be not quite ready for prime-time as I put it. It was not evident from the technical papers that there was actually a developed product or that it was a paper product. There is unfortunately a big difference for most investors. I couldn't tell where it really was in the development cycle (we refer to it as the maturity level) and had to have them get more information back to me. I had seen what appeared on the surface relatively similar technology that was already commercialized. I also found out they had no patents or copyrights - and told them to get some research concerning their rights. So I sent back a set of questions to address, we'll see what their answers are.

But interestingly enough some of my "FREE" advice had to do with getting government funding - pay attention here all you inventors because I'm giving you the same free advice. Their particular technology was applicable to homeland security applications. I discussed with their representative that we might want to team with them to identify some research funding if this was only at the paper level after we got more information. These programs would help an investor reduce their risk slightly of starting with a paper product to explore the commercialization of it. Added benefit, you get to keep your technology also! So if you want to know more about the small business research programs you can go to the provided header link or go to http://www.sba.gov/SBIR. The two programs are:

• The SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATIVE RESEARCH (SBIR) and only small businesses can apply.
• The SMALL BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER (STTR) which is still small business but now they need a university partner to win the award.

Another critical factor for award is that the company really NEEDS to have an investor / company who wants to take the product commercial and can see the use of the technology both in the government and commercial sector. The larger investor / company doesn't get to play until later phases of the programs - they just need to provide you a letter stating they want it and they can provide the additional commercial funding side of the program at the later phase.

I'll talk a little about a good technology investment company role. They should have a wide range of product portfolios across risky to non-risky investments. It can't all be non-risky because if it was, the investment won't make as much money. The key is to invest in break-through and disruptive technology to maximize the return on investment (ROI) early in the game. To recognize that it is, or maybe to even recognize that it might be applied in the wrong sector is almost an art form. Technology that might not quite be on the cusp is less risky but you end up needing more investment money potentially to get it commercially completed or marketed. Because inventors tend to spend all their money creating their "baby", they don't tend to have the marketing resources to get the $$ rolling in. That is the role of any good technology investment team. Creation of a "win-win" situation for everyone and not just the investor.

Pretty darned cool but realize at the same time this can be a pain in the backside if you haven't dealt with government agencies - but hey you get to keep this money without losing any of your company - can't complain too much!

Women In Technology

I've been working in technology and in a heavily male dominated field - I was the ONLY woman in many cases. In fact, in my first job I was the only female technical employee of 500. That was an interesting statistic. So if you are a woman working in the technology field - let me know about your job and what you like / don't like about it. I believe many of the problems of small numbers stem from the earliest age of childhood, through lack of exposure and education. Parents should encourage technology exploration in their kids - this results in increased curiosity and later more education in technical fields of study. An interesting statistic recently from Sigma Pi Sigma (Physics society) is that 4% of the U.S. Physicists are women but women are 42% of the physicist in Europe! What is it about society that creates numbers like these? The U.S. has a huge problem today that is growing of ANYONE going into technical fields of study regardless of gender. These discussions will make for some interesting posts and some interesting technology discussions. I really believe women look at technology differently and they have fewer opportunities to excel.

FACT: Women have less access to capital to grow and develop technology companies. So if you have some interesting technology you helped develop, let me know.

We'll examine the technology in terms of how it is used now and how it might be used in the future and the issues related to capital and society.

Invest In Military and Space Technology?

Just after leaving my laboratory job, I worked for a company where I was asked to create a way to run a missile simulation for the U.S. government. At that point in time, computer technology was extremely limited - in fact the computers did not have "virtual" memory. We had about 8 to 16 kilobits of addressable memory per application (talk about efficiency!) So I called up DEC and asked if they had anything that would allow me to use or address multiple memory segments. They said no, but if I figured it out to call them back. So I researched the technology and created a master controller program that allowed memory to be controlled by one segment that swapped and shared memory across multiple segments while code waited until information was ready, executed and wrote back to memory. After I created this, I wrote up the design and published it internal to the government. I called DEC back and told them that I was able to do it but couldn't release the information. DEC did a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, and got the detailed technical description and the rest is history. The VAX computer was born and today programs use virtual memory like it was never an issue. (Look at how much memory the Microsoft operating systems use!) Would this technology have been created without this investment by the government? Probably yes but maybe not quite as quickly. We certainly wouldn't be where we are today. I have a lot of past examples of technology from the sector.

Question: Should we invest in military and space technology? Or should we dump it all and focus on commercial applications? Let me know what you think.

If you have technology that started off in the military / space technology sector but you think it needs to move into the commercial sector - I'd like to know about it. If you have commercial technology you think should go into the government - also let me know.

You Want to Sell Your Idea to the Government?

I wrote a book "Why Don't You Just Shoot the Moose?" that is available on Amazon. But when I write another one - I've decided the next title will question your sanity.

Anyway, if you have something you might want to sell to the government and it might be useful, let me know.

I have led a lot of technology investment decisions in my life - so I've seen a lot of technology. You never know - you might just be the next Raytheon, Hughes, Boeing, or Lockheed Martin. The hoops you have to jump through make it difficult at best to sell. For people from the commercial sector - you might want to slit your wrists! Women are significantly under represented in sales to the government. So we can discuss what it takes to get there. Where YOU CAN GET HELP to take the idea to the next level.

My Initial Post and Renewable Energy

Technology is cool but at the same times it creates challenges. Does it really help increase our quality of life? Sometimes the answer is no! Personally, I believe that technology should never be created for technology's sake. There must be a vision and a goal in mind! Throughout my career, I created a lot of really neat technology. In fact, a lot of it is now sitting at the Smithsonian, and no my picture is very current! I was just in the right place at the right time when I was just out of school. As part of my blog, I want to open discussion on what technology investments should be made and examine global strides to achieve these overall visions and goals.

Renewable Energy Technology Investment
When I was just out of college, I worked in a renewable energy laboratory. It was so cool and so much money was being invested at the time because of the cost of oil. IF we had kept investing in that technology instead of stopping investments around 1985 - we would be much better off today! However, many of the advanced countries didn't - so today we're in the midst of playing catchup to 20 years of wasted time in moving this technology forward. That is sad, but it's water under the bridge.

So how do we go forward? What technologies should we be focusing on with the goal of lowering power costs, reducing waste and environmental impact, and reducing our dependency on non-renewable resources?

Tell me what you think and I'll discuss some of the issues surrounding current renewable energy investments and what we need to be looking around for!

Hope you enjoyed my initial post and I'll be continuing discussions and adding new subjects as we go. Kelley