By Johan Stockmarr
Normally I really hate Mondays, but i have to admit waking up in this sunny and inspiring environment of downtown San Francisco, only 40 km from Silicon Valley, surely does make a difference. Beside having been through an amazing first week program, set up by Lasse and Marie from Innovation Center Denmark, I last Monday got the opportunity to attend a session in the lecture series: THE PAST, PRESENT, and FUTURE OF DESIGN, at Stanford D-school with professor Barry M. Katz. The focus of this lecture was how Design Thinking had functioned as an integrated part in the development of the first personal computer - though no on called it such at that time. But the story turned out to be more than just the story of the laptop and the role of design. Clearly, the story was closely interconnected to how the eco-system of Silicon Valley had come to be what it is today. A story that in many ways summed up and connected our many impressions of the present eco-system of Silicon Valley. Personally I found that Prof. Katz characterized it very well, by describing the system as a horisontal network structure, that resembling the same structure found in Silicon Valley founding product line - the integrated circuit board.
Silicon Valley is a huge pool of interconnected technologies that feed of each other, creating new connections, bringing forward tomorrows products. In the Silicon Valley world you find that every company or new start up is constantly seeking to innovate and disrupt the industry they are a part of. And this is true whether it is the Semi-Conducter industy - hardware, Software Development, Design, Clean tech, E-commerce and so on.
The whole area seems to function as multiple connected circuit boards and the output is new businesses. A contributing factor is the opportunistic mentality that flows in air. A mentality properbly connected to the area being an old golddigger area back in the Hey-days. Today people that working more than three years in the same company is a rare sight. Everybody is seeking new opportunities - wanting to become the new Facebook or Google. Whenever you go to a café you´ll find the room filled with laptops, coffee cups and hardworking people working on their new business project. People often work on multiple projects at ones - being founder of one company, software developer on another and advisor on a third. Its a very inspiring atmosphere to work in. Next time i will elaborate on my own project: The Edition. I will go into how i’m working on implementing key testing strategies from the Lean Startup as expressed by Eric Reese and Steven Gary Blank and how I’m testing my concept in San Francisco.
See you next week...
...Standby!
Ingen kommentarer:
Send en kommentar