Archive for August, 2012
Book Review: Rainforest – The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley
August 22, 2012
The Rainforest was recommended to me by my friend Enoch Choi who lives in Silicon Valley. The book has a fresh perspective on Silicon Valley pointing out the affect of the western pioneer spirit on California in general and the Valley in specific. A spirit of independence and willingness to take risks is proposed as a basis for the unique entrepreneurial direction of the Valley. The book uses several summaries of principles, such as, extra-rational motivations and “err, fail, persist”, what stood out to me were two themes which may sound contradictory: Rule breaking and Trust. This quote about rule breaking sums it up:
“For the Rainforest to thrive, people must accept that rule breaking and believing in grand aspirations are acceptable forms of social behavior. They enable someone to believe that what was previously been considered impossible is in fact possible.” And regarding trust: “the willingness to take the initiative to trust others” and “demonstrate the transparency of its motivations as part of its routine transactions.”
Although the rainforest analogy seems to go to far at times, the concept of enabling international collaboration is right on. The book makes a strong case for the unique environment which spawns innovation in the Valley and questions the ability of many cities and regions which would like to foster innovation and new companies to do so without that unique environment. One exception Cleveland Clinic which has not only generated multiple patents and spin offs but also is now showing other health care organizations how to commercialize their intellectual property.
If you don’t have time to read the book, check out the white paper or the Global Innovation Summit.
Share this:
Conference Season Approaching – Prepare for Landing
August 7, 2012
While it may not be as exciting as landing on Mars, there are several conferences this Fall worth noting:
- Medicine 2.0 Boston with over 300 presenters and a wide range of topics from mobile and social media to education and personal monitoring devices from every continent. I attended last year at Stanford but will not this year. Will miss the colleagues I have met over the years. Good to see ePatient Dave doing a followup on “Give Me My Damn Data”
- Health 2.0 San Francisco – the ultimate showcase for health startups will including preconference workshops on Patients 2.0,Health Law 2.0, Employers 2.0 and Doctorrs 2.0. Would like to see Clinical Trials 2.0 some year as well.
- StrataRx conference by O’Reilly on health data. Looks like an excellent line up of speakers and topics although light on providers and EMR vendors.
- AMIA 2012 Symposium in Chicago - Mayor Rahm Emanuel Declares October 30 to November 7, 2012 Informatics Week in Chicago. I will be attending and speaking at a preconfence workshop on Clinical Research Informatics Infrastructure.
I am sure there are many more, this is just a highlight of the Fall schedule.
Share this: