DigitalBridges2.0 at Middlebury College and Life is good, Inc teaming to help kids in need

Claudon — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:51:44 -0700

Summer-loving Jake will finally discover winter when he visits campus on January 24, 2009! Why? Because that is when DigitalBridges2.0 and Middlebury College and Life is good Inc to do LIG's first-ever winter festival and launch a new College tradition in the process: the annual MIDDSnowbuddies Festival Series in the process.

We will join Life is good Inc to establish an annual, student-led exercise in social entrepreneurship and civic engagement that offers local and regional folks an opportunity to have fun together in the middle of winter while they help kids in need. All funds raised by the Festival will be donated to the Life is good Foundation.

BRIDGES Group - General discussion

Middlebury Solutions Group at Six - Doing it Right... Getting Results

Claudon — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 09:38:21 -0700

The Middlebury Solutions Group (MSG), the only undergraduate venture coaching service among US liberal arts colleges, is six years old and delivering on its mission well beyond our most optimistic expectations.

MSG promises to materially reduce time-to-capital, time-to-market and time-to-job-creation. The numbers say we are delivering on that promise and then some:
FORTY-FOUR = the number of MSG client engagements between 2002 and January 2008
THIRTY-FIVE = the number of those clients who have successfully leveraged off of and used what they learned from the experience, raised funding and are operating and growing today.

BRIDGES Group - General discussion

An amazing marketer is looking for work

nboillot — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:40:46 -0700

Dear DB2.0 Community,

I was disappointed to learn that the VP of marketing at one of our clients companies is leaving his job. He is one of the people I respect most in this business and has also become a friend.

Mike has a wealth of experience in technology marketing, ranging from semiconductors to software. Yet I think his greatest asset is not his vast experience but his incisive mind and the way he applies his marketing know-how. I have watched Mike lead numerous meetings and marketing/branding initiatives, and I have always left the experience hoping to emulate him in his calm and confident style, his ability to ask precisely the right question at precisely the right time, and his firm-yet-nurturing way of pushing subordinates to excel.

BRIDGES Group - General discussion

MiddCORE 2008 - “I gave up my entire life for the month... but it was worth it”

Claudon — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 07:18:42 -0700

“I gave up my entire life for the month... but it was worth it”

MiddCORE 2008 is history, and what a ride it was. To a person, mentors and students alike characterized the experience as transformational. Mentors expressed being reengaged with Middlebury College.

Yes, it was an incredible amount of work for all …. a boot camp for sure: five hours in session and group lunches daily; two group dinners with panels weekly; and an avalanche of homework nightly.

Students unanimously characterized MiddCORE as a boot camp experience, rated it as a “5” on a 1-5 scale and want to see it become a regular offering.

BRIDGES Group - General discussion

Heal the Rift: Project in Social Responsibility

Alexanderkent — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:15:38 -0700

HEAL THE RIFT:

Heal the Rift is a student-run, non-profit organization which aims to promote peace and reconciliation between the Muslim World and the West. HTR was founded by four Middlebury students (including one MiddCORE graduate). Two are from the West and two are from the Muslim World. With $10,000 in seed money from the Davis Foundation Projects for Peace program, these social entrepreneurs have moved their organization from Middlebury to New York City to plan and prepare their inaugural event this summer: a public forum/festival entitled "Heal the Rift 2008".

"HTR 2008" will take place in late July in Washington Square Park and will feature high-profile speakers, musical performers, and Olympic athletes from both worlds. By capturing national, if not global, media attention, HTR 2008 will counter-balance the disproportionate amount of negative images of both sides in the public consciousness. HTR's goal is to alleviate the hysteria and suspicion that has been encouraged on both sides and to definitively prove that the "Clash of Civilizations" is pure illusion. People will finally be able to identify a tangible alternative to fringe elements that have regrettably come to characterize our two civilizations. Large-scale attendance and widespread coverage of HTR 2008 will demonstrate mass rejection of the message of radicals on both sides. It will promote a new atmosphere of optimism in relations between both cultures, and put our differences into perspective.

BRIDGES Group - General discussion | MIDD CORE Network

Support from Abroad

jbmartin — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:22:11 -0700

Hey MiddCore aficionados,

A request: please let those students abroad know how or what they can help with. We are more than willing despite all logistical difficulties.

Also, great job on changing the O to Opportunity... The word Organization always did seem somewhat fishy...

Life down here is great. I´m interning at a local socio-political magazine, working for an entrepreneurial consulting firm called Endeavor (the Uruguay branch, many thanks to Sunny Bates), a Sustainable Study Abroad grant, and hanging out in class. It´s a busy life, but it certainly does not hold a candle to the CORE...

BRIDGES Group - General discussion

MiddCORE Week Two Donation Goes to Heifer International!

Ashley Bell — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:49:03 -0800

Hello Everyone,

We know that this is a little late, but we have finally decided to put our winnings towards Heifer International. Heifer is an organization that is fighting against world hunger by donating farm animals to poverty-stricken families in the third world. What makes this organization unique is the families give-away the offspring of the animal, so the gift keeps giving. We feel that this is a renewable and worthwhile cause to make a donation.
Heifer has won multiple awards for its work. For example, Heifer won Fast Company's Social Capitalist Award at the highest level, which shows how they are promoting social entrepreneurship throughout the world, which we felt truly fits into the vision of the CORE course. Additionally, we liked how this organization fits in with the Beck’s Prime competition as Heifer focuses on a food related mission. We enjoyed this competition and we are excited about the work that our donation will accomplish.

BRIDGES Group - General discussion

Students embrace creativity, risk and a whole new way of learning in MiddCORE

Claudon — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:37:16 -0800

Contact: Stephen Diehl
802-443-5629/scdiehl@middlebury.edu
January 30, 2008

IMMEDIATE

“This is the first class I’ve taken at Middlebury that requires teamwork, time management and public speaking every single day of class. This will be really helpful for the rest of college and after I graduate.” – Pamela Yeo, MiddCORE student

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – An innovative new winter term course at Middlebury is giving students an intensive taste for the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurial thinking. Professor of Economics Michael Claudon, along with alumni Brent Sonnek-Schmelz and Nicolas Boillot, developed the course called MiddCORE: Creativity, Organization, Risk and Entrepreneurship, for the 4-week winter term in between semesters, in conjunction with the college’s Project on Creativity and Innovation in the Liberal Arts.

BRIDGES Group - General discussion

Spring Student Symposium

Alexanderkent — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:07:32 -0800

Hey Midd Corps,

I'd like to be a part of the CORE exhibit at the student symposium this spring along with anyone else who wants to plan and organize it with me. CORE has been one of the best, if not THE best learning experience I've ever had. I think anyone else would agree that people should know what we've been doing all month and what the implications of a class like this are. I think CORE has huge potential to expand and become a new facet of the overall Middlebury identity and I'm proud of being a member of our inaugural class. Hopefully, we'll all be able to stay connected and involved, mentoring subsequent generations of CORE students, and maybe someday even assigning case competitions.

MIDD CORE Network

www.kiva.org

eparizeau — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 06:27:36 -0800

The following are comments on the previous post (and so are a bit hidden on this main page). I decided to promote them to their own thread since the concept of www.Kiva.org may inspire some interesting conversation here.

My 2 cents -- Kiva has an intriguiging idea to bring microlending to the masses and is definately worth considering. I have been using it for a while and am impressed. Ken D. feels the same way. Check it out.

www.kiva.org

(the links on the comments below probably won't copy well. See the comments section on the previous post for more info)

BRIDGES Group - General discussion

MIDD CORE: Week #1 - A Student's Perspective

davecampbell — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 12:23:47 -0800

“We’re here to talk about flatware loss,” I said frankly to Dave Lazarus, the manager of the Lake-View Restaurant in South Burlington. It felt like a conversational-crutch that someone would employ when terribly desperate at a cocktail party…

“Enough about the weather, have you heard about the flatware loss that restaurants endure these days?”
“No!? Go on!”

But today this was not a crutch and this was not to pass time at a cocktail party; Ashley Bell and I were engaged in market research for our latest MIDD CORE case study: Flatware Recovery System, Inc (FRS). Just down the road, at a different restaurant, Kazuaki Okumura and Alex Kent, our other group members, were engaged in a similar conversation. We were on a mission to size up the issue of flatware loss in area restaurants including: their annual cost, the frequency of flatware reorders, the mechanisms in place to reduce loss, and possible solutions.

BRIDGES Group - General discussion

MIDD CORE Quandry: Strategies for Introducing/Honing Goal-Setting Skills

Claudon — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:45:05 -0700

I have been speaking with many alumni and friends, asking them for the top two items on their wish list for new hires other than accounting and corp fin. A stronger ability to set/formulate goals tops many of these lists.

For example, on alumnus expressed frustration with both existing employees’ and new hire candidates’ inability to set goals, “Good organizations and successful entrepreneurs make good goals. Teaching your kids to set goals would be a huge plus for them.”

As currently structured our curriculum does not explicitly addresses this deficiency. However, as MIDD CORE development team member, Brent Sonek-Schmelz '98, cautions, teaching goal setting in a vacuum makes little sense. Anyone can Google and then memorize the elements of the SMART goal setting approach, for example.

BRIDGES Group - General discussion

MIDD CORE – Creativity, Organization, Risk and Entrepreneurship

Claudon — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:12:05 -0700

I am happy to inform you that an outpouring of intensive collaboration, creativity and plain hard work has transformed the raw concept of a "Business Boot Camp" into an exciting Winter Term program that will give students one course credit combined with a career-propelling experience. To that end we believe that MIDD CORE will enjoy broad appeal and add substantial value to the educational experience at Middlebury College.

MIDD CORE – Creativity, Organization, Risk and Entrepreneurship
Prepare for paths less traveled

MIDD CORE, an intensive four-week immersion program during the Middlebury College Winter (January) Term, offers students who are curious about business, social organizations and entrepreneurship an opportunity to gain critical skills and experience through an attractive alternative to majoring in economics. Its curriculum is a blend of traditional classroom work (teaching, readings and assignments); personal interaction with highly-successful guest professionals; experiential and collaborative learning; group projects; public speaking; written communication; and organizational and leadership challenge experiences.

BRIDGES Group - General discussion

Business Development Query for a Boston Agency

nboillot — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:59:55 -0700

Hello Digital Bridges Community!

I'm posting to ask for your help. Hart-Boillot does PR, advertising and design/branding for business-to-business technology and biotechnology firms. We help companies that have had trouble getting media attention, that are held back by lackluster image, and that have challenges communicating complex messages to their audiences.

Over the last 8 years we have been on a slow-but-steady "build a great business" growth track. We have never borrowed money, and have been profitable every year except 2002. In 2006, we had a banner year, in part because we systematized many of the processes that we developed over the previous seven years, and in part because we learned how to sell. In the first six months of 2007, we achieved 85% of 2006 sales, with excellent client retention and satisfaction, excellent employee satisfaction and high profitability.

BRIDGES Group - General discussion

Report from Darien, CT Alumni Gathering - Names Gamed

Claudon — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 10:32:24 -0700

Submitted by Claudon on June 14, 2007 - 12:29pm.
We had a super high-energy gathering at Holly ('80) and Peter Ruhlin's home in Darien, CT last night. Thank you so very much, Holly and Peter for so generously hosting the event!

I received lots of great feedback, constructive criticism and ideas on how best to organize the "boot camp." However, as "Boot Camp" was stomped pretty unanimously, I am only using the term as a marker for now.

Besides some great name suggestions, which I willl get to below, I left with three valuable takeaways:
1) The program still feels like it is trying to accomplish more than is possible in four weeks.

Business Education at Middlebury College? Yes! Your voice is needed...

Claudon — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 13:00:15 -0700

DigitalBridges2.0 is launching a new start-up, the DigitalBridges2.0 Business Boot Camp. The goal is to run a pilot session during January 2008. Ours is an ambitious undertaking, and delivering on that goal is going to be exceedingly challenging, but with the support we have received on campus, the wind is at our back. By late summer we will have created and staffed a curriculum and finalized the operational structure from whole cloth. To that end we are inviting the BRIDGES community to collaborate with us in crafting the business plan and then launching the pilot next January.

College Initiative to Support Creativity

MariAnn Osborne — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 12:56:58 -0700

MIDDLEBURY – How do you tap into the energy of Middlebury College’s most motivated students – the ones who, on top of their regular classes, initiate non-graded projects like the organic garden and the Sunday Night Group – to create an environment that compels each and every student to similarly take the lead?
To find the answer, the college has hired Elizabeth Robinson.
As the director of the Project on Creativity and Innovation in the Liberal Arts, a new initiative encouraging all Middlebury students to expand their education beyond the classroom, Robinson’s first task is to identify where and how students are currently initiating creative endeavors.

Innovation Initiative

rriggs — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 13:08:54 -0800

If anyone has questions about this initiative please email me or Liz Robinson.

This started, as Ron said in the release, with a year long study of Middlebury's peer group. The questions we asked were simply how are creativitiy and innovation being addressed at liberal arts colleges in the 21st century. As this topic is at the heart of why one goes to a liberal arts college, were there things that could be done in the current environmnent to stimulate and develop innovative thinking in students. I could not be more supportive of your President in taking such a pro-active approach to this area.

Convergence of Innovation, Risk-taking and the Liberal Arts

Claudon — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 11:06:57 -0800

What is a liberal arts college’s role in this process? Specifically what is Middlebury College’s role in this process? What is our goal? Is it creating a culture on campus that embraces thinking and behaving more innovatively, and that celebrates risk-taking? Does it mean graduating students who think and behave more innovatively and who have had personal experience with taking risks and risk management? Answering that question is at least difficult unless and until we have defined exactly what we mean by thinking and behaving more innovatively (or entrepreneurially) in the liberal arts context, and understand how we measure and evaluate the results of such behavior. How does the recently-announced Middlebury College Initiative to Support Creativity and Innovation in the Liberal Arts inform this process?

President Liebowitz Announces the Middlebury College Initiative to Support Creativity and Innovation in the Liberal Arts

Claudon — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 07:32:59 -0800

The Initiative that President Liebowitz announced this week represents a critical first step towards building a culture of innovation, risk-taking and risk management that truly embraces and can be integrated in the liberal arts tradition. Most important, the Initiative recognizes that we are not engaged in a zero sum game within which gains made toward building innovation, risk-taking and risk management into the culture implies a commensurate shrinking of the adaptive culture that now dominates the liberal arts. In taking this step, Middlebury College is once again taking risk and innovation, and defining a new set of rules in the proces. That the initiative is perfectly timed is evidenced by last Monday's editorial in the Wall St. Journal. DigitalBridges2.0 is delighted to serve as a model for what might become a norm across Middlebury's community. With Liz Robinson '84 at the helm and Rory Riggs '74 so generously funding the Initiative, we expect to soon be learning about and celebrating a whole set of pathbreaking innovative initiatives at the Collge on the Hill.

Innovation is the name of the game today and tomorrow

Claudon — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 07:29:24 -0800

The following is a story from the Wall Street Journal-Printed Feb. 17, 2007

Why does the American economy keep confounding the Jeremiahs (and the Dow Jones Industrial Average keep soaring)? It is the appetite for innovation, the extraordinary capital to support risk, and the political framework of freedom for the individual. I recently asked Sergey Brin and Larry Page, through their search engine Google, what they could discover about American chief executives and innovation. They gave me 9,850,000 entries to read. By now it may be up to 10 million or more. This cornucopia about innovation reflects a major but little remarked change that has taken place in American business thinking. Of course, Google is just one of the innovations which now make up the tissue of our everyday lives -- think of email, antibiotics, television, statewide banking, FM radio, personal computers, the uplift brassiere, helicopters, instant cameras, cell phones, synthetic fibers, radio tuners, MRI scanners, scheduled airmail, trans-Atlantic flights, fish fingers, microwave ovens, transistorized hearing aids, artificial insulin, lasers and jet planes, not to mention the container shipping that effectively initiated globalization.

This site continues to improve daily

kellykerner — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 18:28:29 -0800

Professor Claudon, everytime I visit this site, I am impressed by the information that is posted. Most importantly, I am pleased to see the number and diversity of participants. This is becoming a great storehouse for contacts and relationships. I hope that people are visiting regularly and taking advantage of the wealth of talent involved. Please share this site with others and keep stiring the pot. One of the strongest Middlebury affinity groups I have seen is the Midd Alumni Lacrosse group. Their connectivity comes from a simple listserve. I monitor their posts and note that they are conducting more business from a connection, networking and job-posting perspective than any other group at the College.

Technical skills are always useful

aaronabend — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 09:49:51 -0800

Technical skills are a great way to get into a startup. The position below is a great opportunity for a web developer.

And if you are already thinking of starting your own company, this could be your first gig. Get a second client and you are on the way to launching a real company. I started my first company with a contract at Oracle Corporation. I arranged to work 4 days per week - which made for less cash but it gave me that critical day for marketing, which led to landing 5 contracts 6 months later.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Startup launching this spring has opportunity for web developer (UI focus) who can start immediately. Recent grads interested in joining Waltham-based startup or contract work. Although full time preferred, part time / working remote possible as well. Compensation competitive.

MIDDBLOG Review of DigitalBridges2007 Conference

Claudon — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 06:47:34 -0800

Here is one review of the DigitalBridges2007 conference.

About MIDDBLOG:

Mission
We attempt to provide students of Middlebury College with a place to keep up to date with various happenings on campus from Chief Justice Roberts' visit to the college to the latest temperature drop. MiddBlog balances the ability for all to submit announcements for the school community and editorial content on the best of what's going down on campus. The site also attemp

Entrepreneurs Alert! New iBridge Web - emerging launch venue for new products, technologies & companies

Claudon — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 08:43:48 -0800

The iBridgeSM Network, a program of the Kauffman Innovation Network, Inc., and its accompanying Web site, recently launched a beta version of its new launch venue for new products, technologies and companies. University researchers, industry representatives, and entrepreneurs can use the iBridge Web site to search for university-innovations.

With over 700 research projects listed, the iBridge Web site is designed to ease the transaction burden on university technology transfer offices, and encourage more open and efficient access to innovations of interest to entrepreneurs and industry representatives alike. To learn more, visit iBridge Web.

why this site is important

kellykerner — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 11:01:42 -0800

"Bridges" may be the foundation from which to build the perfect liberal arts education. Take the finest liberal arts college in the world, add the most creative and forward thinking faculty, add students who are interested in having an impact in the real-world and mix it together with interested, capable, talented, and giving alumni/parents/friends and you have the making of a community that can build business, educate, motivate and effect change....not to mention write run-on sentences. The key to this all is particpation. As Michael Claudon said at DB this last weekend, if this is not used, it will die. Please register and please encourage your Midd friends to take a look too.

I'm blogging, man!!

ward fowler — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 10:55:11 -0800

Look at me blog! I feel like I'm 20 again! Congratulations to all you Bridgers who made the conference a success and a lot of fun. Can I just mention one critical housekeeping item...... the conference room was about 60 degrees, and my core body temperature fell about three degrees as a result. It took several beers to return adequate circulation to my fingertips!

Have a look at Nicholas Kristof's op/ed piece in the NYT this morning and realize how prescient you Midd professors and students are. Was Kristof in our session and just didn't identify himself?! Perhaps next year Midd could take the event on the road and Digital Bridges 2008 could be held in Davos. The skiing would be even better.

DB 2007 Conference - WHAT A GREAT DAY!

tkottler — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 12:20:40 -0800

This year's conference was, in my humble opinion, a true success. More than anyone, the students did an exceptional job covering their topics with the candor and humor only a student can project. Each and every session was interesting and insightful, and certainly got my creative, entrepreneurial juices flowing. I left the conference and drove to Stratton to meet with my family and on the way (a mere 90 minute drive), came up with two distinct new business ideas from conference topics. I spent part of last night starting a business plan based on one of those ideas.

Let's all make sure w

Web addresses from corporate session

Margy Levine Young — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 14:13:08 -0800

Here are sites mentioned during the session about how the Millenial generation affect the corporate world:

Flight Club New York: 80/20 consignment, vintage and limited sneakers
Threadless.com: Designers submit designs and the online community votes for what design gets produced each week
Amazon.com: Started with books, now everythin. "Tending to the long tail"
Netflix.com
Kiva.org: Lets you lend to a specific entrepreneurs directly (disintermediation)

Summary of Chris Charron's talk

Margy Levine Young — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 13:56:42 -0800

I thought that Chris Charron, an emerging technology consultant, made some great points. Here's my summary.

Online advertising model looks a lot more like newspapers (with 18% fees, 82% ads) than like magazines or TV/cable/satellite (stats from Forrester Research). As users create content, they are less willing to pay for it. Some kinds of content are neither the kind of content that people will pay for nor good venues for ads. News may be one of these. These kinds of sites need to consolidate, migrate to the public sector, or come up with some other solution. User-generated content can be hard to get advertisers to support, since they don't know what the content will be and whether it will be appropriate for their ads to be next to. (Rating content can help.) Viral marketing uses the information flow of the Net to its advantage. Net marketing was originally based on impressions in a passive environment, but we're moving to performance-based payments, where advertisers pay for click-throughs. JetBlue lets customers upload pix and stories about their trips -- corporations can get their customers to create their ads for them for free! The Internet and other connection technologies can be scary (loss or identify, truth, and reality), but we gain multiple identifieds, truths, and realities).

The Millenial Market

Dave Nicholson — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 13:29:53 -0800

The second to last presentation of the day is based around the changing markets that are evolving around the rise of the millenial generation. We're admittedly extremely difficult to reach on the one hand but there is now a whole range of new opportunities that have been brought about thanks to new technology.

The presentation is introducing two examples of small businesses and two major corporations that have found a niche where they can achieve success in the wild millenial market. The small businesses were FlightClub NY, a consigment shop for vintage sneakers and Threadless.com, an online custom t-shirt company. Amazon and Netflix were chosen as the examples of the larger businesses.

"It wouldn't be fun if all we did was make money"

Jason Rosenberg — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 11:50:10 -0800

The third panel today is about business philanthropy or "doing good with profit." The students who introduced the panel spoke about corporate partnerships and giving programs such as the Red Campaign and Play Pumps. These are for-profit companies who give money to do good, but aren't charities.

Jim Laughlin, Director of Communications, Life is good, Inc. is telling the story about the Life is good's corporate giving. They raised $680,000 for children and $207,000 for the united way following 9/11. Following 9/11 Life is good asked themselves if they could maintain the "Life is Good" mantra when for so many life wasn't good.

Web addresses from politics session

Margy Levine Young — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 11:49:18 -0800

Here are some of the sites that speakers mentioned during the discussion of politics:

Institute for Democracy Politics & the Internet
New Politics Institute
Generation Engage youth civic engagement initiative
Apple's videoconferencing service
Technorat- what's happening on the web now
MeetUp, a player in the 2004 elections

Does connection reduce independence?

Margy Levine Young — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 09:30:40 -0800

In the old days (not that old!), when a kid went off to college, the apron-strings were cut -- the student was on his or her own, usually for the first time in their lives. We met whoever we were standing in line with to get a post office box, registering for classes, etc. If we couldn't figure out how to use the washers in the dorm basement, we asked other students. It was a new life.

Now, the first thing that freshman do when they arrive at college is to set up their laptop, email their high school buddies, and update their Facebook page so everyone will know what they are doing. If they have a problem, they call mom to find out how much detergent to put in with their white wash.

Millennials are Risk-takers

Claudon — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 09:04:32 -0800

Ron Liebowitz's contended that Millennials are risk-averse. In his welcoming remarks. I disagree. My experience is that they take risk and manage it well when challenged to do so. It's more about the framework. Too much of the liberal arts setting places students in spectator roles as professors drone on, however passionately, in the front of the room.

But give them their heads in service learning environments that challenge them to defied and then execute complex projects and deliver actionable results, and they rise to the challenge more often than not.

Is Technology Changing the Face of Politics?

Jason Rosenberg — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 09:02:07 -0800

The 11:30 panel started. The topic is about technology changing the face of politics. How is new technology changing the shape of politics? When Sen. Hillary Clinton posted on her website that she is running for president, thousands visited the site and joined her website.

The student panelists say this kind of immediate results can't be seen through direct mail or robo-calls.

"The everyday citizen can take action because of technology."

A Welcome Message from President Liebowitz

Claudon — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 07:31:12 -0800

Welcome to the DB2.0 Conference, January 2007

I thank Michael Claudon for conveying to all of you my words of welcome and greetings, as I am not able to be with you today for what promises to be an exciting and important conference. My congratulations to the students in the Winter Term class that worked so hard to make this conference a possibility; I would extend those congratulations as well to Michael, but I know he would quickly say, “don’t congratulate me; the students did the work, which is much of what this is all about.” But thank you, Michael, anyway, for making it possible for the students to do all the work.

Millennials Panel Question

dlarocca — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 07:00:09 -0800

A trend I have noticed amongst the millennial generation is the impressive competition students experience when trying to get into college. Do you feel like this results from an increased desire to learn or rather in external pressure to stay conventional and attend college?

Welcome Dreamers to Generation yOURS

Jason Rosenberg — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 06:53:23 -0800

I'm at the DigitalBridges2.0 Annual Conference. The opening session, "Generation yOUR" is a discussion about the Millennial Generation and the technology that dominates their lives and influences other generations.

The discussion team talked about how easy it is for anyone to be connected at all times. They put together this video to demonstrate their point.

Click here to see the video

Also, check out the PBS Documentary "Generation NEXT." Suvi said it was an inspiration for this presentation.

A Blackberry is No Longer A Fruit...

sneukam — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 20:41:41 -0800

Meet the Millennials- a demographic also known as Gen Y, the Echo Boomers, the Net Generation and the iGeneration. While many political and popular culture events have influenced this generation (including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of Apartheid, the O.J. Simpson Trial, the reign of Britney Spears, the Columbine Shootings and September 11th), unlike the generations before the Millennials are uniquely defined by their relationship to technology. The wealth of names used to categorize this cohort responsible for nearly 28% of the current United States population nicely illustrates the significant role that the digital world plays in their everyday life.

Entrepreneur's Forum (Dec 9, 2006) by James Kerrigan

Jason Rosenberg — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 16:00:40 -0800

I. BRONCHOBATS – PETER BINGHAM

BronchoBats possesses a rare combination for a Vermont-based business. It appears high growth potential and social responsibility need not be mutually exclusive. The growth aspect is fairly obvious: expanding this product beyond the initial customer of people who suffer from cystic fibrosis and to the general gamer can reduce the critique against video games that they simply waste time and distract kids of all ages. Addressing this problem increases the long-term market greatly and makes the product generally more attractive. BronchoBats is socially responsible because it targets a group that typically suffers from social isolation and because it gives back to this community by donating some of its profits to research. Moreover, this social responsibility can also help attract a different kind of investor that may be helpful in launching the product.

Peter is undoubtedly comfortable in his delivery and confident in his product which radiates during the entire presentation. Venture capitalists invest in not just a product or a business idea, but also the people involved. Even with all this in mind, I do have some questions and comments. How do you integrate this new breathing technology into the current games? Is the breathing regulator the same for every game? Can you just plug and play? Creating a new market space – more risky or profitable? A brief explanation of how the product works would be helpful. Also, a real world example of how this integrates into a specific game could enhance the understanding of the product. Revenue seems conservative enough, but I anticipate higher costs, not only for initial research and development, but also for continuous growth. Are you looking for investment dollars, or just a business-minded person to help? If so, with fairly low growth projections, BronchoBats may attract a socially conscious investor. Can the market expand beyond the current customer base and into just a consumer culture? This really could expand growth numbers.

DigitalBridges2.0 Entrepreneur's Forum

Dave Nicholson — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 15:43:28 -0800

DigitalBridges2.0 Entrepreneur's Forum

Saturday December 9, 2006 -- If you've never been to a DigitalBridges Entrepreneur's Forum then you are missing out on one of the most exciting annual events at Middlebury. The event seems to be perennially under-advertised but every year the program director, MariAnn Osborne, manages to wrangle a crowd of interested spectators. This was my fourth time attending the event and the crowd was the largest to date that I can remember so kudos to MariAnn.

Michael Claudon opened the morning by welcoming the audience and sharing some very impressive statistics about the DigitalBridges program. The Middlebury Solutions Group has consulted for 31 start-ups and of those, 23 are still operating. Considering the high rate of failure for start-up companies, that is a remarkable testament to Michael and the DigitalBridges program. A table in Bicentennial Hall's Great Hall featured the products of just a few of the past DigitalBridges clients.