Wallenberg Theater
About the event:
Last July, Tata Motors began selling the $2,500 Nano, the cheapest car in the world. Some argue that the impact of this automobile innovation may equal that of Ford's 1908 Model T in its creation of a new, low-income market.
However there remains a puzzle: Tata Motors has been producing imitative car models, lacking the technical prowess to develop new-to-the-world innovation. How has the company made innovative breakthroughs in spite of weak technological competence? Dr. Lim, as an expert on catching-up innovation, will explain the process and discuss the implications of the case for further understanding emerging innovation activities in developing countries.
About the speaker:
Chaisung Lim first developed his interest in technology issues as a management student, focusing on appropriate technology for developing countries. This led him to pursue issues on appropriate technology, firm level innovation and industrial competitiveness for his master and PhD theses and his career at the Korea Development Institute. His international research papers have concentrated on the management of technology for catching up at firm and national levels. He has participated in committees and project teams providing consultation on industrial and technology policies for the Korean and Turkish governments. He is currently a professor at the Miller School of MOT and Professor at the MOT/MBA program at Konkuk University, Seoul. He received the BA in Management at Sogang University, the Master's in Management at Seoul National University and the PhD in Technology Management at SPRU at the University of Sussex.
Daniel and Nancy Okimoto Conference Room
Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
Encina Hall, Room E-301
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
Chaisung Lim has focused his research on management of technology in catching up with advanced country firms in his capacity as leader of the Research Institute for Global Management of Technology for Catching Up (GMOT). He has participated in committees and project teams providing consultation on industrial and technology policies for the Korean and Turkish Governments. He is currently a Professor at the Miller School of MOT and the MOT/MBA program at Konkuk University, Seoul. He received the PhD in Technology Management at SPRU at the University of Sussex. He previously worked for the industrial analysis division of the Korea Development Institute, a leading think tank in Korea.
Abstract
Despite the promise, the majority of mobile technology solutions are only meeting the needs of a small percentage of organisations who could benefit from them. In his talk, Ken Banks will discuss how he empowers grassroots NGOs, provide the history and background to FrontlineSMS, and highlight some of the challenges in developing mobile tools which work in resource-constrained environments
Ken Banks, founder of kiwanja.net, devotes himself to the application of mobile technology for positive social and environmental change in the developing world, and has spent the last 16 years working on projects in Africa. Recently, his research resulted in the development of FrontlineSMS, an award-winning text messaging-based field communication system designed to empower grassroots non-profit organisations. Ken graduated from Sussex University with honours in Social Anthropology with Development Studies, and was awarded a Stanford University Reuters Digital Vision Fellowship in 2006, and named a Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellow in 2008. In 2009 he was named a Laureate of the Tech Awards, an international awards program which honours innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity. Ken's work has been supported by the MacArthur Foundation and Open Society Institute, and he is the current recipient of a grant from the Hewlett Foundation
Summary of the Seminar
Ken Banks, the founder of kiwanja.net, spoke about the importance of technology solutions that meet the needs of those working in the developing world and his own work in this area through FrontlineSMS.
While current excitement in the technology world may be focused on increasing centralization through cloud computing, this means little to people working in the developing world where internet connectivity is unavailable or unreliable. Too little investment is going into building tools that will genuinely assist the work many non-profits are doing now.
Ken developed FrontlineSMS to tap into the potential of mobile phones, which are now widely available and used in the developing world. This is a two way communication system that can be used anywhere where there is a mobile phone signal. FrontlineSMS is available as a free download and Ken's approach has been not to dictate implementation but rather to allow people to use this very general tool in whatever ways meet their particular needs. This has resulted in diverse applications, for example:
There is also great potential to combine FrontlineSMS with traditional media, such as radio, that is already widespread throughout Africa, to make this much more interactive.
Ken offered a number of points of guidance for those thinking about designing technology with social applications:
Looking ahead, Ken will be developing functionality for FrontlineSMS that makes use of internet connectivity where this is available. He is also working on finding additional funding to help organizations pay for text messages.
Wallenberg Theater
Bldg 160
In her presentation "Russian Science Policy: Before and During the Economic Crisis," Irina Dezhina will outline the major characteristics of the R&D sector in Russia and offer an analysis of government science policy on the eve of the global financial crisis. She will also discuss the various reactions to the financial crisis in Russia, both by the federal government and the science sector, including companies investing in R&D. Finally, Dezhina will analyze the effectiveness of the Russian government's anti-crisis policy in terms of its impact on supporting science and innovation.
Irina Dezhina is a Head of Division at the Institute for the World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow. She also teaches the course of “Modern Problems of Russian Science and Innovation Policy” at the State University – Higher School of Economics. Dezhina earned her candidate degree in science and technology policy studies in 1992 from the Institute of National Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and doctorate degree – in 2007 from the Institute for the World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
She was Senior Research Fellow at the Analytical
Center on Science and Industrial Policy, a think tank for the Russian
Ministry of Science and Technology Policy and State Committee on
Industrial Policy (1993-1995). Dezhina was also a Fulbright Scholar at
the MIT Program “Science, Technology, and Society” (1997), and worked
as Science Policy Analyst at Stanford Research Institute International,
Washington, DC, USA (1998-1999). For twelve years (1995-2007) she
worked at the Institute for the Economy in Transition (Moscow), a
Russian think-tank. She has served as a consultant for the World Bank,
OECD, and New Eurasia Foundation, and the U.S. Civilian Research and
Development Foundation (since 1999). Dezhina has more then 150
publications including 6 monographs.
Jointly sponsored by the Forum on Contemporary Europea and the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies.
Encina Hall West Conference Room, W208
Silicon Valley thought leaders John Hennessy, John Seely Brown and others spoke at SPRIE's Leaders Forum on Thursday, September 24, reflecting on the changing factors affecting the Valley's economy and how best to respond. "In a rapidly changing world where innovation and agility reign supreme," noted Brown, there is a "big shift" underway from an economy that is predictable and heirarchical--one that is based on scalable efficiency--to one that is dynamic and focused on knowedge flows and creation: an economy that depends on scalable peer learning. Brown's presentation can be downloaded and other materials from the forum will be linked as they become available.
Formal venture capital investing in Silicon Valley has been underway for more than 50 years. It was in the Valley that the limited partnership format was first used for venture capital. Whereas, originally Silicon Valley VCs were mostly from a finance background, very early on individuals with operating experience formed or joined partnerships.
Perhaps most important was the tight linkages between the venture capitalists and the nearly continuous evolution of information technologies. The enormous returns from information technologies enabled Silicon Valley VCs to make very early investments in other technologies ranging from biotechnology to nanotechnology. These returns also encouraged high levels of risk-taking.
Through the use of a historical perspective, the concluding remarks will reflect upon the current dire straits for venture capital.
Martin Kenney is a Professor at the University of California, Davis, a Senior Project Director at the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy, as well as a fellow at the Center for Entrepreneurship at UC Davis. He has authored or edited five books and over 120 scholarly articles on the globalization of services, the history of venture capital, university-industry relations, and the development of Silicon Valley. His two recent edited books Understanding Silicon Valley and Locating Global Advantage (with Richard Florida) were published by Stanford University Press where he is the editor of a book series in innovation and globalization. Currently, he is preparing a book on the history and globalization of the venture capital industry.
Philippines Conference Room
Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
Encina Hall, Room E-301
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
Kiminori Gemba is a visiting scholar at Shorenstein APARC and joins the Stanford Project on Japanese Entrepreneurship, a project within the Stanford Program of Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
His research interest lies in analyzing the innovation strategy of an "open innovation", with the main object of his research being to determine the source of the competitiveness of open innovations.
He received his Master's degree in Engineering from the University of Tokyo, after which he joined the Sanwa Research Institute as a researcher. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo, where his doctoral thesis was entitled "The Dynamics of Diversification on Japanese Industries". After receiving this degree, he worked as both a research associate an an associate professor at the University of Tokyo. He is currently a professor at Ritsumeikan University's Graduate School of Technology Management.
