Speaking of Entrepreneurs, IBM launched System/360 on April 7, 1964. Many consider it the biggest business gamble of all time. At the height of IBM’s success, Thomas J. Watson, Jr. bet the company’s future on a new compatible family of computer systems that would help revolutionize modern organizations. Get a behind-the-scenes view of the tough decisions made by some of the people who made them, and learn how the System/360 helped transform the government, science and commercial landscape.
Where are the Entrepreneurs?
John Byrnes has written one of the better articles [164K pdf] I’ve read on the topic of Wisconsin’s generally poor entrepreneurial track record. He correctly points out that:
- Most attendees at recent VC & Economic Conferences were from government agencies, community development organizations, schools and universities (why? most real entrepreneurs don’t have time to sit around and talk, they’d rather make things happen)
- Byrnes further muses that perhaps our culture is to blame: “We may be dealing with the long-term effects of an overprotective social climate that discourages risk taking.”
- Too much overhead: Byrnes cites a recent study by the California-based Milken Institute which shows that Wisconsin has more economic development offices and business incubators per capita that almost every other state, including California! Byrnes calcuates that the ratio of business support people to entrepreneurs is 100 to 1; if you add educators, the ratio is 1000 to 1!
Byrnes is right on. We don’t need more state sponsored programs (that generally only benefit the largest firms). We in fact, need less paperwork (I can’t imagine how a small business keeps up with it all….), more risk taking and a more entrepreneurial financial environment (California has this in droves).
Byrnes article appeared in the April, 2004 issue of Corporate Report Wisconsin.
New Madison Air Service: Liberal Air!
David Brooks pens a too funny look at the proposed Liberal Air and it’s counterpart Right Wing Express. The faculty seating arrangements are too funny….
On a more serious note, I recently received an email from County Executive Kathleen Falk regarding non stop air service to and from our local airport. She also attached a note from Brad Livingston, our airport director regarding their current initiatives (non-stop service to and from Atlanta along with potential incentives to increase service).
Tuesday’s Results
Dane County 04/06/2004 spring election results are available here.
Locally, congrats to Ruth Robarts, Shwaw Vang and Johnny Winston, Jr. for their School Board seat victories. None of the races were all that close (although from a spending perspective, Winston & Vang far outspent their opponents while Robarts was substantially outspent by Olson & MTI). Thanks also to Alix Olson, Sam Johnson and Melania Alvarez for taking the time to run.
We do indeed need more discussion about local issues, and this election, with debate on topics such as curriculum, budget, board leadership and PAC/Group spending was useful. Bummer that so few people showed up to vote!
UPDATE: Lee Sensenbrenner summarizes the results here, along with Doug Erickson’s summary of the board races here.
Isthmus School Board Election Thread
Isthmus, Madison’s Weekly, has a somewhat interesting forum running on the School Board Elections.
Kerry On Education
Ron Brownstein summarizes John Kerry’s positions on education reform, then and now, including a discussion of the No Child Left Behind Act.
Sylvia Earle UW Madison Lecture
“Her Deepness”, Sylvia Earle gave a fascinating speech this evening as part of the UW-Madison’s distinguished lecture series. Daily Cardinal article.
Useful Links: The Revolutionaries | Google Search | Teoma | Alltheweb | Yahoo Search
UW Grad Shadid wins Pulitzer
1990 UW Grad & Washington Post foreign correspondent Anthony Shadid won a Pulitzer for international reporting for his coverage of the Iraq war and its uncertain aftermath.
Tuesday’s Election Results Page
Dane County’s election results, including the municipal judge and school board races will be posted here.
MPS: Life & Death of 8-T
Alan Borsuk writes about the demise of Milwaukee Public Schools 8-T program, an initiative “aimed at dealing with a problem that perplexes urban school districts across the United States: what to do with the large number of eighth-graders who are not really ready for high school”.
Extensive research indicates that neither holding students back a grade nor promoting them unprepared fosters achievement,” the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory said in a report summarizing the issue.
So what do you do with such students?
In 1997, the Milwaukee School Board voted to require students to meet a set of proficiency standards before they graduate from middle school in an effort to deal with a “social promotion” problem that made ninth grade, in the words of one MPS administrator, “a parking lot” for hundreds of kids who were doing poorly.