Apr 12,2013

UP Links 12 April 2013

+ Kari Kohn

As patients, Americans contract around 1.7 million infections while in hospitals each year, and nearly 100,000 of those infections end up being fatal. GE says the AgilTrac system will help prevent and reduce the number of these infections, potentially saving lives.

The system works by tracking clinicians’ badges as they enter and leave patients’ rooms. It also includes sensors on soap and hand sanitizer dispensers. So, for example, if Nurse Bryan goes into Patient A’s room and Patient A has pneumonia, then Nurse Bryan goes into Patient B’s room without first stopping by for some hand-washing action, hospital administrators can find out and coach Nurse Bryan into better hygiene habits.

Clayton Christensen on On-the-Job Training

But there is a different business model that is disrupting us, and that’s online learning. On-the-job education. So Intel University, GE Crotonville. This model of learning is: You come in, we’ll spend a week teaching you about strategy, and then you go off and develop the strategy. You come back for two weeks in product development, and we send you – you know. You use it and you learn it and you do it while you’re employed. It a very different business model,

Brain Pickings on James Gulliver Hancock’s “All the Buildings in New York”

What I fell in love with was the density of experience here. This is a chaotic, awkward, historic, and organic city organized on a grid. Although perfect buildings, like the Chrysler Building or the Statue of Liberty, symbolize ‘I Love NY,’ it is the other ordinary buildings, spilling with hectic daily life, that hold real New York life and passion. The fact that they stand right next to the icons is what makes this city special.

New Accelerator for “Urban Impact” Startups

“At the same time that more people than ever are living in cities, the fiscal climate means that cities are less able to provide certain services and quality of life,” Lein said in an interview with VentureBeat. “Entrepreneurs can shoulder that load. There is such a market opportunity here. This is where entrepreneurship should enter, there is so much they could do. We were curious why more entrepreneurs are not stepping up to fill the gap.”

The investigation yielded some interesting results. Lein, who has a background with political and community polling, said that even after normalizing for demographic factors, entrepreneurs working on urban problems are less than half as likely as traditional entrepreneurs to receive seed stage funding. These companies often work with physical products and services and need physical space. For example, a city bike share or a new waste management system can’t just start running with the same ease that software can. In many cases, they require permits and paperwork to avoid conflict with municipal regulations.

Another challenge is expansion. Every city has different people and a different set of bureaucratic hoops to jump through. Brenner said entering new markets involves fighting new battles each time and relying on government workers who “hold their fate in the hands.” All of these challenges make urban impact startups less attractive to investors.

Tanzania’s Economic Growth

Interestingly, the five fastest growing sectors are concentrated in urban areas, thus making Tanzania’s economic growth a predominantly urban phenomenon. This explains why Tanzania’s economic growth has not translated into significant reductions in poverty, since around eight out of 10 poor Tanzanians live in rural areas.