at the moment these are on the wiki at http://businessideas.wikia.com/wiki/Business_Ideas . If you have ideas you can add them there. The goal is to help entrepreneurs start businesses that make the world a little better and create jobs.
Business ideas based on a new product/service or those with little or no market penetration
New Consumer Products
Augmented Reality Beauty Blindness Goggles
The beauty and appearance of people impact behavior and thinking in significant and seemingly unhelpful ways. Research has found that across genders the presence or absence a person's beauty can impact how they are treated in personal and professional interactions. These goggles display an avatar in place of an image of the person, thereby eliminating the psychological impact of appearance. Christians might wear them to avoid temptation. Anyone might wear them to reveal the depth of impact beauty has on their lives or to live free from such impact. Businesses might use them to allow for better, more rational, interactions and HR decisions.
Automatic Bean Cooker
Uncooked beans can be a cheap source of protein and calories. Reducing the hassle of soaking and cooking them can enable more people to enjoy these as part of their diet.
Automatic Brushing and Flossing System
This device makes good dental hygiene effortless. The user puts this mouth guard-like device in their mouth and it cleans all teeth automatically, without being manipulated or moved by hand. The same or different mouth piece is placed in the mouth to deliver jets of water that clean between the teeth like flossing.
Clock with Bible Chimes
Sell clocks that play different verses from the bible for hourly and/or quarter hourly chimes. The clocks could also be connected to the internet to play short messages from favorite online ministries.
Smoking Cessation Implant
When the patient begins smoking, the implant releases into the body an agent that causes flu-like symptoms. The negative response functions as punishment based operant conditioning and reduces the pleasure from smoking.
Reusable Diaper Washer
Help parents save money by making reusable diapers less burdensome to handle. This device cleans the reusable diaper without mess or hassle.
Windshield Frost Protector-Transparent Reusable Roll-on Sheet
A transparent reusable roll-on sheet protects frost from binding to the car windshield. It is rolled on in the evening and rolled off in the morning.
RFID Item Locator
RFID tags are placed on items commonly lost. With use of directional detectors placed around the residence, the user can go to their computer to locate the tagged and lost item. Alternatively the user can take a handheld proximity detector around the house to find the lost item.
Exercise Motivating TV
The TV motivates exercise by operating conditional upon the exercise level of the viewers. The system may interact with pedometers, heart rate monitors, or other sensors to determine the level of exercise the viewer completed that day. TV programs accessible and quality of viewing experience are restricted based on the level of past or present activity of the viewers.
Virtual Reality Complete Body Motion Tracking and Simulation System
The user is placed in a suit like device that can both track motion and provide variable resistance for each motion. The user is suspended off the ground so that walking and running actions can be simulated and tracked as well. This device would allow for virtual sports, games, and exercise that is compelling and realistic.
New Products or Equipment for Organizations
Crew-less Sea Shipping
Reduce costs and the treat to life posed by pirating by retrofitting shipping vessels so they can operate, in the open seas, without a crew.
Debating with the Stars TV Program
Bring rational argument and critical thinking back into the popular culture by having stars team up with experts to debate about pressing issues. Each team is randomly assigned the side of the debate to argue. Teams are judged based on the strength of their arguments and counterarguments.
Video exercise verification system
Using a system like the Xbox Kinect, verify and track the exercise that people are doing in a health club. Verified exercise could then be used to give health insurance discounts or other benefits to participants.
Video Recording System for Auto Repair Shops
Help auto mechanic repair shops add value and trust to their services by setting up systems to allow customers to view video recordings of their repairs.
Automated Hand Washing System
The user places their hands in the system and it washes, sanitizes, and dries the hands without requiring the user to scrub or move their hands. This system reduces the error and effort associated with hand cleaning and sanitizing. It could be used in clinical settings to reduce disease transmission and in public restrooms to increase hand washing rates.
New Consumer Software and Websites
Connect Internet Users Based on Web History
A web browser add-on uses web history to connect the user to other users with similar interests. When a user goes to a search engine, the program offers to connect to other users who have searched for similar things, offering another means to getting the information desired.
Digital Itemized Receipts
Allow users to track the exact items they purchase by offering them a digital itemized receipt. This may be transferred to a cell phone at the register or presented at a banking site similar credit card purchases. The user could then choose to receive information and advertisement on products that would be superior based on user specified criteria such as price or quality. Users could also better track warranty information as well as view and generate product/service reviews.
GPS Enabled Carpool Matching
Using GPS a person's schedule and commuting routes are recorded. This data is used to suggest carpooling partners. The data could also be used to provide spontaneous ridesharing matches. A ride seeker indicates their origin,destination, and schedule. The software then contacts individuals likely to be taking a complimentary route to see if they would like to offer a ride for free or fee. The site could then get a commission on ride matches. Inclusion of social networking data in matching criteria could add security and intrigue to the system.
Game Console Fitness Competitions Between Teams
Motivate exercise through internet team competition based on game console systems like the Wii that detect large body motions. Teams that have the most activity or highest regimen compliance score points and win prizes.
Mood and Purpose Matching Music Player
This service plays music that matches the users mood or desire for psychological impact. It plays the best song selection for any moment by asking the user to specify their mood, or the desired effect they want the music to have (i.e. to motivate for studying, cheer up, motivate to exercise, etc.) The algorithm that matches the songs works based on the average person or detailed information about the particular user gained from history or survey.
Open Medical Decisions Site
Patients put their medical records on this Wikipedia-like site. Users of the site collaborate to make diagnosis and treatment decisions. An information integrity system prohibits contributions that don't appropriately cite an authoritative source.
Personal Comedy Profiler and Content Aggregator
This web site determines the type of comedy the user finds most enjoyable and presents them with links to compatible free and premium content. The site would generate revenue from ads as well as commission on media that is sold when available. The comedy profile could be determined by survey and feedback on content viewed.
Spontaneous Live Project Teaming Web Site
This site, similar to random chat sites, would join strangers to do projects that make the world a little better. People could team up live on editing wikipedia articles, populating web site databases on churches and church events, error checking charity web sites, brainstorming solutions to problems, or participating in distributed work systems like that being done with Kepler data and protein folding where people use the human capacity to recognize patterns for the advancement of research. In addition to traditional ad revenue, the product of these teams may be a revenue source by creating projects that solve business problems, provide market intelligence, or create an effective advertising impression.
SOS Cell Phone App
In an emergency this cell phone app notifies other users near you of your distress. Emergency officials can also use this software to send warnings and instructions to people based on their location.
New Software for Organizations
Online Ad Targeting with Digital Receipt Data
The value of online ads could be increased through precise targeting based on digital receipt information of items regularly purchased that consumers opt to share. The system would enable consumers to choose which purchase data they would like to share and the criteria the resulting ads should meet(i.e. products/services with lower price, higher quality etc., rational data-centric ads or comedy ads etc.) Besides receiving more relevant information, consumers could be motivated by access (financed by higher ad revenue) to site content presently subscription based or behind pay walls.
National Freight Routing Coordination Program
Reduce empty miles, total miles driven, partial loads, and fuel costs by coordinating fleet locations and freight delivery amongst businesses in a particular location or nationally. Instead of semis traveling with partial or empty loads they can pick up and deliver other freight along the same or similar route. The software would calculate the routes and deliveries that offer the highest efficiency while maintaining the appropriate schedules.
Web Comments Credibility Scoring System
Web article comments are often trivial and unhelpful. This system would use author education and experience as a means to score comments. Comments that come from expert authors could be viewed first thereby increasing the value of comments and the time users spend on a site. Author data could come from coordination with existing social networks like Facebook or the creation of a separate service. The validity of education and experience claims could be reinforced by peer review through rating of comments and profiles. In addition an algorithm could look at the structure and complexity of the language of comments on an article and an author's comment history to determine the most worthwhile comments.
New Consumer Services
Windshield Frost Removal Service
Remove frost from customers' car windows in the morning using hot liquid sprayer. Sell service by the month.
Discipline Free Retirement Savings
Many lack the self control to save for retirement. Help them to save by offering binding contractual obligations that automatically deduct retirement from their income and restrict lines of credit.
Discipline Free Giving
The temptation to consume more than is necessary rather than give more to charity is overwhelming for many. Offer binding contractual agreements that force the distribution to charity of income in excess of what a modest lifestyle requires.
New Services for Organizations
Coordinating Volunteer Activities for Employee Development
Employee volunteer programs can improve morale and help employees develop new competencies. Maximize these benefits for business clients by coordinate volunteer activities and projects for their workers.
Economic Development Services
Develop the economies of poor communities around the world in exchange for debt, and access to mineral and land resources. Essentially your services would bypass local politics and corruption by spending revenue from sale of resources on economic development. In one form a government would be selling oil and mining rights not for money but for development.
Neighborhood Thermal Imaging Survey
Obtain thermal imagery of neighborhoods to determine building envelope deficiencies of residences. Thermal cameras are elevated above a neighborhood with UAV, long pole, conventional aircraft, and "drive by" methods to obtain data at a low cost per building. This data is then sold to contractors and energy consultants to allow them to more easily target and sell customers.
Lease Public School Space to Entrepreneurs
Help school budgets by leasing school spaces not in use, after hours or during the summer, to entrepreneurs looking for a means to present their products and services to the public.
International Crime Witness Web Site
This site allows law enforcement agencies around the planet to report a crime where witnesses are being sought. The general population signs up for notification of requests for information that they may have based on their location history. The user can then forward any pictures, video, or recollections that may be helpful.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Friday, April 23, 2010
Unemployment Compensation-Creating Entrepreneurial Incentives
I've been told that persons receiving unemployment compensation from the government must declare any income earned while receiving those benefits and that income will be 100% offset by a decrease in the benefit paid the unemployed person. This creates a disincentive to do anything other than seek long term employment where the compensation exceeds the benefit. Perhaps this is the best case but I also think it is worth investigating the cost and impact of decreasing or eliminating this offset so that income earned through self-employment would be income kept I think this could encourage many to consider entrepreneurial activities that may lead to improved communities and even more employment. What do you think? There is certainly reason to consider unintended consequences.
Nuclear Proliferation: Is the Church the only hope?
i wonder if nuclear proliferation can be stopped and if not...what are the consequences when authoritarian regimes possess these weapons. Are we inevitably left to rely on the rational thinking and good intentions of dictators? Is it too late to devote WWII level national energy towards global development and democracy?
This is worth considering. A nuclear detonation in a major city could eliminate confidence in government and currency threatening a collapse of civilization. It seems conceivable that if society and government did remain intact the constitution and it's notions of liberty would be immediately challenged. It's even imaginable that a majority would support martial law and the suspension of all rights except the right to vote.
If the Church could achieve a new conversion and evangelism..this would certainly reduce the numbers of people willing to be complicit to activities aimed at killing millions. Even if everyone were given the millionaire lifestyle, would this stop the mindset that supports the rhetoric of Ahmadinejad or Kim Jong-il? Is there any solution other than to bring hearts to Christ?
Just some thoughts...What do you think?
This is worth considering. A nuclear detonation in a major city could eliminate confidence in government and currency threatening a collapse of civilization. It seems conceivable that if society and government did remain intact the constitution and it's notions of liberty would be immediately challenged. It's even imaginable that a majority would support martial law and the suspension of all rights except the right to vote.
If the Church could achieve a new conversion and evangelism..this would certainly reduce the numbers of people willing to be complicit to activities aimed at killing millions. Even if everyone were given the millionaire lifestyle, would this stop the mindset that supports the rhetoric of Ahmadinejad or Kim Jong-il? Is there any solution other than to bring hearts to Christ?
Just some thoughts...What do you think?
Improving Nursing Home Quality of Life
i wonder how to improve the quality of life of nursing home residents. What is that quality? How significantly does dementia impair residents? Would quality be improved by helping residents do activities of spiritual and societal significance? What about prayer missions, or a history project where they record their stories and memories? How often are those done? What else would be good? How could best practices in this area be identified?
Best Practice Diffusion Rates-How fast do good ideas spread?
I wonder how fast good ideas get to those that could benefit from them. I once read that it can take ~15 years for best practices to permeate primary care practice in medicine but that was in a book probably 4 years old citing even older research. I just read an article where a researcher, who published a filtering list for use in drug screening, was contacted by pharmaceutical companies 48 hours after his research was published in a journal.
How did these companies find his research? Did they have a subscription to the journal or did they use some service like Google Reader that compiles a number of RSS feeds. Do they rely mostly on a single third party news service? How efficient are each of these methods. I use Google Reader to view feeds from sites like physorg.com and sciencedaily.com. Physorg.com says they have 7 full time staff and 6 contributing authors and produce about 100 news articles a day about the latest research. Many times these articles are comprised mostly of the press release of a research center. These sites also have no specialty, they cover any science and technology related research. 13 full time people avails 520 hours a 40hr week. How many scholarly articles are published a week?
Barriers to diffusion
When I survey journal articles I often don't read past the title. I look for things that seem to be significant to my inexpert eye. If it seems significant I'll read the abstract and sometimes stop there because it doesn't meet the significance threshold (and often because I don't want to pay $30). Sometimes it appears the most significant idea in a published article is the research procedures used and developed as opposed to the specific focus of the research. I wonder how often procedural developments aren't appropriately highlighted in the title, abstract, or entire article to reflect their significance and what this costs in terms of the diffusion of such best practices and advancing the field. Furthermore the perusing of on-topic research articles or the use of on-topic keyword searches could omit relevant developments in other fields. What is the cost of this?
Language is another barrier to the diffusion of information. According to "Science and Engineering Indicators:2010" by NSF the US comprises 33% of total global spending on R&D with Japan and China in second and third place. Citing the OECD the same report also shows china, the US, and the EU as all having about the same number of researchers. A UK government report indicated that China moved into second place in total number of published papers, displacing the UK and raising their percent of total papers published to something around 11 percent however these stats aren't indicative of the number of papers published in non-english languages which I wasn't able to find in my brief attempt (highlighting a failure in information diffusion as it seems likely such information exists..I just can't find it). These stats do however indicate that the potential for language barriers in best practice diffusion is worth evaluating
Additionally of course the myth of free information that the internet let's us indulge in must be put in it's place. The internet reduces the cost of information diffusion to near zero but not information necessarily information creation. All the arguments for copyrights and patents apply. Thus funding and motivating research by charging for access to the results is a reasonable model. i think it best to consider this barrier to information diffusion a separate question and ponder simply the diffusion of information that is made freely available by it's authors
Diffusion mechanisms
Of course any thought on information propagation can't omit consideration of search engines in general. Suffice it to say it seems were are in the infancy of search engine development. That term presumes a natural development with time but i suppose it's possible, that to go much beyond keyword frequency and other present algorithms, it could essentially require the development of human level AI..so we may be in for a wait.
What do you think? This is another top of the head rambling so correct and guide.
How did these companies find his research? Did they have a subscription to the journal or did they use some service like Google Reader that compiles a number of RSS feeds. Do they rely mostly on a single third party news service? How efficient are each of these methods. I use Google Reader to view feeds from sites like physorg.com and sciencedaily.com. Physorg.com says they have 7 full time staff and 6 contributing authors and produce about 100 news articles a day about the latest research. Many times these articles are comprised mostly of the press release of a research center. These sites also have no specialty, they cover any science and technology related research. 13 full time people avails 520 hours a 40hr week. How many scholarly articles are published a week?
Barriers to diffusion
When I survey journal articles I often don't read past the title. I look for things that seem to be significant to my inexpert eye. If it seems significant I'll read the abstract and sometimes stop there because it doesn't meet the significance threshold (and often because I don't want to pay $30). Sometimes it appears the most significant idea in a published article is the research procedures used and developed as opposed to the specific focus of the research. I wonder how often procedural developments aren't appropriately highlighted in the title, abstract, or entire article to reflect their significance and what this costs in terms of the diffusion of such best practices and advancing the field. Furthermore the perusing of on-topic research articles or the use of on-topic keyword searches could omit relevant developments in other fields. What is the cost of this?
Language is another barrier to the diffusion of information. According to "Science and Engineering Indicators:2010" by NSF the US comprises 33% of total global spending on R&D with Japan and China in second and third place. Citing the OECD the same report also shows china, the US, and the EU as all having about the same number of researchers. A UK government report indicated that China moved into second place in total number of published papers, displacing the UK and raising their percent of total papers published to something around 11 percent however these stats aren't indicative of the number of papers published in non-english languages which I wasn't able to find in my brief attempt (highlighting a failure in information diffusion as it seems likely such information exists..I just can't find it). These stats do however indicate that the potential for language barriers in best practice diffusion is worth evaluating
Additionally of course the myth of free information that the internet let's us indulge in must be put in it's place. The internet reduces the cost of information diffusion to near zero but not information necessarily information creation. All the arguments for copyrights and patents apply. Thus funding and motivating research by charging for access to the results is a reasonable model. i think it best to consider this barrier to information diffusion a separate question and ponder simply the diffusion of information that is made freely available by it's authors
Diffusion mechanisms
Of course any thought on information propagation can't omit consideration of search engines in general. Suffice it to say it seems were are in the infancy of search engine development. That term presumes a natural development with time but i suppose it's possible, that to go much beyond keyword frequency and other present algorithms, it could essentially require the development of human level AI..so we may be in for a wait.
What do you think? This is another top of the head rambling so correct and guide.
Arguments for space investment-do they point towards weaknesses in education?
Is it fallacious reasoning to say that the space program should be supported for the unknown and unpredictable advances in unrelated technologies that may come from it? If the goal is general technological progress, aren't there better investments? What about education, general research, business incubators or X-prize competitions? The use of fallacious arguments in public discourse could highlight a weakness in the public education system.
Few parts of the curricula would appear directed at more important objectives than teaching logic and reasoning. We might find that support for these other parts are justified by reasoning not dissimilar to the one mentioned above for NASA-they offer some positive effect so must be good instead of first asking how to achieve the positive effect then considering all possible ways to best attain that effect.
Of course I'm not an expert in either issue and am speaking only to the nature of the argument with a slant towards provocation:)
Feel free to correct and improve!
Few parts of the curricula would appear directed at more important objectives than teaching logic and reasoning. We might find that support for these other parts are justified by reasoning not dissimilar to the one mentioned above for NASA-they offer some positive effect so must be good instead of first asking how to achieve the positive effect then considering all possible ways to best attain that effect.
Of course I'm not an expert in either issue and am speaking only to the nature of the argument with a slant towards provocation:)
Feel free to correct and improve!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
The Media, Polls, and Education: Their Impact on National Security
It is only rational that nations determine the makeup, strength, and disposition of their military based on threat assessments. Such an assessment would be incomplete without considering not only the military capability of other nations but their potential behaviors. Much of Europe of course invites the presence of US military assets on their soil whereas the Russians seem to fear minuscule US military deployments even in border countries. One key explanation for the difference is the assessment of potential behavior.
How should the likely future behavior of a country be determined. In a dictatorship or totalitarian regime a primary determinant of behavior is the psychology and world view of it's leaders. When assessing the potential behavior of a democracy, the psychology of the population becomes of increasing importance because, no matter the words of the present leadership, the future leadership will be determined by that population.
So assessing the threat a democratic country poses to a nation requires evaluating the world view and disposition of the population. One tool in that approach is to evaluate the popular media and polls. If the most popular voices are the ones calling for territorial expansion or war against another country one would conclude that the population is more likely to elect a government that will carry out those policies.
In addition to foreign policy proposals that seem to have popularity, determining the ability of the population to be swayed by irrational argument is also a necessary consideration in assessing the potential future threat posed by democratic countries. If the population seems easily taken by absurd thinking or conspiracy theories, that country's future behavior could rightly be considered a larger threat than if the population largely dispelled such thinking. In making this assessment any national movement or debate could shine light on the extent of irrationality in the population.
These principles, along with others of course, are likely used in assessing the threat the US poses to other countries. The larger threat the US seems to pose, the more resources countries might rationally decide they need to spend on countering that threat. This would tend to increase the size and capability of militaries in threatened countries as well as increase the risk of nuclear proliferation. These tendencies threaten US security directly but also in raising the potential for human and economic crisis that effect it morally and financially.
Education and christian evangelization (the real type the recognizes that God humbled Himself even to an unjust death, the type that knows giving sacrificially is worth more than spare billions) are two things that can reduce these tendencies.
How should the likely future behavior of a country be determined. In a dictatorship or totalitarian regime a primary determinant of behavior is the psychology and world view of it's leaders. When assessing the potential behavior of a democracy, the psychology of the population becomes of increasing importance because, no matter the words of the present leadership, the future leadership will be determined by that population.
So assessing the threat a democratic country poses to a nation requires evaluating the world view and disposition of the population. One tool in that approach is to evaluate the popular media and polls. If the most popular voices are the ones calling for territorial expansion or war against another country one would conclude that the population is more likely to elect a government that will carry out those policies.
In addition to foreign policy proposals that seem to have popularity, determining the ability of the population to be swayed by irrational argument is also a necessary consideration in assessing the potential future threat posed by democratic countries. If the population seems easily taken by absurd thinking or conspiracy theories, that country's future behavior could rightly be considered a larger threat than if the population largely dispelled such thinking. In making this assessment any national movement or debate could shine light on the extent of irrationality in the population.
These principles, along with others of course, are likely used in assessing the threat the US poses to other countries. The larger threat the US seems to pose, the more resources countries might rationally decide they need to spend on countering that threat. This would tend to increase the size and capability of militaries in threatened countries as well as increase the risk of nuclear proliferation. These tendencies threaten US security directly but also in raising the potential for human and economic crisis that effect it morally and financially.
Education and christian evangelization (the real type the recognizes that God humbled Himself even to an unjust death, the type that knows giving sacrificially is worth more than spare billions) are two things that can reduce these tendencies.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The Moral Paradox of Communist Government
A government that distributes resources equally among it's people may be a more just form of government from a christian perspective where retaining wealth may be more a stumbling block than a blessing and where love is king. But such a society unravels in practice because it's people are not morally pure. Without the carrot of worldly gain, effort to contribute to society deteriorates. At the same time a morally pure and mature society would properly give and distribute wealth without government intervention. Thus a highly distributive system will thrive only if there is a holy people, but the existence of a holy people negates the needs or benefits of a communist legal system.
Of course the practicality of distributing resources fairly by law also causes communist governments to fail because it is impossible to know the just needs of everyone and codify it due to the spectrum of health and family considerations. Doing so would also interfere with markets at all levels and create improper pricing which would in turn lead to huge inefficiencies.
Of course the practicality of distributing resources fairly by law also causes communist governments to fail because it is impossible to know the just needs of everyone and codify it due to the spectrum of health and family considerations. Doing so would also interfere with markets at all levels and create improper pricing which would in turn lead to huge inefficiencies.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Educational Journalism - Teaching Rational Decision Making through the News
The article entitled "RNC loses bid to raise unlimited 'soft' money" by Sharon Theimer at www.washingtonpost.com, included links to court documents at www.uscourts.gov. This approach does readers a great service by not only supplying them with more facts but presenting them with information that is written by subject experts. These citations and links should be broadened to include links to specific academic journal articles when discussing researched points of fact. In this way the news can play a part of showing Americans how to rationally consider claims and prevent the mayhem that was the health care reform "debate" where controversial statements by non-experts, who profit from increased controversy, stifled collaborative innovation and debate.
An article on the health care debate, for example, would then provide links not only to the text of the bill itself, but to the text of CBO analysis, and the text or abstracts of relevant research published in peer-reviewed journals on health care economics, quality, or whatever else the case may be.
Where the educational system has failed, news writing may bridge the gap. It should also be noted that linking to expert level material written by Phd's for Phd's does not take the article out of reach of the the broader public. Most academic journal articles are largely understandable even to the lay person. Even if the content is not largely understandable it will at least point the reader in the direction of where rational analysis and debate should proceed.
An article on the health care debate, for example, would then provide links not only to the text of the bill itself, but to the text of CBO analysis, and the text or abstracts of relevant research published in peer-reviewed journals on health care economics, quality, or whatever else the case may be.
Where the educational system has failed, news writing may bridge the gap. It should also be noted that linking to expert level material written by Phd's for Phd's does not take the article out of reach of the the broader public. Most academic journal articles are largely understandable even to the lay person. Even if the content is not largely understandable it will at least point the reader in the direction of where rational analysis and debate should proceed.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Minimum Sustainable Employment
What is the maximum level of unemployment in the US that can be maintained while still allowing the provision of the basic needs of the population which could be defined as food of sufficient calories and nutrients, clothing that enables necessary work, shelter sufficient to maintain health, and the present level of health care in the US? The question is to take fair distribution of resources out of the equation and not consider the flow of money and financial transactions. Purely production is to be considered. Answering this question could be helpful in emergency preparedness as well as, from a philanthropic perspective, in determining the opportunity to shift resources towards provision of the basic needs for other parts of the world that have been locked in poverty.
This is a work in progress obviously. Feel free to provide relevant information.
Analysis Methodology and Sources
Analysis along these lines might have already been completed for instances of emergency preparedness and defense though those evaluations would likely not assume a fluid market where transitions are made intentionally as opposed to a virus, for example, disabling 20% of workers across all sectors. The Department of Labor might also carry out analysis helpful for this question when they evaluate labor shortages.
One approach to considering this question is to consider what industries, on the whole, don't produce or do anything that is necessary for these basic needs. In eliminating the production of whole industries, unintended consequences would likely occur and that is even after assuming no difficulties in distributing the basic provisions which are still produced (which of course would be difficult if many workers are no longer being paid as they are no longer employed). If the toy industry were eliminated for example children would not have helps in entertainment and sometimes education. These uses of toys however seem noncritical as it's likely the toys could be easily avoided without replacement in a curriculum. But there may exist some use for toys that would have to be replaced. It's conceivable for example that toys allow child care to be done with fewer worker hours per child. Or perhaps some business disassembles toys and uses the parts for some necessary task.
Analysis
The Census Bureau offers information on the "arts, entertainment, and recreation" industry reporting that 2006 revenues were $177 billion.(see http://www.census.gov/svsd/www/services/sas/sas_summary/71summary.htm#industrydescription) BLS reports that entertainment consumes around 5% of consumer income thought definition may be different than for Census as the total given amounts to $342 billion in 2008.(see http://www.bls.gov/cex/#tables)
This is a work in progress obviously. Feel free to provide relevant information.
Analysis Methodology and Sources
Analysis along these lines might have already been completed for instances of emergency preparedness and defense though those evaluations would likely not assume a fluid market where transitions are made intentionally as opposed to a virus, for example, disabling 20% of workers across all sectors. The Department of Labor might also carry out analysis helpful for this question when they evaluate labor shortages.
One approach to considering this question is to consider what industries, on the whole, don't produce or do anything that is necessary for these basic needs. In eliminating the production of whole industries, unintended consequences would likely occur and that is even after assuming no difficulties in distributing the basic provisions which are still produced (which of course would be difficult if many workers are no longer being paid as they are no longer employed). If the toy industry were eliminated for example children would not have helps in entertainment and sometimes education. These uses of toys however seem noncritical as it's likely the toys could be easily avoided without replacement in a curriculum. But there may exist some use for toys that would have to be replaced. It's conceivable for example that toys allow child care to be done with fewer worker hours per child. Or perhaps some business disassembles toys and uses the parts for some necessary task.
Analysis
The Census Bureau offers information on the "arts, entertainment, and recreation" industry reporting that 2006 revenues were $177 billion.(see http://www.census.gov/svsd/www/services/sas/sas_summary/71summary.htm#industrydescription) BLS reports that entertainment consumes around 5% of consumer income thought definition may be different than for Census as the total given amounts to $342 billion in 2008.(see http://www.bls.gov/cex/#tables)
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Health Reform Summit
The nation as a whole can win but the summit must be extended to allow for a real and public exchange of ideas. After months of discussion this has not yet happened. The media, ever eager to make a soap opera out of Washington discussing polls instead of policy, has thus far presented the public with little pertinent information about health reform.
Months into the debate even Google failed to generate search results that would allow the casual web searcher to find relevant and necessary information about health reform or even the problems it's intended to solve. All this has led to a nation ill equipped to rationally consider the issue.
Unfortunately this isn't the worse of it. The failure of the US education system over the past decades has left much of America without rational decision making skills and the ability to see when they have insufficient information. Thus we're left with politicians positioning themselves for the approval of the uneducated all while dealing with a genuinely difficult issue.
If the president can resist his own political positioning temptations and embarrass the rest of Congress into doing so as well, he could make real progress on health reform while offering a case study for rational decision making.
First there must be agreement on goals. In response to the notion of the Summit Republicans are saying the primary goal should be cost containment. While Obama first seemed to indicate that as his primary goal, in regards to the summit, he emphasized two others as well, helping the uninsured and covering preexisting conditions.
Certainly justice would have us do that for our countrymen but it could easily be framed as a new entitlement. Perhaps a compromise could be put into place whereby the funding of these two initiatives is done not through the federal budget but through nonprofit means or a voluntary "tax". Perhaps systems could be established and marketed so that churches, for example, could purchase insurance or coverage for individuals in need as they choose but at a more competitive rate. This type of compromise on goals would enable steps to be taken to meet Obama's just hopes while not burdening the federal budget thus allowing for the republican leadership to participate on the terms they have stated which aren't unreasonable but simply require charity by free will as opposed to by statute, at least for a first try.
After goals are determined then a mechanism will have to be agreed on how to evaluate proposals. This mechanism will define what is considered evidence to support or contradict a proposal or at the very least will prescribe a structured way to evaluate the credibility and reliability of the information offered for or against any proposal.
Proposals should also be diagrammed to indicate dependencies. For example, specific minimum requirements for a national insurance market presuppose a cross state insurance competition allowance.
Each proposal along with supporting or contradicting arguments should be made available in transcript form online along with a structured way to illicit focused rational commentary on the strength of each piece of evidence or other specific questions.
Months into the debate even Google failed to generate search results that would allow the casual web searcher to find relevant and necessary information about health reform or even the problems it's intended to solve. All this has led to a nation ill equipped to rationally consider the issue.
Unfortunately this isn't the worse of it. The failure of the US education system over the past decades has left much of America without rational decision making skills and the ability to see when they have insufficient information. Thus we're left with politicians positioning themselves for the approval of the uneducated all while dealing with a genuinely difficult issue.
If the president can resist his own political positioning temptations and embarrass the rest of Congress into doing so as well, he could make real progress on health reform while offering a case study for rational decision making.
First there must be agreement on goals. In response to the notion of the Summit Republicans are saying the primary goal should be cost containment. While Obama first seemed to indicate that as his primary goal, in regards to the summit, he emphasized two others as well, helping the uninsured and covering preexisting conditions.
Certainly justice would have us do that for our countrymen but it could easily be framed as a new entitlement. Perhaps a compromise could be put into place whereby the funding of these two initiatives is done not through the federal budget but through nonprofit means or a voluntary "tax". Perhaps systems could be established and marketed so that churches, for example, could purchase insurance or coverage for individuals in need as they choose but at a more competitive rate. This type of compromise on goals would enable steps to be taken to meet Obama's just hopes while not burdening the federal budget thus allowing for the republican leadership to participate on the terms they have stated which aren't unreasonable but simply require charity by free will as opposed to by statute, at least for a first try.
After goals are determined then a mechanism will have to be agreed on how to evaluate proposals. This mechanism will define what is considered evidence to support or contradict a proposal or at the very least will prescribe a structured way to evaluate the credibility and reliability of the information offered for or against any proposal.
Proposals should also be diagrammed to indicate dependencies. For example, specific minimum requirements for a national insurance market presuppose a cross state insurance competition allowance.
Each proposal along with supporting or contradicting arguments should be made available in transcript form online along with a structured way to illicit focused rational commentary on the strength of each piece of evidence or other specific questions.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Promoting Savings Accounts as Community Investments
Saving could be encouraged by banks structuring and marketing savings products as a community investment. They could highlight the positive impact loans of deposits have to help businesses expand, help homes be more energy efficient, enable disabled persons to adapt their homes, or help with the purchase of energy efficient vehicles. Banks could offer savings accounts where the deposited money is tied to certain types of loans and where the depositor is given a summary of what good that money is doing.
This sort of a program would offer the public a sense of immediate benefits to saving while also further emphasizing the opportunity cost of unnecessary purchases. It could appeal to banks struggling to find a way to differentiate their brand.
This sort of a program would offer the public a sense of immediate benefits to saving while also further emphasizing the opportunity cost of unnecessary purchases. It could appeal to banks struggling to find a way to differentiate their brand.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Prison Entrepreneurship
Somewhere around 2 millions people are incarcerated in the US. These are people likely making little contribution to society. It's worth considering what good they might achieve in prison and how that might further efforts at rehabilitation. What productive activity may they do?
From a big picture perspective an incarcerated person of faith could do great good by developing that faith, ministering to fellow prisoners, and praying for the world at large. Numerous prison ministries exist that likely have those objectives.
In a time of economic decline we're also drawn to consider how inmates may make an economic contribution. One potentially powerful way is to enable prisoners to utilize their time and creative capacity to develop new business concepts and plans. Several prison entrepreneurship efforts exist (an article at inc.com offers a listing of some such programs around the country) but it seems most are focused on preparing inmates for entrepreneurial activities outside of prison. The potential of entrepreneurial activities in prison may be worth considering.
Such a program could be team oriented where parts of the prison compete to develop the best business plan. The best plan could be determined by expert review. The awards for winning could include bragging rights or a cut on the profits that their ideas create. Profits could be had by selling of the plan to existing businesses or other entrepreneurs outside the prison.
Some key challenges to this idea include maintaining security and cost. What is reasonably required for inmates to make a potentially viable business plan? Even the means to physically record the plan need consideration. Pencils can be turned into weapons. What percent of the inmate population would require a safe alternative to a pencil? What sort of information and communication would be required and what are the costs and security issues associated with that? What sort of training would be required?
From a big picture perspective an incarcerated person of faith could do great good by developing that faith, ministering to fellow prisoners, and praying for the world at large. Numerous prison ministries exist that likely have those objectives.
In a time of economic decline we're also drawn to consider how inmates may make an economic contribution. One potentially powerful way is to enable prisoners to utilize their time and creative capacity to develop new business concepts and plans. Several prison entrepreneurship efforts exist (an article at inc.com offers a listing of some such programs around the country) but it seems most are focused on preparing inmates for entrepreneurial activities outside of prison. The potential of entrepreneurial activities in prison may be worth considering.
Such a program could be team oriented where parts of the prison compete to develop the best business plan. The best plan could be determined by expert review. The awards for winning could include bragging rights or a cut on the profits that their ideas create. Profits could be had by selling of the plan to existing businesses or other entrepreneurs outside the prison.
Some key challenges to this idea include maintaining security and cost. What is reasonably required for inmates to make a potentially viable business plan? Even the means to physically record the plan need consideration. Pencils can be turned into weapons. What percent of the inmate population would require a safe alternative to a pencil? What sort of information and communication would be required and what are the costs and security issues associated with that? What sort of training would be required?
Friday, October 23, 2009
Open Wiki Style Medical Decision Making
The pace and expanding scope of medical information growth increasingly challenges the ability of doctors to keep up to date. A shortage of health care workers also necessitates that these doctors do more with less time. These two trends combine to increase the risk of less than optimum medical decisions and practice.
Extending an open innovation approach to the medical decisions space may offer a way to mitigate the impact of this problem and achieve new gains. Medical records could be placed anonymously on a web site along with doctors decisions. Visitors to the web site could then review the patient information at their leisure and suggest better diagnosis or treatment options while citing the research that supports their position. It would be somewhat like a wiki of diagnosis and treatment with a means to present conflicting views and allow consensus building.
Patients and their doctors could then review the wiki. Patients could look at it as often as they wish while doctors may want to be alerted only once certain thresholds are reached in terms of consensus on differing diagnosis and treatment and the significance of the difference. Such thresholds could help ensure that the time that doctors spend on this new task is likely to have significant value.
This sort of approach would also allow insight into the most common errors by doctors which could be used as basis for a national effort to communicate best practices to physicians.
Key Challenges
Increased patient interaction with inexpert health commentary could lead to unnecessary further taxing of health care resources as these patients seek to present to their doctors such commentary. Thus it may be necessary to restrict patient access to the wiki in some way if it is found that patients report to their doctor with wiki information that is of no value and based on anecdotal evidence or poorly understood personal experience.
The popularity and success of wikipedia and other open innovation platforms may not transfer to a wiki of medical decision making because of some clear differences. First and foremost perhaps is that the "experts" are already over tasked so this program would likely not be able to piggy back off of their efforts, particularly MD's. It may be that Ph.D.'s involved in medical research may have sufficient expertise to quickly and efficiently review and contribute to medical records with characteristics within their scope of expertise. These experts may be more inclined to exam medical records.
Novices face larger hurdles to making good contributions than with Wikipedia. Where for Wikipedia one could find several pieces of corroborating information and include them in a relevant article with an intuitive sense of their significance, the experience with a wiki of medical diagnosis and treatment would be different. The diversity of medical conditions and their presentations make it much harder for a novice to first understand enough to evaluate the information and then know when they know enough to suggest a differing diagnosis or treatment path. It would seem feasible that, for a great many conditions, after the novice has command of human physiology not much more than is often covered in high school health classes, they may be able to work their way through a diagnosis or treatment decision tree when presented with such a tree and with access to resources like wikipedia within a handful of hours or days. This claim seems worth evaluating.
A second key difference between this sort of wiki of medical decisions and say wikipedia is that persons with a limited scope of interest or expertise may find it more difficult to find patients with the conditions they are expert in particularly if their aim is to ensure proper diagnosis and seek out misdiagnosis. It would seem easy enough to make records searchable by physician diagnosis, but making symptoms, lab work, and certainly diagnostic imagery effectively searchable seems a much more difficult task.
Extending an open innovation approach to the medical decisions space may offer a way to mitigate the impact of this problem and achieve new gains. Medical records could be placed anonymously on a web site along with doctors decisions. Visitors to the web site could then review the patient information at their leisure and suggest better diagnosis or treatment options while citing the research that supports their position. It would be somewhat like a wiki of diagnosis and treatment with a means to present conflicting views and allow consensus building.
Patients and their doctors could then review the wiki. Patients could look at it as often as they wish while doctors may want to be alerted only once certain thresholds are reached in terms of consensus on differing diagnosis and treatment and the significance of the difference. Such thresholds could help ensure that the time that doctors spend on this new task is likely to have significant value.
This sort of approach would also allow insight into the most common errors by doctors which could be used as basis for a national effort to communicate best practices to physicians.
Key Challenges
Increased patient interaction with inexpert health commentary could lead to unnecessary further taxing of health care resources as these patients seek to present to their doctors such commentary. Thus it may be necessary to restrict patient access to the wiki in some way if it is found that patients report to their doctor with wiki information that is of no value and based on anecdotal evidence or poorly understood personal experience.
The popularity and success of wikipedia and other open innovation platforms may not transfer to a wiki of medical decision making because of some clear differences. First and foremost perhaps is that the "experts" are already over tasked so this program would likely not be able to piggy back off of their efforts, particularly MD's. It may be that Ph.D.'s involved in medical research may have sufficient expertise to quickly and efficiently review and contribute to medical records with characteristics within their scope of expertise. These experts may be more inclined to exam medical records.
Novices face larger hurdles to making good contributions than with Wikipedia. Where for Wikipedia one could find several pieces of corroborating information and include them in a relevant article with an intuitive sense of their significance, the experience with a wiki of medical diagnosis and treatment would be different. The diversity of medical conditions and their presentations make it much harder for a novice to first understand enough to evaluate the information and then know when they know enough to suggest a differing diagnosis or treatment path. It would seem feasible that, for a great many conditions, after the novice has command of human physiology not much more than is often covered in high school health classes, they may be able to work their way through a diagnosis or treatment decision tree when presented with such a tree and with access to resources like wikipedia within a handful of hours or days. This claim seems worth evaluating.
A second key difference between this sort of wiki of medical decisions and say wikipedia is that persons with a limited scope of interest or expertise may find it more difficult to find patients with the conditions they are expert in particularly if their aim is to ensure proper diagnosis and seek out misdiagnosis. It would seem easy enough to make records searchable by physician diagnosis, but making symptoms, lab work, and certainly diagnostic imagery effectively searchable seems a much more difficult task.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Bank Brand Differentiation with Interest Donation Programs
Banks could promote accounts where the interest is contributed to charity. This could be a helpful way to sneak cash out of our hands that we want to give up in light of God's Word so we can rely on Him and not so much ourselves, but cash that we won't so easily give up because of the weakness of our faith. With interest rates low so is interest on bank deposits so it's likely that many could manage this sort of contribution without financial harm even if they aren't even remotely hoping to live off the daily bread God gives instead of a masterfully orchestrated IRA.
All that said it seems to be consensus thinking among those I've heard that saving for retirement or future reasonably expected needs doesn't contradict God's call. I'm confident that's true for some. I just got a funny feeling or maybe just a funny calling...who knows:-) God has plans for each of us.
All that said it seems to be consensus thinking among those I've heard that saving for retirement or future reasonably expected needs doesn't contradict God's call. I'm confident that's true for some. I just got a funny feeling or maybe just a funny calling...who knows:-) God has plans for each of us.
Monday, October 19, 2009
An End to Rational Public Discourse: Wasn't Politics a Dirty Word?
I seem to recall that claiming someone was "playing politics" used to be a common method of attack on elected officials so much so that the very word "politics" carried a negative connotation. Now it seems that times have changed. Major news organizations have decided they want to be known for "politics." MSNBC's proudly proclaiming itself as "the place for politics" with it's tagline often placed on the frame of it's programming. CNN joins in with "CNN = Politics" as it's frequent banner. Fox News, the ratings leader, uses no such tagline and seems to focus more on policy with a "fair and balanced" approach but compensates by incorporating the (feigned or sincere seems up for debate) fringe fanaticism of Beck and the unbridled, overly simplified partisan perspective of Hannity in it's lineup.
So what does MSNBC, for one, seem to mean by politics. With Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, Ed, and Chris Matthews as evidence, MSNBC defines politics as viewing Washington as a soap opera where Democrats are the heroes and policies matter to the extent that they cause contention and personality and party conflict. They have become the reality soap opera shows.
While the lack of helpful information on policy debates from MSNBC (and all the most popular media for that matter) is troubling, particularly given the amount of time that issues like health reform have been center stage, Fox News Beck takes troubling to a whole new level. Beck seems to want to be the Art Bell of politics, with his penchant for conspiracy theories. At the same time, with his tone and perpetual and emphatic call to action, Beck seems to want to be the pastor of politics. That later would seem to be much more dangerous to a weary people searching for a purpose in life that should come far from tea parties, DC marches, and excessively charismatic pundits who know the ratings power of entertainment and intrigue. Such a purpose of course is found only in humbly seeking the will of our ever present and working Maker.
It's an interesting course of events that Fox's most absurd show host in Beck also happened to preside over one of the most helpful discussions on health care yet to make it to the mainstream media. Several days ago Beck filled a room with about 40 doctors and med students who he questioned about health reform. Surprisingly the diversity of their opinions and comments suggested they weren't preselected for conformity with Becks "health reform is Obama's way to subject the masses" perspective.
So there you have it. News organizations want to be the next Guiding Light and an American anti government version of Hugo Chavez, in terms of his concept of reason and truth, is the person to look at for a reasonable policy discussion on health care. That is, of course, in between his rants about a new fascism and how the president is a racist seeking to rule your existence.
Note: This article was written with it's own degree of simplifying slightly entertainment seeking rhetoric. In my mind, Beck and all other individuals mentioned are children of God and seem to be genuinely good people.
So what does MSNBC, for one, seem to mean by politics. With Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, Ed, and Chris Matthews as evidence, MSNBC defines politics as viewing Washington as a soap opera where Democrats are the heroes and policies matter to the extent that they cause contention and personality and party conflict. They have become the reality soap opera shows.
While the lack of helpful information on policy debates from MSNBC (and all the most popular media for that matter) is troubling, particularly given the amount of time that issues like health reform have been center stage, Fox News Beck takes troubling to a whole new level. Beck seems to want to be the Art Bell of politics, with his penchant for conspiracy theories. At the same time, with his tone and perpetual and emphatic call to action, Beck seems to want to be the pastor of politics. That later would seem to be much more dangerous to a weary people searching for a purpose in life that should come far from tea parties, DC marches, and excessively charismatic pundits who know the ratings power of entertainment and intrigue. Such a purpose of course is found only in humbly seeking the will of our ever present and working Maker.
It's an interesting course of events that Fox's most absurd show host in Beck also happened to preside over one of the most helpful discussions on health care yet to make it to the mainstream media. Several days ago Beck filled a room with about 40 doctors and med students who he questioned about health reform. Surprisingly the diversity of their opinions and comments suggested they weren't preselected for conformity with Becks "health reform is Obama's way to subject the masses" perspective.
So there you have it. News organizations want to be the next Guiding Light and an American anti government version of Hugo Chavez, in terms of his concept of reason and truth, is the person to look at for a reasonable policy discussion on health care. That is, of course, in between his rants about a new fascism and how the president is a racist seeking to rule your existence.
Note: This article was written with it's own degree of simplifying slightly entertainment seeking rhetoric. In my mind, Beck and all other individuals mentioned are children of God and seem to be genuinely good people.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Fixing Health Insurance Is A Small Part of the Solution
The following was my post (with a little simplifying rhetoric) in response to an indication that the health insurance industry doesn't have the largest profit margins amongst all industries: Insurers should be paying us to hold our money. A 3.3% "profit margin" becomes a bigger deal once you realize that insurance fundamentally is little more than a shared checking account. People pay in and they pay out. Who would use a bank that takes 3.3% of all money you deposit?
But that's not even half of it. The profit margin is after expenses. So it may be closer to having a bank that takes 10% or 30% of all the money you deposit.
All that said, there's a larger problem. Even if we find a way to educate insurers on how to deposit and write checks for less expense than 30% of the check, that only represents maybe 4 years of health care inflation and may do little to slow the rapid pace of cost increases.
It may be a sad testament to our democracy, after months of headline coverage, the following fundamental issues have gotten only a glancing survey by the major media sources. First off regardless of competition among check writers (insurance), competition amongst the actual health providers is fundamental to obtaining the benefits of the "free markets" everyone talks about. Health consumers need access to cost and quality information so they can purchase health care rationally. Then innovation at the care level will be properly valued and stimulated because better providers will get higher profits.
Second, while the health industry is far from market driven, the principles of supply and demand can't be overlooked particularly with all the evidence of a health care system on the brink in terms of capacity with rushed physicians and long lines at ERs. Health care supply must be increased. Perhaps this means automating processes now carried out by doctors and finding ways to do more with less training. Care would likely improve with software making decisions based on information in a nationally updated best practices database rather than doctors, particularly in primary care, who have an impossible task of keeping up with all relevant advances in medicine.
Insurance is certainly a more conceptually accessible issue but the heart of the matter lies elsewhere after we train insurers how easy it is to write checks:) These fundamental concepts of stimulating innovation and increasing supply do happen to be addressed in the current health bills but their approach merits debate because after all these are the measures that will actually impact the rate of cost increases. A failure to recognize this is either a surrender to the notion that patients can't be rational consumers and properly choose providers no matter what help they're given (which is certainly worth debate right?) or a simple intellectual error that could literally cost trillions.
But that's not even half of it. The profit margin is after expenses. So it may be closer to having a bank that takes 10% or 30% of all the money you deposit.
All that said, there's a larger problem. Even if we find a way to educate insurers on how to deposit and write checks for less expense than 30% of the check, that only represents maybe 4 years of health care inflation and may do little to slow the rapid pace of cost increases.
It may be a sad testament to our democracy, after months of headline coverage, the following fundamental issues have gotten only a glancing survey by the major media sources. First off regardless of competition among check writers (insurance), competition amongst the actual health providers is fundamental to obtaining the benefits of the "free markets" everyone talks about. Health consumers need access to cost and quality information so they can purchase health care rationally. Then innovation at the care level will be properly valued and stimulated because better providers will get higher profits.
Second, while the health industry is far from market driven, the principles of supply and demand can't be overlooked particularly with all the evidence of a health care system on the brink in terms of capacity with rushed physicians and long lines at ERs. Health care supply must be increased. Perhaps this means automating processes now carried out by doctors and finding ways to do more with less training. Care would likely improve with software making decisions based on information in a nationally updated best practices database rather than doctors, particularly in primary care, who have an impossible task of keeping up with all relevant advances in medicine.
Insurance is certainly a more conceptually accessible issue but the heart of the matter lies elsewhere after we train insurers how easy it is to write checks:) These fundamental concepts of stimulating innovation and increasing supply do happen to be addressed in the current health bills but their approach merits debate because after all these are the measures that will actually impact the rate of cost increases. A failure to recognize this is either a surrender to the notion that patients can't be rational consumers and properly choose providers no matter what help they're given (which is certainly worth debate right?) or a simple intellectual error that could literally cost trillions.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Utility Bill Analysis to Direct and Encourage Efficiency Measures
Utility Bill Analysis to Direct and Encourage Efficiency Measures
Utility bills in a community are reviewed to determine what houses use the most energy and water per person or per square foot. Those with excessive utility use will be informed and given suggestions on how to be more efficient. This information could also be given to relevant and screened contractors with or without (if all information is public domain) consent who would then approach the owner offering solutions. Credit mechanisms could be arranged to help finance improvements where the expected annual utility savings exceeds the annual cost of the loan.
Data Collection:
Utility bills are often public information. Ideally this data could be obtained in digital form. House statistics should be available from the government offices responsible for assessing property values for tax purposes. There may be some error in assessor information. Perhaps checking building license approvals would also be helpful. Obtaining an estimate of the number of occupants might be possible by checking number of bedrooms or by collaboration with state or federal agencies.
Efficiency Score:
Properly comparing diverse households to determine which ones would likely most benefit from cost effective interventions could be a challenge. Perhaps the easiest method might be determining resource utilization per square foot of dwelling space. If occupant data is available a per occupant ratio may also be used. The causes and magnitudes of error with these calculations seem potentially significant and should be evaluated.
Competition to Drive Results and Innovation
Informing households that they are among the least efficient would likely be a motivation to change. Another motivator could be obtained through a time limited competition. A household resource efficiency competition could be had where households that are the most efficient at the end of some specified time win some sort of prize. The challenge would be in structuring the competition in a way that nearly all households can have a chance to win and therefore are motivation to try. For example someone could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars installing solar cells and a water capture and filtering system so that their house uses no utilities. This would be an unwelcome outcome if it caused those who could not afford those modification to abandon the effort.
Other potential factors to consider in competition design include the following:
verifying residence of individuals and number of household occupants during competition period
efficiency strategies that involve transfer of costs like more use of public bathrooms and power outlets, use of generators, more use of cars for power and accommodation
unhealthy attempts like maintaining unsafe temperatures in summer or winter, not washing hands and items as thoroughly, using fuse boxes frequently to cut power to appliances.
After the competition, participants would be encouraged to share their strategies for trying to win the competition and thereby potentially motivate and reveal new ways to save resources.
Utility bills in a community are reviewed to determine what houses use the most energy and water per person or per square foot. Those with excessive utility use will be informed and given suggestions on how to be more efficient. This information could also be given to relevant and screened contractors with or without (if all information is public domain) consent who would then approach the owner offering solutions. Credit mechanisms could be arranged to help finance improvements where the expected annual utility savings exceeds the annual cost of the loan.
Data Collection:
Utility bills are often public information. Ideally this data could be obtained in digital form. House statistics should be available from the government offices responsible for assessing property values for tax purposes. There may be some error in assessor information. Perhaps checking building license approvals would also be helpful. Obtaining an estimate of the number of occupants might be possible by checking number of bedrooms or by collaboration with state or federal agencies.
Efficiency Score:
Properly comparing diverse households to determine which ones would likely most benefit from cost effective interventions could be a challenge. Perhaps the easiest method might be determining resource utilization per square foot of dwelling space. If occupant data is available a per occupant ratio may also be used. The causes and magnitudes of error with these calculations seem potentially significant and should be evaluated.
Competition to Drive Results and Innovation
Informing households that they are among the least efficient would likely be a motivation to change. Another motivator could be obtained through a time limited competition. A household resource efficiency competition could be had where households that are the most efficient at the end of some specified time win some sort of prize. The challenge would be in structuring the competition in a way that nearly all households can have a chance to win and therefore are motivation to try. For example someone could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars installing solar cells and a water capture and filtering system so that their house uses no utilities. This would be an unwelcome outcome if it caused those who could not afford those modification to abandon the effort.
Other potential factors to consider in competition design include the following:
verifying residence of individuals and number of household occupants during competition period
efficiency strategies that involve transfer of costs like more use of public bathrooms and power outlets, use of generators, more use of cars for power and accommodation
unhealthy attempts like maintaining unsafe temperatures in summer or winter, not washing hands and items as thoroughly, using fuse boxes frequently to cut power to appliances.
After the competition, participants would be encouraged to share their strategies for trying to win the competition and thereby potentially motivate and reveal new ways to save resources.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Changing the Culture of Consumption with Bank Brand Differentiation by the Social Benefits of Lending Practices
Banks could measure their impact on the community and use that data to differentiate them from the competition in relation to depositors. Banks get an increasing amount of their revenue from fees depositors pay. This factor could increase the potential benefit of this sort of brand differentiation.
Perhaps the most significant social impact banks have is through their lending practices. The events of financial crisis of 2008/09 shows the harm that can come from poor loan practices but it is also clear the substantial economic gain that can come from good behavior. Business expansion can be funded, homes can be made more energy efficient or accommodated for occupant disabilities, and educations can be funded.
Loaning behavior could be rated on how well they match the financial ability of borrowers to repay. Loans could also be evaluated by whether they are spent in ways that meet needs and contribute to the common good or are spent on luxury and entertainment that fits more with worldly hedonism.
A successful implementation could change borrower behavior and motivate them to consider the overall benefit of their borrowing and change their approach to obtaining loans from any bank. Perhaps they would seek to expand their business instead of their homes or they would realize they don't need a shiny new car just because the neighbors bought one.
While this type of promotion seems to offer banks that implement it a competitive advantage a third party rating system could also achieve the social benefits. One roadblock to third party ratings would be access to loan data. Information on general categories of loans might be available but these categories likely don't differentiate a home equity loan used for a 3 month around the world trip versus one used to widen doorways and put in a first story bathroom for someone confined to a wheelchair.
Banks with the best records in these measures and the means to obtain and share in aggregate this sort of data could benefit from participation in this sort of third party rating system. With the proper branding of the rating system it could offer prestige and bolster the bank brand all while achieving the social benefits.
Perhaps the most significant social impact banks have is through their lending practices. The events of financial crisis of 2008/09 shows the harm that can come from poor loan practices but it is also clear the substantial economic gain that can come from good behavior. Business expansion can be funded, homes can be made more energy efficient or accommodated for occupant disabilities, and educations can be funded.
Loaning behavior could be rated on how well they match the financial ability of borrowers to repay. Loans could also be evaluated by whether they are spent in ways that meet needs and contribute to the common good or are spent on luxury and entertainment that fits more with worldly hedonism.
A successful implementation could change borrower behavior and motivate them to consider the overall benefit of their borrowing and change their approach to obtaining loans from any bank. Perhaps they would seek to expand their business instead of their homes or they would realize they don't need a shiny new car just because the neighbors bought one.
While this type of promotion seems to offer banks that implement it a competitive advantage a third party rating system could also achieve the social benefits. One roadblock to third party ratings would be access to loan data. Information on general categories of loans might be available but these categories likely don't differentiate a home equity loan used for a 3 month around the world trip versus one used to widen doorways and put in a first story bathroom for someone confined to a wheelchair.
Banks with the best records in these measures and the means to obtain and share in aggregate this sort of data could benefit from participation in this sort of third party rating system. With the proper branding of the rating system it could offer prestige and bolster the bank brand all while achieving the social benefits.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Increasing School Revenue with After Hours Use of Facilities
Our schools have vast amounts of space that, for the most part, are used for less than a third of a day and remain wholly unused during summer months. This is a wasted resource. Finding ways to utilize this space in socially and economically valuable ways can reduce the hardships facing school budgets and offer new opportunities to area communities.
Some ideas for productive after-hour use of this space include the following:
1. After-hour childcare
2. Leasing to area businesses – most consumer activity occurs outside school hours anyway. This sort of leasing could reduce the cost for startups. Multiple businesses would allow the school to become, in effect a local mall.
3. Community events
4. Adult education and degree programs
5. Local government public meetings for increased participation
A number of challenges exist to enable this course. First is the actual mechanics of daily implementation. While gym space is often available, classrooms space is most underutilized. Using classrooms may require moving desks and other classroom materials to make space. This moving creates a setup time and increases the risk of damage to the desks and materials. Public access to classrooms increases the risk of thefts and disruption of materials so systems would have to be established to manage these risks.
Depreciation of the facility would occur at an increased rate for parts of the facility like bathrooms, doors, floors, and moved materials. This increased depreciation would have to be accounted for in lease pricing and evaluation of potential uses.
Legal liability risks would have to be accounted for as well. Exposer to the errors of leasees and occupants would have to be limited. This could involve clear distinctions and notices that use of school facilities by other organizations does not constitute endorsement or verification of leasee practices by government or the school.
Some ideas for productive after-hour use of this space include the following:
1. After-hour childcare
2. Leasing to area businesses – most consumer activity occurs outside school hours anyway. This sort of leasing could reduce the cost for startups. Multiple businesses would allow the school to become, in effect a local mall.
3. Community events
4. Adult education and degree programs
5. Local government public meetings for increased participation
A number of challenges exist to enable this course. First is the actual mechanics of daily implementation. While gym space is often available, classrooms space is most underutilized. Using classrooms may require moving desks and other classroom materials to make space. This moving creates a setup time and increases the risk of damage to the desks and materials. Public access to classrooms increases the risk of thefts and disruption of materials so systems would have to be established to manage these risks.
Depreciation of the facility would occur at an increased rate for parts of the facility like bathrooms, doors, floors, and moved materials. This increased depreciation would have to be accounted for in lease pricing and evaluation of potential uses.
Legal liability risks would have to be accounted for as well. Exposer to the errors of leasees and occupants would have to be limited. This could involve clear distinctions and notices that use of school facilities by other organizations does not constitute endorsement or verification of leasee practices by government or the school.
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