Innovate Without Emigrate

Thomas L Friedman, a American award-winning columnist said in among others, his best-selling book entitled "The World Is Flat: Brief History of the Twenty-first Century", "...you can innovate without having to emigrate!". He subsequently stressed so too in his speech at M.I.T. on 16 MAY 2005 (see video at MITWorld).

Like MIT President Emeritus Charles M. Vest, I'm not in full agreement with what Tom laid out in his books or various articles and speeches, but, his views on globalization (or glocalization, as he mentioned too), and the trends of outsourcing, offshoring and open sourcing are worth to be explored:

Download a full 75-minute audio (32kbps)/video (56-220kbps) of the speech by Tom Fiendman in RealPlayer stream format from MIT World.

Trivia: The guy is not a certified economist, but his wife who hails from one of the top-100 richest families in America that had helped pioneered shopping malls since the 50s, is.

The following is an article penned by Friedman not long afterwards as published on the Sept 5, 2005 issue of The New York Times Upfront magazine (published by Scholastic, Inc), focusing on globalization wave as observed from China and India:




[view fullscreen at SlideShare or read the text version at FindArticles.]

Here's another slide to learn on the impact of "flat world, flat web" on educational classrooms"

Entrepreneurship 2.0, revisited...

A couple weeks ago, we published a flash/video presentation on Entrepreneurship 2.0. We haven't told many people though, yet it does records hundreds of viewings at YouTube and we are starting to receive a stream of feedbacks on it.

It's not just us who are talking about this emerging entrepreneurial concept though. The talk about Entrepreneurship 2.0 or Socialized (Micro) Entrepreneurship (LESS is MORE) has been going on the Web for some time now:-

In May 2007, SiliconIndia Blog published an article by Gunjan (who believes that "entrepreneurship itself is now ready to be taken to the masses, to the "long tail" of the human population, to villages and rural areas, to common folks, who are ready to make a difference for themselves and their environment") that talks at length about Entrepreneurship at where else: India as one of the potentially biggest ICT economies of the future alongside with China and the rest of Asia Pacific and many third world nations, as they join the traditional IT leaders of the US and EU countries.

Gunjan stresses that the idea of "democratized entrepreneurship" is not new:

"People have talked about "Microfinance", "Village Banking", "Banking for the poor", etc. etc. for a decade now. In fact Mohd Yunus even received his "Nobel Prize" in 2006 for his work on Grameen bank in Bangladesh, and other parts of the world. "

The Open Source "Big Social Challenge" endeavor, according to Gunjan is to:

"...help inspire, and help create millions of entrepreneurs in all parts of the world, in remote villages, to uplift rural population, to find that small "fisher woman" who can through smart entrepreneurship can multiply her income by 10x. Or the local artisan, who figures out the game of volumes and distribution to reach out to the demand out there or to the talented village school teacher, who could never reach out of her job, to now creating an educational micro enterprise to change the ways kids learn and grow. I"

Clearly, Gunjan and co have expressed their plan and aspirational executions to redefine Silicon India -- focus on the micro entrepeneurial entities instead of the corporations. Will Malaysia's MDeC consider the similar possibility for Malaysia's landscape for its own ala-Silicon Valley Multimedia Super Corridor throughout the nation? Or should the responsibility and initiatives be in the sole hands of the microworking entities themselves, e.g. Pajamanation Malaysia?

Jeff Corwall, directory of Belmont University Center for Entrepreneurship however seems to prefer hands-off policy of the government and let the people have their own "free market" in response to presidential-hopeful Hillary Clinton's "Innovation Agenda, 1.0" -- one that mentions "E-science initiatives that link Internet-based tools, global collaboration" and "prizes by the government's Office of CyberInfratructure for innovations".

The debate on Gunjan's talk on Entrepeneurship 2.0 and Hillary's high-tech agendas continues...

Meanwhile, folks at Folksonomy.org are having interesting discussions on many Entrepeneurship 2.0 enterprises or folksonomic companies as they'd call them.

If you're wondering whether Entrepreneurship 2.0 has arrived in Malaysia, read these earlier pieces:

• Pajamaworking at home... where in Malaysia?
  
  
• Outsourcing Blogging - it will become a trend!

An epistemology at work, glocally, eh? Welcoming your comments etc...

Do write to us, or post up your comments at myPajamanation Blog on what you think about micro entrepreneurial revolution in Malaysia.

Entrepreneurship 2.0 on YouTube

Dr DeBrouwer wrote, "Just as the open-source movement has created more programmers by burning the black boxes, it is now time for entrepreneurs to publish their source code towards the developing countries, the third and the fourth world, and to create a 100 million entrepreneurs by giving them a peak behind the entrepreneurial curtain."

... and presents, "Entrepreneurship 2.0":



Think of Entrepeneurship 2.0 as a a hologram or a fractal: each piece contains a representation of the totality... So, the next time someone asks what Pajamanation is, just say that it's... the biggest idea on the planet and when they ask you 'why', just tell them, 'We are all creators!'

Pajamaworking means self-employment for micropreneurs of Generation C when "the world is flat!"

Check out what the buzz is all about at Pajamanation.com...

Green Day Everyday!

This Pajamanation Malaysia blog site sports a new design today, courtesy of the dozens of nice layouts from Blogger. We're back to our old theme BTW, from the previously all mysterious Star Wars-alien-black theme. And we're classically gray, as Pajamanation is an advocator of going back to basics to some 100 years ago or earlier, where practically everyone on earth was working from home instead of slaving every 8-6 or late night shifts at some factories or corporate buildings.

But what's up with all these greenish sprinkles? Well, haven't you heard that today is World Environment Day (see earlier post made this morning)? We're just paying our respect to our mother earth just as a quote I've noted in the Star today: "We didn't inherit the earth from our ancestors. We are just borrowing it from our children!"

Selamat Hari Alam Sekitar Sedunia!

The next few days however, we will be BLUE -- favorite color for most people! Watch out for next announcement on 8 JUNE 2007. Then, we'll be pink again, as PINK is chic! -- As we support the less able and women workers at home, as well as the micropreneuring papas, many of whom are adding to the home-based workforce of today.

Changing shirts is fun! Plus we are great fans of the colourful Citrawarna Malaysia!

Hmm... Pajamanation is about WORK, and BUSINESS? Why is this site full of tourism stuff? Aren't traveling and leisurely activities, ANTI-WORK? Consider that Malaysia earned 32.7 BILLION RINGGITS last year from tourism industry. That's about RM100-million each day! And such a huge amount of revenue will provide more work and income for the average Malaysian workers and entrepreneurs. That's why, we're so upbeat about Tourism Malaysia! If you're Malaysians, consider taking holidays and discover Malaysia during current school holidays and kenduri seasons. If you're out of Malaysia, what are you waiting for? Come here now and celebrate the Colours of Malaysia and Visit Malaysia Year 2007 with us! Millions of colours and millions of smiles in Malaysia, Truly Asia!

I'm going to Tapak Ekspo Seberang Jaya tonight to support the local micropreneurs and SMEs. Join me?

All eyes are on MSC-IAP the 10th...

After a long hiatus since September 2005, this week (beginning today with a reception cocktail hosted by Dato Seri Dr Jamaludin Jarjis, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation), Putrajaya (administrative capital of Malaysia) hosts a very important congregation, the10th MSC-IAP meeting, to be attended by over 30 members of an International Advisory Panel for the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC Malaysia started with the creation of an entirely new city called Cyberjaya -- in response to the United States Silicon Valley, likely) -- a project that was meant to push Malaysia into becoming one of the leading nations in the era of knowledge economy.

All eyes are on this event, and we at Pajamanation Malaysia are very much offering a close watch for its outcomes. Will this be another talk but no walk, or will real innovative solutions came out of these meetings? Or will we be satisfied with just a good Tourism Malaysia marketing event? And will we stop "kow-towing" to foreign corporations just to get them to invest a little or to sell them some real estate pieces?

Read more about this supposedly very influential and productive meeting here:

• MSC's IAP Portal @ IAP-portal.MSC.com.my
  
• BERNAMA (15may07): This Week's MSC IAP Meeting Set To Further Enhance Msia's ICT Landscape
• ZDNET (14may07): M'sian think-tank to discuss ICT policies
• BERNAMA (24apr07): MDeC Expects MSC's Revenue To Grow Higher In 2007

Check out the latest figures supplied by MDeC as published at http://iap-portal.msc.com.my/facts-figures.html

Consider these concerns:

• 1700 MSC-status companies generated ~RM11B revenue last year; only RM11B?
• MSC also contributed to 50,000 employments in the past ten years. (Only?)
  
• How many of some 1300 local-based MSC-status companies are Bumiputera-owned (not at 30% ownership, but at 50+%)?
• How much of these trades are business-to-consumer and business-to-business minus the trades involving business-to-government or government-to-government (through GLCs)?
• How much of these revenue contributed by MSC-status (foreign) MNCs?
• What's the status of telecommunications and broadband service throughout Malaysia today, more than 10 years after MSC?
• How many micro and SMEs out of the 500,000 plus active businesses in Malaysia have been ensured to be ICT-literate today? What's the percentage that have actually done any trade at all through ICT-centric medium?
• Who are the local leaders in Malaysia ICT industry? Why and How?
• Are we critically lacking our own talents that we have to rely on foreign experts on how to mold our own culture and progress? Do we not understand who we ourselves are? Are we that blind? Or have been hearing from the wrong so-called experts?
  
• Which are the most influential brands in Malaysia ICT industry today? Why?
• How's ICT training in IPTA & IPTS? The employability of the graduates?
• How does Web 2.0 affect MDEC in its MSC implementations?
• Can we name any MSC-grown companies that successfully went truly global? (not just regionally)?
  

Any answers? We'll wait...

It's good to have a nice theme like: "Taking MSC Malaysia Global: Developing the Knowledge Infrastructure & Creating Talent" but how long would it take, and how much more money is needed to actually complete this task? And what would be the measurable milestones for this mission?

The MDec chief, Dato Badlisham Ghazali said the agenda has a specific topic on talent. "When we say talent, it is not about the educational system but on how to change the CULTURE and MINDSET when looking at the 21st century skills that are required for the country's knowledge-based economy." (BERNAMA Business, 15may07)

Our ponder is, whose cultures and mindsets? And who needs to adapt to whom? The government to reflect and to take advantage of the strengths of its citizens or the other way round, i.e. the people to do exactly as what the government told them to, like it or not...?