Category Archives: sustainability

National Science Challenge winners underwhelm

Posted on May 14, 2013 by

There’s only one word really to describe the winners of the National Science Challenge – ‘wow’ writ small. Or, perhaps it is just me that is completely underwhelmed by the announcement of 10 research areas that can comfortably be binned … Continue reading →

Posted in Entrepreneur, high tech, Innovation, SciBlogs, Science, Science policy, sustainability, technology | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Power of Un-Location gets an airing

Posted on April 16, 2013 by

Toby Ruckert of Unified Inbox had an interesting blog recently – demonstrating what he has called the Power of Un-Location. (sticK had a blog on an earlier version of Unified Inbox here.) For a brief period while in Shanghai, he … Continue reading →

Posted in cloud computing, Entrepreneur, Innovation, IT, SciBlogs, sustainability, technology | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Adding a hole lot of value to a piece of pine

Posted on April 4, 2013 by

We all know that we’d prefer to export more than just a log of pine to overseas markets. At the same time, the NZ Inc desire to add value to our raw commodities such as trees is almost tiresome through … Continue reading →

Posted in Entrepreneur, high tech, Innovation, proprietary, SciBlogs, sustainability, technology | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Dyed in the wool innovation partners up to go global

Posted on April 2, 2013 by

The time it takes to convert a good idea into something that another person’s willing to buy is almost invariably longer than you think. A couple of years ago, sticK reported on BGI Developments’ winning the right to commercialise AgResearch’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Development, Entrepreneur, high tech, Innovation, SciBlogs, sustainability, technology | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Creating a deep infrastructure tool and asset for Christchurch – a (relatively) cheap idea well worth NZ Inc considering

Posted on March 12, 2013 by

Here’s an idea, so time topical it deserves much more thinking about by Christchurch, government and NZ Inc. The Cement & Concrete Association of NZ’s (CCANZ) education and development manager Joe Gamman spoke at the recent Multicore World 2013 conference … Continue reading →

Posted in cloud computing, Development, Early stage science, high tech, Innovation, open source, Prototyping, sustainability, technology | Leave a comment

When we name something, our relationship with it changes

Posted on February 7, 2013 by

(This blog also appears at pastureharmonies.org) Michael Margolis, chief instigator at Get Storied in a Brand Storytelling 101 blog makes the following point. 1. When we name something, our relationship with it transforms His first example has an agricultural flavour. … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, SciBlogs, sustainability, technology, value added food | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Achieving virtual scale for our largest industry

Posted on January 30, 2013 by

(This blog also appears at pastureharmonies.org) Scale matters in exporting according to the World Bank…..so here’s a way to get virtual scale for our biggest industry. The World Bank’s recent report ‘Export Superstars’, shows that company size matters when it … Continue reading →

Posted in Development, high tech, Innovation, Processed food, SciBlogs, sustainability, technology, value added food, value-added food. processed food | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Change by chance, by design or by stealth – Callaghan Innovation’s ‘birth’ far from democratic

Posted on December 20, 2012 by

Hypothetically speaking, say we’re all on the same page and all wanting more to happen around the innovation space – you know, spend $X here and see a clear $Yreturn there. Say too there’s been a suggestion for an Advanced … Continue reading →

Posted in Early stage science, education, Entrepreneur, high tech, Innovation, Market validation, SciBlogs, Science, Science policy, start-up, sustainability, technology | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

We are the picture that a child draws of a farm

Posted on December 18, 2012 by

A child draws a picture of a farm. The sun is shining, the water is clean, the animals are happy. A question could be, ‘What is the name of that picture?’ Our farms, done correctly, are that picture. There’s a … Continue reading →

Posted in Development, Innovation, Market validation, SciBlogs, sustainability, technology, value added food, value-added food. processed food | Tagged , | 2 Comments

If Callaghan Innovation is the answer – remind me again what was the question?

Posted on December 14, 2012 by

Well, surely I’m not the only one surprised that what was to be the establishment of an Advanced Technology Institute – or a supercharged IRL – somewhat on the model of Taiwan’s ITRI, is instead going to end up as … Continue reading →

Posted in Development, Early stage science, Entrepreneur, high tech, Innovation, Market validation, SciBlogs, Science, Science policy, sustainability, technology | Tagged , , | 2 Comments