MaRS

Maker Fair: Reinventing the Detroit economy

When your iPhone screen cracks, what do you do? Apple wants you to send them your broken phone, pay $150 and wait a few weeks while they repair it and send it back. Another option is to tap into the community of DIY enthusiasts online and repair your own screen in an afternoon for around $15 through instructions found on YouTube.

Welcome to the Maker community, a collection of engineers, sewers, tinkerers and inventors eager to spread the gospel of DIY. Their name comes from the eponymous Make Magazine, a magazine of blueprints, instructions and photo essays on everything from home-made amplifiers to fire-breathing robots.

Think differently after these TED talks

These seven TED talks will change the way you think about customers, business and the economy.

From a shirtless dancing guy starting a movement to the story of spaghetti sauce’s success to the single most important thing a VC is looking for in a pitch. These videos challenge common thinking–and remind us that the most obvious way to do something isn’t necessarily the best way.

Here’s the play-by-play in 5465 seconds.

Andy Grove sounds the alarm about innovation

By dropping the social in innovation, is North America breaking the innovation chain?

Andy Grove, a co-founder of Intel and a Silicon Valley icon, is sounding two alarms about innovation’s future. Both flow from his disagreement with the accepted article of faith that the US tech sector necessarily should focus high-end jobs in the US and export manufacturing jobs.

The gecko: A disruptive innovation

Imagine a laboratory devoted to the research and development of complex systems. It costs nothing to run and doesn’t have any senior managers. All of its products are open source. And it’s managed to remain relevant over 3.8 billion years of changing market conditions.

Many scientists use the products of this laboratory (aka “nature”) as inspiration for cutting edge technologies. Velcro is the oft-cited example, a manufactured version of the tiny hooks on burrs that cling to fabric. The philosophy is biomimicry.

And third place goes to...

The second annual Scientific American worldVIEW survey results have been published.

The take-home message is that Canada ranked third in the world for innovative capacity – a composite score based on ratings of intellectual property, intensity, education/workforce, enterprise support and foundations.