Wisconsin

The White House has opened up communication - maybe even dialogue - with us. In this particular instance, there are two questions being asked (3, really):

• How is American innovation affecting your community?
• What are the obstacles to innovation that you see in your community? And what steps can be taken to remove them?

I urge you to try answering the questions that are posed here, and to give your own perspectives - even if I find them disagreeable.

The idea here is that we all get to have a say in what we need to innovate as American businesses, now and in the future - be it broadband penetration, network neutrality, or anything else that one could see necessary for increased innovation.

The buzz phrase is, "Win The Future" - but I find that phrase inept. The future wins no matter what we do. 'Winning our future' seems to be more appropriate, but no one pays me to write speeches, much less the State of the Union address by the President of the United States.

Sound off. Be heard. Maybe you think it's useless - but if it is useless, make it their fault - not yours or mine.

Personally, I used the opportunity to ask about the status of Network Neutrality, particularly how it seems that the FCC keep saying it is a priority while it remains an unresolved issue that makes small business innovation dubious by virtue of the potential of large corporations to determine the size of the fish bowls small businesses are forced to exist in.

As other ideas come to mind, or even with feedback from other people, I'll go back and write in the concerns. But really, this is a numbers game to them at that level - so let the numbers be counted, heard and democratically represented.

KnowProSE LLC

As a company in Beloit, Wisconsin, and as a company that believes in appropriate regulation to permit business growth, KnowProSE LLC is proud to announce that it has joined the ranks of those that support WiredWisconsin.org and what it is working toward:

• 21st Century E-learning
• Access to Wireless Technologies
• Broadband Deployment
• Consumer Privacy
• Future Thinking Technology Policies
• Green Technology
• High-tech Job Creation and Industry Development
• Tele-Medicine and E-Records advancement

You'll note that there is a link to WiredWisconsin on the top right of the page to show support for the initiative. KnowProSE LLC expects to become a partner of WiredWisconsin.org in the future.

Personal

I've long advocated the need for all of the things mentioned above in the WiredWisconsin issues all over the world. Now that I'm back in my home state of Wisconsin, it seems appropriate that I continue advocating these things in the backyard of KnowProSE LLC: Wisconsin. In Beloit, Wisconsin, and the greater Janesville area, unemployment is at the highest levels in the State of Wisconsin - and it would be good to see this area, despite GM plant closures, move forward and thrive instead of decay. Innovation, job creation... these seem like positive steps to take after Green Bay won the 2011 SuperBowl. After all, Wisconsin has awesome beer, awesome cheese and awesome beef. And we can be awesome at a lot more.

Get involved. Make things better, wherever you are. And if you're in Wisconsin, this post is a big hint as to where you can get involved. WiredWisconsin.org.

I headed over to Austin's Barber Shop today for a haircut - a pretty simple task that had absolutely nothing to do with KnowProSE LLC other than keeping my hair out of my face. While there, a young man asked Rod how to get a Coke out of the antique machine he has inside, and Rod brought up that he had made a deal on FourSquare for people - register that you're at the shop in FourSquare and you get a free Coke. I took a few minutes as Rod finished the guy before me to register on FourSquare and download the app onto my Android based phone.

Granted, I'd heard of FourSquare before, but I was out of the country when it first came out. I'm not big on having people able to stalk my whereabouts at any given time; for the most part I'd rather people not know where I am - and apps like FourSquare run contrary to that. Still, with me getting ready to start on KnowProSE LLC's first internal project, KnowBeloit.com, I wanted to see what was going on. If Rod, my barber, was up on it then maybe more companies in the area are. And in downtown Beloit, at least, they were.

Rod and I ended up discussing a lot about the future of getting people into his chair. Maybe using Twitter. He already has a Facebook Page. In fact, when it comes to social media he's ahead of a lot of companies I know of around the world. The main idea is to keep his chair full throughout the day, of course - and if you do meet Rod, you'll find him a personable and well informed person on a variety of things - but there's a little twist to this all that most of the social media pundits don't get. The Barber shop, in and of itself, has been a place where social networking has happened throughout the history of barber shops. It's one of those places where discussions have always taken place. Generally, men have their barber shops, women have their hairdressers. And they share information - as about 5 of us did today. Barber Media.

Interestingly, at no point in the conversation were the phrases 'social media' and 'social networking' used. They're overused phrases anyway.

It's easy to talk about how social media is 'changing the world', so much so that just about everyone is talking about it. Some will argue that it is making the world a better place, that the new methods of communication are pushing over dictatorships, making us more aware of problems throughout the world, and so on. But all too often we forget that these same technologies and methodologies are very important where we are, in the community we live in, in the community that we support. In our back yard, in our economy. We can't save the world if we don't keep our back yard maintained.

And we might get a free Coke, good conversation and a good haircut while we're at it.