I caught up with Elise Zoliat FountainBlue’sForum on Clean Green Transportation this month. Elise is a Boston based partner with law firm, Goodwin Procter, but is a frequently in Silicon Valley to serve her local clients. She specializes in energy, climate change and clean tech law.
We discussed:
Government – Its role as the Grinch and Santa Claus
“The Grinch side is limiting traditional industry and allowing new sectors, new technologies to emerge…with emissions standards, fuel tax…The Santa Claus side – direct funding – grants, loans, loan guarantees, tax subsidies…make a more favorable environment for emerging companies.” (more…)
Kevin Suraceis serious about tackling global warming and argues that producing energy saving building materials can go a long way to cutting down CO2 emissions and reducing energy consumption in the United States. He’s CEO of Serious Materials, a Sunnyvale based maker of eco drywall, windows and other building materials; and frequent speaker * on global warming and the built environment. *His TED speech is worth checking out.
We discussed the influence of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truthin helping create a market for green products; the pace of global warming; and whether consumers are willing to pay a premium for green. Kevin outlined how his company uses new media to get its message out and why his company is growing rapidly, despite the shrinking economy.
Judy Estrinis an influential tech entrepreneur, CEO of JLabs, and author of Closing the Innovation Gap. I caught up with her at SD Forum’s12th annual Visionary Awards in Atherton, where she was one of four recipients. We talked about whether clean energy solutions can save the planet; the importance of new innovation in revitalizing the economy; and the role of government in making it happen.
“For an industry to take off, you need a grand challenge, or a grand problem that needs to be solved and you need research and scientific discovery…In the area of clean energy, it’s a problem that must be solved and it’s very broad in nature.”
Can clean energy save the planet?
“The real question is: will we as a people, our government as leaders, and will our business leaders all have the courage and commitment to understand that along with new technologies and forms of energy has to come behavioral change? It’s not just about inventing something new, it’s going to take change from everybody.”
This is a transcript of part two of my interviewwith Apple evangelist and Alltop Founder, Guy Kawasaki when we discussed the Kindle and green publishing.
Alison van Diggelen: What are your thoughts on Amazon’s Kindle and electronic publishing? That’s going to save trees; that a green technology…
Guy Kawasaki: I think Kindle’s on to something, but I don’t know if it’s for books…I can see it for reference books. I could see if you have the Chicago Manual of Style on the Kindle. Rather than carrying the Chicago Manual of Style around with you – which is a huge book, six hundred pages or so- and if you really need to know what’s the rule for how to write percent out, is it four zero P-E-R-C-E-N-T, is it 40%….it’s nice to have the Chicago Manual of Style on a Kindle.
Would I read the latest Tom Clancy book on a Kindle? I don’t think so. Is it nice to know that when I get on an airplane I have a subscription to Wall Street Journal, Road and Track, New York Times, Tech Crunch, my blog etc., that is good. I like that. It means I just have to buy a whole lot less stuff in the airport bookstore and I don’t have to carry a stack of stuff and I don’t have to feel guilty about killing a tree…having said all that, I don’t use a Kindle because I have to keep so many things charged in my life. I have to keep my iPhone charged because its battery life is pathetic, keep my Mac Book charged because its battery life is pathetic and so I prefer when I travel not to have to carry 15 lbs of extension cords, adaptors and all that, so it would just put me over the top to have to make sure …you know… I don’t want to be like I’m going on a mission: Mac Book charged? Check. IPhone? Check. Kindle? Check. Gas? Check. You know: I just need to get in the plane. So that’s why I don’t use it.
Alison: And what might persuade you to use it?
Guy: Infinite battery life
Alison: Infinite battery life?…OK
Guy: One week…
Alison: By why wouldn’t you use it to read a novel? Is it that touchy feely thing of just holding a book?
Guy: Well, the first Kindle – I have not touched a second Kindle – the first Kindle the bottom corners were sharp, they were like daggers. You know I just didn’t like to hold it in my palm and I don’t know…it’s like one more thing…worry about charging, worry about dropping…but I do believe that those things will take off. Will they eliminate books? I don’t think so. Not in my lifetime.
Someone wrote a blog about how, for the cost of printing the New York Times, the NYT could give every subscriber a Kindle…that’s interesting.
Alison: That’s pretty powerful.
Guy: But I have to say…in my life, I’m on my computer constantly. There is about 15 minutes a day I sit out and I read the Mercury (News) and I read the Chronicle at a table and it’s just nice to be not looking at a monitor.
Alison: Mmm
Guy: The interesting thing is that my kids, who’re teenagers, they do not read the newspaper, right. So they have never NOT looked at YouTube…I don’t know where they get their news, God help us. So maybe this generation, for them, a Kindle’s perfectly normal …OK that’s where they get their news. What is this piece of paper here? My kids don’t know what a typewriter is…they’ve never used a typewriter. Arguably they …my three year old will never use a CD, right? It’s going to be all digital downloads. So, he knows what a DVD is because he watches Aliens and Monsters or whatever on it, but just the physical media is going to be gone by his age.
Alison: Guy Kawasaki, thank you for joining me today on Fresh Dialogues.
To listen to Part One with Guy Kawasaki on green revolutionaries and evangelism click here
To read the transcript of Part One with Guy Kawasaki click here
I talked to Alltop cofounder, Guy Kawasakiat his Garage Technology Partners office in downtown Palo Alto and we discussed Amazon’s Kindle. Although he’s not yet a Kindle user, he can see the attraction to users, especially for reference books. What would persuade him to use a Kindle?
“I don’t use a Kindle because I have to keep so many things charged in my life. I prefer when I travel not to have to carry 15 lbs of extension cords and adaptors.”
“I do believe these things will take off. Will they eliminate books? I don’t think so, not in my lifetime.” Guy Kawasaki (more…)
“It’s not so much about the money, it’s about the kudos of winning the prize; the recognition from the global marine energy industry.” Paul O’Brien, Scottish Development International
The interview was recorded on February 19, 2009 in Scotland. To listen to the full interview, click here
