Aardvark Daily

Please visit the sponsor!

Small can be very big

Over the past week or so I've had a lot of folk calling and emailing me in search of information or advice.

Perhaps because I've spent so much time helping other people and have such a wide range of experience in "things technical", I've become something of a "go-to guy" whenever someone finds themselves trying to solve a techy problem.

This week I heard from a local guy who's trying to do some design work with vortex-based propulsion and last night an old friend rang for a bit of advice on how to use an op-amp to measure current-flow in an electronic circuit he was designing.

To be honest, I love this sort of thing. It gives me a great opportunity to pass my knowledge on to others and also helps keep my own grey matter turning at a speed which will help keep things such as dementia at bay in later years.

The one thing that has struck me over the past week is the number of people all around NZ who are beavering away on clever little techy projects -- dedicating hours of their own time and effort to try and come up with something useful and practical.

Most of the time these people operate well below the radar and although the success rate may be less than 100%, there are almost certainly a good number of very useful bits of kit that come from such hard work.

Sadly, these cottage industry workers are greatly undervalued by the rest of the world (except perhaps in Germany) and our own government would rather back only those innovators with: "a proven track record", already strong earnings and profits, and already proven ideas.

The even sadder thing is that (like myself), most of these people don't actually need fists-full of money in the way of grants or whatever -- they simply need access to resources that can help them bring their ideas to commercialisation and deal with the minefield that is the cost of compliance with the growing mountain of regulations that increasingly impinge on every aspect of a business's operations.

Perhaps, instead of throwing millions of dollars at the likes of F&P to further the R&D that they could well afford to fund themselves, we'd be far better off creating free/cheap advisory agencies for these nascent startups. Free/cheap technology consulting, accountancy, tax, regulatory compliance, etc., would go an awfully long way towards helping so many of the kitchen-table techies turn their ideas into commercial realities.

Unfortunately, even when government has attempted to create support services for this group (such as in the form of Callaghan Innovation, the results are sometimes worse than awful.

Regular readers will recall that CI recently held a seminar and schmoozefest for drone technology. I wasn't invited (fair enough) but even when I contacted them and asked if I could attend, I was told "no". Now remember - I am (or was, until CAA and the SWDC stepped in) working on what at least a couple of international aerospace companies have agreed is world-leading anti-collision technology which stands to become a critical part of the entire industry. Sadly however, I'm not one of the "in crowd" so, regardless of the value of the work I'm engaged in, I appear to be persona non grata. Perhaps I don't have enough capital behind me. Perhaps I don't suck up to the right authority figures - I don't know but it seems that CI is more talk (and schmoozing) than actual action when it comes to supporting the very hi-tech businesses that could be tomorrow's "big thing".

Based on my own experiences therefore, I suspect that CI is just another "old boys club" where the barrier to entry effectively excludes so many of those whose ideas, dedication and hard work remains unacknowledged and unvalued.

Which leaves just a couple of options for the kitchen-table techies who so badly want to turn their ideas into commercial realities:

They can try to crowdfund their projects -- but the results of that probably depend more on their marketing abilities than their technical ones.

Or, they can look to makerspaces as a way to get at least some of the technical help and resources they need to "make it happen".

After being contacted this week by the local with his vortex propeller ideas, I was seriously thinking of setting up a makerspace here in Tokoroa -- because I know of a number of other locals who also have good ideas but no way to implement them. On reflection, I have decided not to. Given the way the local council pays nothing more than lip-service to so many of the initiatives that would help pull this town's arse out of the fires of recession, growing unemployment and a failing economy, I expect that creating a makerspace would be fraught with roadblocks and obstacles introduced solely because of my involvement.

To be honest, I'm starting to think that Tokoroa is a lost cause for anyone other than beneficiaries and those with "friends" in council. Tragic but, in my honest opinion -- true.

Please visit the sponsor!

Have your say in the Aardvark Forums.

PERMALINK to this column

Rank This Aardvark Page

Change Font