Times are tough and you hear it a lot. Yet when I hear someone utter that familiar phrase I can’t help thinking of a word that means a lot to our work: Participant. With the state of the financial system, the automakers, real estate, investors, 401k’s and just about every sector feeling the pain of this downturn we are left wondering if our system works. In recent weeks the world has had cause to ponder if America really has all the trouble we seem to, if our competitive advantage is gone then... Who are we? Who are we? What will our economic engine be? What do we offer? What defines us?
I have one simple answer: We are all participants. And that is our economic engine. Being a participant is powerful and it should not be underestimated how unqiue our current position is. At no other time in history has the world been such a village, been so connected where one person has the ability to effect so many. In other economic troubles we were largely alone in the dark. Today, we can participate together and know it. We can see the course and correct as needed before it is too late. Most importantly we get to do this together as a network.
We are all collaborators in this world through the internet and the networks that have already been established along with the doctrine of Collective Intelligence we are now harnessing. And Americans have a great opportunity because we spend more time online than any other country in the world. We have been crafted to be perfect engines in this new world. We have a share in this global village larger than anyone else and that is a responsibility as well as the opportunity we need to square the foundations. While we have no way of knowing what is ahead, we can use the information at hand to make the best decisions possible. Moving forward it is crucial that the structure of our economy harness the strength of a great American innovation... The collaborative Network.
We are all waiting for the markets to settle and flatten so we can catch our breath, but in the meantime we are left wondering what do to. The sense of staying still is almost a panic in itself. The best advice I can give you is to take this time to develop your online network of people, innovators and collaborators. Your greatest challenge will be reaching a critical mass of people connected to one another and then managing the relationships.
I do have a suggestion and a place where some of you can test out your connections, develop new working relationships and practice solving a real problem. We at CIMIT have created a competition for you to change the problems in our Healthcare System, specifically in Primary Care Medicine. Dn't forget that competition is powerful, especially with the interactive tools available today, and we will be funding the solutions you innovate with three prizes of $150,000, $100,000 and $50,000.
Come back to the blog on Dec 1, 2008 for a subsequent post
with detailed information on the CIMIT Prize for Primary Care Medicine.
More information is available on our webpage www.cimit.org and a collaborative environment on our CIMIT Facebook page so you can create networks and work together. The competition is open to Graduate and Undergraduate students from any accredited engineering school in the country.
Now is the time for you to make the changes in healthcare you want. We will help you.
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