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Euskadi an industrial country. Utopia or reality?
Can the industrial strength of the Basque Country be maintained in the next decades? The official speeches answer the question in the affirmative and conspire to enhance the character and industrial potential of the Country. Reality requires us, as always, a much finer and more nuanced analysis: Following the pattern of developed countries(*), industry in…
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The YPlan app: a simple idea and an excellent execution
A few weeks ago Techcrunch was featured on the news of the $12 million investment in the startup YPlan, which develops a mobile app for London nightlife. The company had already received an investment of 1.7 million dollars in 2012 to seek to be the benchmark in the dissemination and reservation of night events (parties,…
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Smart cities facing the challenge of climate change
Smart City Expo Wrold Congress 2012, what was exhibited on the environment (II): climate change At the end of last year I had the opportunity to attend the Smart City Expo World Congress, organized by Fira de Barcelona, to produce a series of articles on the environment and energy that synthesized the most relevant aspects…
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Crisis in Tecnalia. Where is the government?
Photographs of Tecnalia workers fighting for their jobs of work are a tremendous blow to the eyes of the industrial and technological Basque Country. And I am not referring to the layoffs themselves, to those affected we transfer our support and closeness from here. These adjustments have not been the first nor will they be…
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Meet earl, a niche tablet for the adventurous community
This week I met Earl, a startup that stands out for its differential focus on multiple dimensions. The project stands out extraordinarily in its conception, financing and commercialization. Earl is a special tablet that is targeted at the mountaineering community. It stands out in its conception because it attacks a market segment that seems underexploited…
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Smart City Expo Wrold Congress: what was exhibited on the environment in 2012 (I)
At the end of last year I had the opportunity to attend the Smart City Expo World Congress, organized by Fira de Barcelona, to create a series of articles on environmental and energy issues that will synthesize the most relevant aspects of each session. The thematic sessions on the environment at the Smart City Expo…
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Waze is not just an app
This week, after various purchase rumors of< a href="http://www.waze.com/">Wazefinally the news broke: Waze is bought by Google for 1,500 million dollars. For those who believe that Waze is just an app or do not understand why it can be worth 1.5 billion dollars, I will try to provide some keys that I think are important…
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Smart specialization for the automotive industry: advanced manufacturing, sustainable mobility and foreign implementation
Here is a practical exercise to illustrate an example of selecting fields of smart specialization in the Basque Country. The approach is relevant because this is one of the industrial policy guidelines chosen by the Basque Government for the coming years (see). The exercise begins by choosing a key sector, to then look at the…
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StudyBlue seeks the opportunity between mobility, crowdsourcing and learning
This week I would like to talk about a startup that I have been following for a while ago and whose model interests me especially: StudyBlue. StudyBlue was founded in 2009, is based in Wisconsin (USA), and has managed to pass the figure of two million users and attract $14.9 million in investment to develop…
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Specialize, but intelligently.
European industrial policy is committed to < em>smart specialization as a way to improve productivity and create employment. And, in this sense, it recommends that the regions implement “RIS 3” initiatives that serve to focus resources and public and private capacities in those economic activities in which they have specific competitive advantages at an international…