A couple of weeks ago I had the honor of speaking at the BIF 3 conference in Providence, RI. Walt Mossberg and I discussed simple software, feature creep, and why the software industry is structured to churn out big software.
Watch the 20-minute interview. Photo by: Michelle Riggen-Ransom.
What’s BIF?
BIF (Business Innovation Factory) is a wonderful organization head up by a great guy named Saul Kaplan. Saul is one of those guys who lives for innovation. He loves seeing it, he loves hearing about it, and he loves implementing it. He embraces Rhode Islands’ main constraint: Its small size. He sees it as an opportunity to position Rhode Island as a controlled testbed of innovation. And the Business Innovation Factory is at the center of this innovation storm.
BIF-3, like BIF-1 and 2 before it, was about stories. Each storyteller had 15 minutes on the stage talking about something that inspired them, something that helped them innovate. Past speakers included Dean Kamen, Richard Saul Wurman, John Seely Brown, Jane Fulton Suri, and plenty of others making a real difference. This year they added interviews by Walt Mossberg and Bill Taylor to the mix.
I didn’t attend BIF-1 or BIF-2, but BIF-3 was amazing, enlightening, and inspiring. The great thing about BIF is that they bring people from different industries together to share their stories. This is not a technology conference, it’s a conference about ideas that can come from anywhere.
Some of my favorite talks from BIF-3
Colonel Dean Esserman talks about knowing your beat cops like you know your doctor. Nationally recognized as a leader in public safety innovation, Providence’s Chief of Police has revamped the city’s crimefighting force and sucessfully replaced the department’s traditional methods with a new community policing concept.
Denise Nemchev talks about inventing a nail that can save billions of dollars and millions of lives. Nemchev is President of Stanley Bostitch, a Division of the Stanley Works. The Stanley Works is a worldwide supplier of tools, hardware and security solutions for professional, industrial, and consumer use. Stanley Bostitch is a $600M division of SWK headquartered out of East Greenwich, Rhode Island employing nearly 3,000 people world-wide.
Clayton Christensen talks about education, health care, disruptive innovation and fearing the 12 year olds. Christensen is the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. His research and teaching interests center on managing innovation and creating new growth markets. A seasoned entrepreneur, Christensen founded three successful companies: CPS Corporation, Innosign, and Innosign Capital. Christensen is also author or co-author of five books and is presently completing two books concerning the problems of our health care and public education systems.
Mark Cuban is interviewed by Walt Mossberg on a variety of topics. Cuban is an active investor in leading and cutting-edge technologies and owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Prior to his purchase of the Dallas Mavericks, Cuban co-founded Broadcast.com, the leading provider of multimedia and streaming on the Internet. Today, in addition to his ownership of the Mavericks, Cuban is also Chairman of the high-definition television station HDNet which he launched in 2001. HDNet is the world’s first national television network broadcasting all of its programming in 1080i high-definition television (HDTV).
More and more
You can see all the talks from the conference online. I would highly recommend checking out a future BIF conference if you can. Providence is a cool town, the speakers are top notch, and you’ll definitely come away inspired.
Also, special thanks to Jack Templin and the Providence Geeks for inviting me to speak at their event while I was in town. Extra special thanks also go out to Tori Drew and Christine Flanagan for their magical organizational efforts.
Ronald
on 31 Oct 07Did he surprise you a bit by disagreeing with you? I think you fielded the interview quite well. Nice work.
Mike
on 31 Oct 07Very cool. I’m usually not a big 37s cheerleader but I really liked what you had to say. It reminds me when my wife and I have to make a joint household decision (which paint color, which couch, etc.) and it is a decision I don’t agree with, my first response is “Democracy sucks.”
brad
on 31 Oct 07I thought it was interesting you said the Open Source community is not opinionated enough. Mark Shuttleworth seems like quite an opinionated individual to me, as do Miguel de Icaza and company at Novell. Perhaps you were referring to the appearance of User Interfaces in software, but diminishing the zeal of Open Sourcers would be in error I believe.
brad
on 31 Oct 07Sorry about the double post. I just thought this was interesting to contrast with Matt’s post from a couple of days ago (here) in terms of democracy within a company.
Peter
on 31 Oct 07Walt Mossberg is so full of himself – he should’ve let Jason talk more! At one point, I wasn’t sure who was interviewing who – very, very painful.
matt
on 31 Oct 07@brad
agreed….i dont think any one would say theo de raadt isn’t opinionated. i think the main issue Jason alluded to which was that “design” in open source is an afterthought; however, I don’t believe design is an afterthought. I think the developers are saying “We could give 2 shits about the user interface” because … surprise… they are designing for people like themselves where a command line and / or brutal interface is fine as long as the software is stable / reliable / performant.
Killian
on 31 Oct 07I recommend Clayton Christensen’s books “The Innovators Solution” and “The Innovators Dilemma” for most any 37signals reader.
These where the first (possibly last) business books that I read and didn’t think to myself how totally full of baloney they were.
Kieran
on 31 Oct 07On the whole ‘simple’ thing, do you not find it frustrating when things are that simple you cant seem to get it to work for you? For example add an entry to basecamp milestones but you want it recurring, not possible – does that and other missing features not drive any one else mad or is it just me?
Mimo
on 31 Oct 07@ Peter. You are right. That is what i thought. But anyway. If you follow svn you have heard what Jason said.
Des
on 31 Oct 07@Kieran – I’m not sure that milestones should re-occur.
Weekly progress reports aren’t really milestones in a project. What you are supposed to present or have achieved by that week is the milestone.
Deano
on 01 Nov 07The old man likes to hear himself talk doesn’t he? Was it supposed to be a conversation or not?
Dude
on 01 Nov 07This interview made me feel really good. You are a great leader Jason.
Jamal
on 01 Nov 07Amazing Jason, how did you end up thinking that way?
Vinícius Teles
on 01 Nov 07Jason, this interview was awesome. Really cool!
Adam Gretencord
on 01 Nov 07I liked the bit of insight into Mark Cuban’s interest in purchasing the Cubs:
Christine Flanagan
on 01 Nov 07Thanks so much for your kind words Jason! We hadn’t done the interview format with Walt before and you had the honor of going first. You brought your A game and then some…it was a thoughtful conversation that definitely hit a lot of nerves.
I think Mark Cuban summed it up best when he said that every morning he wakes up knowing there’s some 12-year old out there trying to kick his ass.
It’s that mindset coupled with your ‘execute on the basics brilliantly’ approach to innovation that should keep 37signals around for a very long time.
Matt Brown
on 01 Nov 07I don’t care for that old guy’s interviewing style. He rambles on too much. I watched him interview Gates and Jobs. The interviewee has to compete for the floor rather than having a nice balanced flow to the conversation.
Curt Mills
on 01 Nov 07Excellent interview Jason, you got what you needed in there and hit all the key talking points that show what 37 signals is about.
I really appreciate the mindset 37 signals brings to the table, keep up the great work.
Anonymous Coward
on 01 Nov 07Walt is a great journalist but a terrible interviewer.
Sky Mayhew
on 01 Nov 07That felt alot more like 15 minutes of Walt talking than a 20 minute interview with Jason. Very well played however.
Dave
on 04 Nov 07Jason – Your talk/interview was one of the high points in a great conference. Thanks for hanging out with us Providence Geeks for an evening. Come back to PVD anytime!
This discussion is closed.