David Lidsky's Blog, page 4587

Report: U.S. Green Building Market Will Balloon to $173.5 Billion by 2015

Think the trend of businesses making green office renovations is just a passing fad? Not according to the latest issue of EL Insights, which reports that the U.S. green building market value will balloon from $71.1 billion now to $173 billion by 2015. Commercial green building is expected to grow by 18.1% annually during the same time period from $35.6
billion to $81.8 billion. In this case, green building is defined as building with resource use and employee productivity in mind.

The...

Pressure-Drawing Software From Ten One May Go in Apple's Pending Tray

Ten One is a New Jersey-based firm that deals with accessories for smartphones and tablets, with the odd bit of software thrown in for good measure. One of their products is the Pogo stylus, which can't have Steve Jobs that interested--the Apple CEO, after all, is a fan of the finger. However, they've come up with an idea for an app that, if given the thumbs-up at Cupertino, would make the iPad's drawing capabilities a whole lot more amazing.

The software allows artists to draw fatter or...

Blogs as 21st Century Newsies: The Guardian's Syndication Experiment

Even as competitors are busy bricking paywalls around their newspaper Web sites, desperately trying to keep the old business models running, the U.K.'s Guardian is taking a wholly different path. The paper has just introduced a free story syndication tool.

The tool is part of the paper's "Open Platform" initiative, and what it does is pretty amazing: If you're a publisher of a blog that uses Wordpress, you can now re-post Guardian articles directly on your blog. The Guardian is essentially...

Making of Touching Stories: Director Sean Ehringer Messes With "Sarah and Jerry"

Part video game, part immersive entertainment, Touching Stories is an app featuring four interactive films made for the iPad. We're focusing on each of the films and their directors this week. The final film is directed by Sean Ehringer.

It's a typical day for "Sarah and Jerry." Sarah sits on the couch of a comfy bungalow while you hear Jerry taking a shower in the other room. Sarah doesn't have anything to do, it seems like. She fidgets, flips through a book. Booo-ring, you think. What if...

Tapulous Tapped Up and Acquired by Disney Interactive

Tapulous, the firm responsible for iPhone hit Tap Tap Revenge and whose investors include
Justin Timberlake, has been scooped up by Disney. (Back to the Mouse House, Mr. FutureSex.) Tapulous called it a "remarkable day" and is no doubt looking forward to making lots of Miley Cyrus and Jonas Brothers apps.

Tapulous founder Bart Decrem will become a VP at Disney, and he sure is excited about it, telling TechCrunch that he'd be able to play with Marvel, ESPN, and Pixar, as well as Disney's...

Interview: Will Butler-Adams, CEO of Brompton Bikes

In an unprepossessing brick block, in an equally nondescript industrial estate on the West of London lies the factory and headquarters of Brompton Bicycles. It's tucked behind a Mercedes-Benz van depot, and I only know I'm in the right place because there are about five pretzel-shaped hunks of metal parked outside the door. Oh, and a bunch of twentysomething testers in slogan tees, bouncing around doing bunny hops and the like on recently finished Bromptons. It's like E.T., but without the...

BowWow, A Classy Update of The Jelly Shoe

Italian fashion house Moschino and furniture giant Kartell have produced a shockingly tasteful plastic ballet flat.

A Modest Proposal: The New "Declaration of Interdependence"

Steve McCallion proposes a new declaration that will take the U.S. into the next 100 years.

Summer Reading Picks From Dan Pink, Seth Godin, Eliot Spitzer, and More

Last week, there was a wonderful essay in The New York Times about a leadership program created by the old Bell System back in 1952. The all-powerful telephone company worried that its executives needed a broader perspective, not just on business but also on society, even life itself. "A well-trained man knows how to answer questions," one sociologist explained. "An educated man knows what questions are worth asking."

Working with the University of Pennsylvania, Bell launched the Institute...

What Is Too Much Information in an Information Age?

Jill Beraud, Pepsi's Chief Marketing Officer, answers this week's 30 Second MBA question.