Comments on: Arizona’s Entrepreneurial Song

By: skeptic prof

skeptic prof — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 03:17:56 +0000

Hmm. ASU is faced with closing campuses, and skysong really in the valley is seen as yet another one of Michael Crow’s follies. “Synergy” is a great “C level” idea (along with multi and interdisciplinarity and “centers for innovation”) but the payoffs of the nation’s multi-billion dollar investments in these and other ideas seems..well, tiny. And gosh, we could have invested in faculty research at a broader cross-section of U.S. universities…where innovation has really lived and bloomed for 50 years. I just don’t get the motivation, and the ex-post facto analyses of any science investment in the U.S. has been terrible and loaded with vested interests. Read NSF’s puff pieces on the outcomes from their “crucial” investments in nanotechnology…whoo boy. How about continuing to invest in proven technology that has actually worked…geez, is that too obvious?? Or maybe just not “baby boomer legacy” enough? :-)

By: Yasuyuki

Yasuyuki — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:18:54 +0000

This is mostly a description of the generic objectives of SkySong. How it implements its strategies and why this center is different from others are not clear to me. There are hundreds of university-affiliated incubation centers in the nation, and half of them will say exactly what you described above, yet many do not succeed. How and why is your center different?

By: George

George — Sat, 16 May 2009 13:23:55 +0000

This is the most thoroughly coordinated program structures, not only for innovation, but also for tying R&D to long term plans for commercialization with potential capital associates that I’ve yet seen in daily searches of media across the country. ASU leadership is to be commended for forsight as well as execution

By: Gangplank

Gangplank — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:09:31 +0000

While this is a great commercial written by people directly vested in Sky Song, I am not sure it paints an accurate picture. Sky Song in idea is laudable and in practice it is trying. For the cash expenditure and amount of focus I would tend to consider it a horrible flop to date. I think the money spent could have probably done better in the terrible stock market.

By: Patrick McCray

Patrick McCray — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:52:40 +0000

An interesting piece but I would have benefited more from some discussion about how ASU and other area institutions are weathering the national (and AZ state) budget crisis and how this affects plans for innovation.