Let's Catch Some Crooks with a safety PIN

Let's use the automated teller machines against the criminals.

For all the crime that includes forcing people to go to an ATM and withdraw money for criminals, a secondary, emergency (safety) PIN would be a wonderful thing the financial system could do to help victims.

If customers had the option to create a safety PIN that would access their account, BUT also alert police to the location and keep the video, we could save people, catch criminals, and enhance the community image of financial institutions.

I read too many news articles about people being forced to go to the ATM with crooks to get money or to give their PIN and bank card to criminals. This would at least give law enforcement a better chance to catch crooks.

When you get an account or bank card, you create a PIN. For example purposes say it is 1234. You also need an option to create an emergency PIN to trigger safety protocols, for this example - 5678. If you ever use the 5678 safety PIN, your account “works” to the outside world, but it triggers actions behind the scenes. The customer has a better chance to survive. Law enforcement has a better odds to capture the criminals. Once the process becomes widespread, it is another deterrent to crime. If you want to go a step further, when the emergency PIN is entered, put a message on the screen that withdrawals are limited at this time due to some technical issue.

One rule for customers, no safety PINs with 911 in them. It's a little too obvious.

Law enforcement should have additional ideas to close the loop on the crooks, but this would be a start. Bankers, let's make safety PINs!

STEM-ulating Action

It's been awhile since I have stopped to blog. However, my recent concern about the need to expose more students to Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) options moved me to act. Kids need to be exposed to different things before high school & college. Exposure helps students to gain clarity on things they like and things they don't. It's easy to locate interesting things via the internet. It's tricky to get those things in front of interested students. After trying some traditional routes to share information, I realized someone new needed to put a plan into action.

No one stopped me, so I'll be responsible for the content of a 6 session STEM class for middle schoolers in Atlanta. Thanks to the help of people that understand educational rigor more than I do, we should bring some insight and STEMergy to the class.

I'll even share some of my thoughts here just in case someone else wants to try this in the future.

At a minimum, the students will be exposed to some physical science, robotics, project management, and the ups and downs that come with innovation & creativity. I know I'll learn something (k)new during the journey.

Preparing for the class, I needed to come up with a way to inflate a balloon in approximately one minute. Some ways work better than others. This was the 3rd method attempted.

A bit too quick, but it does get better...just cannot show that yet. The kids need to figure it out.

We've got work to do, but I take inspiration from the letter Q & some quadcopters.

Bye Blackberry

This weekend I let my Blackberry go. After years of wating for better options where Apple (iOS) & Google (Android) had passed them by, I finally stopped waiting.

I loved having the biggest screen on my monochrome Blackberry 6200. It was cool when the RIM team gave me color. I went to the little Pearl & back to a full QWERTY keyboard. However, the dominant team in the early 2000s slowed down as the new guys came to market. As I got older, and I wanted a larger screen. Apple & Google responded with bigger screens. RIM finally put a large, touch screen Blackberry into play with Verizon, but at that time I was on a contract with another...and all the major carriers had non-RIM, large screen options.

CNET does a great job showing Blackberry through the years.

He Stood, He Delivered, He Will Be Missed

Almost everyone has a teacher in their formative years that made school special. I was fortunate enough to have several special teachers. Sometimes we are even moved by teachers we never had, but heard about. For me, Jaime Escalante was one of those teachers. I never met him. I never knew him. I did see his movie, Stand and Deliver. It really made me appreciate in a broader sense what it means to be called to share your passion.

Mr. Escalante died on March 30th. He will be missed by many.




It also leads me to ask the average person, have you used your passion to have a significant, positive impact on someone? Mr. Escalante touched the lives of many through teaching.

zomm

Earlier today, I was listening to the radio. The guy mentioned how some things just strike you as special pretty quickly. It doesn't take days for it to sink it, you see it and you get it. It is the stuff of great ideas. Not too fancy, not too complex, just good stuff.

While wandering about the internet today, I got knocked over by one of those great ideas.

I have ZOMM love!

Even though I cannot even get one yet, I saw the slickest useful technology idea. I need one. I want to give one to some folks I know because they often cannot find their mobile phones.

Without working all the bells & whistles, just imagine a bluetooth device for your phone that is part speaker phone and part phone locator. Now I can find the dumb thing when it slips between the sofa cushions and I don't notice.

I even had to tweet about this. I hear that you can see something about it on the Today Show this Thursday (1/28), but this CNN video did enough to confirm my interest...and it includes some other fun stuff from the Consumer Electronics Show.


Now why didn't I (or you) think of this!

Twitter is now on the menu

Earlier this year, there was a Why I Don't Twitter post.

All of those facts are still valid for me. However, I have discovered that there is an entire business opportunity that aligns well with social media.

Without sending a single tweet, you can find all sorts of information, including coupons, special deals, customer service, and professional tools.

For me, Twitter is not about the question, What are you doing, but it is about the question What do you know that might be useful to me.

As you will see in the near future, it also allows me to blog more often. Twitter helps with one of my basic business rules. You have to meet people where they are. The younger, more technologically adept customer is hanging out in social networks.

Twitter is definitely a part of my evolving Technology Action Plan (TAP)

Healthcare in small chunks, part 3

How are WE paying for healthcare?

Some of the terms below (red plan, green plan) originated earlier in this series of healthcare posts. If you are not familiar, just jump back and check them out.

I could go uber policy wonk and dive into the federeal budget. But let's be real, the average person does not want that level of detail. Here's an extremely short version of health care cost savings from the White House. You can determine how much you believe the numbers and your interest level. Consequently, I wanted to think about funding health care in simpler terms. It's about money from inside the system and outside the system.

Inside money comes from cost savings based on things that we do within the healthcare system. If you used to buy a medicine for $3/pill and you now get it for $2/pill, there is a $1/pill cost savings. You multiply that by the number of these pills used in a year and that is your annual cost savings. The trick is to only count the real cost savings and not the fake ones. A fake one would be a savings of $1 per interoffice call if the price of the call truly stays inside of the hospital. If the cost savings does not show in a reduced cost from the phone company that provides the service, it is a false savings.

There is a lot of money to be saved inside the system. While I prefer that the government stay out of competitive, private industry things, when they do get involved, the Feds MUST get cost savings inside of the healthcare system based on the large quantities they control. This is true for medicines, medical tests, and all sorts of activities that support the basic (previously called red level plan) healthcare. The same is true for all of the current medicare & medicaid level healthcare.

Here is an example of how that inside savings can work for private companies. I need a medical test and for some reason get a 2nd opinion. Let's use the same information when possible instead of running the tests again. If the test are run again, let's have a follow up step to determine the value of the additional testing. If it is a low value test, the reimbursement for that testing is split--some to the testing organization and most to the red level fund. Now wasted tests are helping to pay for basic levels of healthcare. Either the testing becomes more efficient and effective or it helps to fund healthcare for those that cannot afford it. Either way, the system gets better.

One other area that could save money and improve healthcare in the long run is centralized patient information. Instead of relying on the memory of a sick person, let's put all of that healthcare information in a centralized place where medical professionals can access it. We would save money on record keeping. The severe downside is privacy and how the information might get (mis)used. If you want an extreme example, see the movie, Gattaca. You could let people opt out of the system, but they would be responsible for the storage, cost, and accuracy of their own records. No chance to sue the doctor who got the wrong medical information from you.

On the public side, few if any people want to pay more taxes. In reality, the people that have the most resources are probably least in need of healthcare reform. It is politically unpopular to put the burden of healthcare expenses on people with fewer funds. We often turn away from the fact that it is easier to get $1 from the average family than it is to get $1 million dollars from a rich person. There are only so many rich people to go around. How do we balance these concerns for a shared sacrifice? I'd suggest a combination of a consumption tax that impacts everyone and a tax on the high end (green level plan) medical services that are more optional than necessary.

That's my 2 cents on paying for healthcare. Is it enough to make change? Ask your congressperson and senators--soon.

Healthcare in small chunks, part 2

Levels of care

When it comes to healthcare, some folks want a lot and others want little to none. Most want something in between. I see the goal of healthcare for all as a way to provide a decent minimum option. Individuals will view as an acceptable minimum differently.

Classify healthcare in 3 levels. There will be multiple plans in each level, but the core of the plans are similar in each level.

It's easy to use traffic lights because people are very familiar with them.

The minimum level would be red. This will establish what you get if you are not in an existing health plan. This is the only level that has a lot of governmental intervention. Mostly because the federal governemnt would be actively involved in paying for these services and determining what you get in the red level plans. Many of these services will be preventative, optional services that improve your chances for healthy living. Much of this could be done by medical professionals that are not doctors, such as nutritionists, physicians assistants, nurse practitioners, dental hygenists, etc. Doctors would be used for real medical issues beyond colds and the actual critical care that is needed for emergencies and significant health issues. No more stops at the emergency room to get basic care because someone lacks insurance.

The primary front of the red plans would be cost effective health care clinics and true emergency services. The second level would be referred health services for more significant problems. There are few primary care physicians in this plan.

The next level would be yellow. There are more elective features in this level. Many of these plans would fit traditional ranges of healthcare insurance as most people know it through their employers. The primary front would be the traditional primary care physicians. There would also be choices for the same services. (Examples--choice of color for cast here, no choice in red plan. Fewer options means less inventory management costs for red plan. From a quality of care level, there might be more access to choice. In yellow, you can get a thinner, more expensive eyeglass lens that is included in the price of the plan. In red, you would have to pay extra if you wanted the more advanced lens.)

The top level would be green. The highest levels of services are here and likely include many elective procedures and higher levels of availability. For what you pay, there is even more choice and service levels included in the plan.

Ultimately the tiers would be identified by price, not by service. Much of the healthcare debate is about the funds to provide services. If the average person could get 24/7 coverage with house calls from a great medical group for 1/2 the price of their current insurance, I think they would run to that deal.

The policy makers would have to figure out the numbers, but it might break out as 25% red, 65% yellow, 10% green.

These estimates are based on the following assumptions. Red plan would be uninisured people under 65 + medicare/medicaid people + a few folks who see this plan as superior to their current insurance and buy into the plan. Yellow plan would be most of the currently insured with decent to very good health plans. (Maybe those plans that would get D+/C- to B+ grades for cost.) The green plans would the the A plans.

Here are some healthcare stats via the CDC that may help you get a better feel for some of the details.

Bottom line, everyone gets access to real healthcare, but not quite the same as it has been done in the past for those who are on the public plan. Next part of this deal--how do we pay for it. It's more complex than letting the federal government keep printing paper money.

Healthcare in small chunks, part 1

Lot’s of chatter out there about health care reform. A complete look at the topic exceeds the reasonable space of any blog. I have decided to put my 2 cents into the discussion in small pieces.

The debate is messy for one of the same reasons that education reform is a messy topic. For the most part, the people that get the service are not the people directly paying the service providers. Also, you can pay a variety of prices for the same basic service. For fun, let’s look at our healthcare through an analogous look at our eating habits.

Imagine the uproar if you went to your favorite fast food place, the Greasy Glutton, and ordered your preferred meal. However, before your price came up, there were discussions about your place of employment, the level of food plan you chose during the enrollment period, and other factors that helped them to price your meal. That’s what we do with healthcare.

Digging a little deeper, imagine if more of that pricing was dependent on your employer. For those more health conscious employers, questions come up about your exercise patterns and quantity of unhealthy food you have eaten in the past month. The worse your diet, the more you pay for the greasy meal.

If you eat at the Healthy Hut, the questions might be the same, but the pricing would be better. The better your diet, the more of a chance that you will be a healthy and productive worker.

Much of this links back to the risk you present to the employer, and more importantly, the company that manages the risk and pays for your food (or healthcare.) The insurance companies are usually the groups with the money that influence behavior based on how and why they allocate funds to the service providers.

What to do, what to do?

Do we get healthcare for all?

Do we get healthcare for some?

How much healthcare do you really want?

If there is no additional cost, the answers will still vary by person. Some people like to have the comfort of a medical professional while others just don’t like doctors, hospitals and the associated structure. Some folks will gladly accept some things from the local drug store and be done. Others want a 4^th opinion on the sore throat.

As I lead into the next chunk, I believe the basic look of public healthcare is already out there. We just don’t use it widely…yet.

Did You Know - Innovation Happens

A few years ago a Technology Director at a high school in CO, Karl Fisch, created some presentations that took a look at technology and its increasing impact on education and innovation.

Today, I looked at a slicked up version of his most noted work that was done for a business meeting in 2008. Sure it's a cool presentation, but it also does a fine job of sharing some of the ways that recent technology advancements have had a big impact on us.



If you continue to keep your eyes and ears open, these things are here to stay and the pace of change will only accelerate. How do we get the next generation ready for things that the prior one could barely imagine? I suggest that we do more to capture and maintain the creativity of youth that is not bound by the rules of society.

Imagine some words you may have heard if you could have been there when these folks were young...

If the world is flat, maybe we should go check out the edges. - Little Christopher Columbus (future explorer)

I think I could find lots of fun stuff to do if I could keep the candle on all the time. Little Humphrey Davy, then little Thomas Edison (the guys that linked the light bulb and the idea)


I think I can make computers do things with these programming codes. - Litlle Bill Gates

All were a bit on the edge of the rules. They tinkered with things in out of the way places. They challenged the norms of society to do things differently. What they came up with made significant impact in the world.

Kids, keep dreaming and parents, give them the latitude to pursue those ideas...otherwise we might be stuck putting our thoughts into stone.

Another bit of insight from Karl Fisch and his blog. What if...

Newco Motors

Innovation has been on my mind. Let's look at the other side of it.

The motor vehicle industry is struggling. Even the good ones are having a tough time. If you are honest with yourself, how often does the average person need to buy a new car? Buying used cars help dealerships, but they don't justify manufacturing more new vehicles. There is an overcapacity of auto manufacturing. If an auto manufacturer goes bankrupt, I do not expect to see the company return...unless...some insightful new organization is ready to change the game.

That means a company or group of companies that are ready to change the way we look at the cash flows related to automobile ownership.

Imagine you purchase a Newco mobile. At Newco, they have models that look like your standard cars, but the deal is different. For the price you pay they bundle in certain things that link you to their big organization. In addition to the standard warranty, they include maintenance and insurance for X years. Newco provides you with some additional services (think OnStar) that are bundled into the price of the car. Maybe they bring some other services to the table that car buyers have to purchase or have demonstrated that they will pay for over time.

Newco is an organization setup by an insurance company, a finance company, possibly an oil/fuel station company and a major auto repair organization. They sell the cars to make real money off the services. It is similar to the way companies sell printers to make significant profits from the ink replenishment. The same way that the profit is in the razor blade sales much more than the razor sales. The difference is that their auto industry profit is bundled into the purchase terms.

Changing the game happens, but often we miss the key moment that tips the scales. Look at how you spend the part of your household budget called communications. Thirty years ago, this was mainly a black telephone and its related service that was tied to your home. Now it is a combination of home service w/o equipment, mobile phones for almost everyone, and internet. It is also likely a larger percentage of your budget than the black phone was in the 1970s.



The next big industry shift is moving fast. Do we see it?

N - O - V8

There are difficulties with the economy, education, and other areas of life. One of the common themes I hear is that innovation will make it better. While I believe that innovation is the way to a better future, I do wonder how much we support the efforts to innovate.

BusinessWeek had an interesting article on innovation and the role of government.

While I question the need for more bureaucracy, I could see an expanded opportunity to actively encourage more innovation through the Departments of Commerce and Education. Seems like the government is already bankrolling some nonpartisan efforts on innovation.

Educationally, professionally, or personally those who innovate are less common. In the development of innovation they are likely to be less appreciated. It is only with the confirmation of success that society gives credit for innovation.

Think about your TV recordings. Did digital TV recording start in the late 1990s? Think again--it's middle aged!

There are businesses that do a great job of turning innovation into products, services, and profits. They change the game in ways that create greater prosperity and convenience. Fast Company tracks and recognizes innovative businesses annually.

Let's roll those innovation thoughts over to K-12 education. Once you have the basics, how should your education evolve? We will get into more of these ideas in future postings. We see examples of educational innovation in people that challenge the educational status quo. I think about charter schools and new private schools and new types of assignments that are unfamiliar to their parents from their time in the same level of school. For now, let focus on personal uniqueness as a route ot innovation.

Standardized testing usually doesn't measure your capacity to create innovative solutions. Innovators tend to use common ideas in uncommon ways. Think about ways that you are uncommon.

• How did you develop those unique skills?
  
• How do you use your uncommon skills?
  
• What innovative things do you use now that you did not touch a few years ago?

For example, mobile phones are commonplace now. The commercially available portable phone was an innovation. When they were big and bulky, they were new. Once the price and size shrunk, they gained more widespread acceptance. The smaller, smarter phone was another step. Blackberrys, iPhones, Google phones and their apps are innovations that feed off each other and challenge the innovators to dig deeper.

Sometimes business innovation is simply repackaging something you have already done in a way that is more publicly acceptable. Let's get it started?

Is It Creativity

When you tweak things off an original idea--is that creativity?

Earlier today I got that Nike Sparq commercial stuck in my head.

There is the short version which has creative word play and the longer version (here) with the catchy tune.



As parody will do, there are knock offs like this and also this

"My fatter is fatter than your fatter"

What's my point?

In the business world, we tend to look down on copycat organizations from a development standpoint because they didn't create, they only copy or tweak. This is particularly true of service businesses. You better copy the good ideas of competitors or be left behind. Imagine an airline without a frequent flier program.

However, from a consumer view, there is love for similarity because it makes things more price competitive and easier to compare.

And finally, a point I'll save for a future blog--there really are not that many groundbreaking unique ideas. We all tweak a lot.

That commercial is good in part because of the links to sports. The original song was done in 2004.

Judge, I'm Gonna Be Starting Something

Should I work on the game project, my meeting prep, cleaning up my office, my website revisions, or my first blog?

Blog wins. First topic--Jury Duty.

Why?

Guess where I had the time to make a few notes.

For the record, I think jury duty is a good thing. Most folks should do it instead of trying to get out of it. If you ever had the misfortune of being in court would you want to see folks you think are reasonable in the jury box or all the folks that spend their days watching:

• TV justice (pick your favorite judge)
• the 58th rerun of ______
• the third DNA test for that baby's daddy
• talk show host ___ discuss teen serial killers who each lost 80+ lbs in less than 6 months

I don't want these folks making up the majority of the jury pool. I do want reasonable people there. I was called into the courtroom with about 50 other folks. During the time we waited, lot's of things happened. It took 1 1/2 days to pick the jury. Most individual parts of that time were done in about 10 minutes. The group activities took about 45 minutes. So most of us got 2 days jury pay for about an hour of work and a lot of waiting.

I did not get selected. I was glad because I needed to be in NYC a few days later. The judge said the case would probably take a day or less. Reading between the lines, the defendant was either very guilty or very innocent. Someone (witnesses/alibi?) was going to make this one easy.

Here's an idea to make this work a little better for all of us.

Send everyone a jury summons at the same time. Let us phone in or use the internet to pick multiple dates (say five one week periods) that should work for us to serve. Fill the waiting room when it appears to be good timing for the jury folks. Backfill spaces where you are short with the regular method for all those people who were too busy to call in or login.

Put people to work on the first morning. Keep us busy doing something. If you are not put into a jury pool, let me learn something about how the courts work in my town/county. (Remember, that jury pay comes from your taxes. Get some value out of it.) You could put 500 people though the group part of jury selection answering questions for a bunch of (5-15?) trials at one time. Maybe I don't fit trials #3, 6 or 9, but would be a good juror for #2, 5, and 10. Now you can start individual questions with potential jurors that qualify for the lowest number of trials.

With creative thought and some wise use of technology, jury duty could become more effective and efficient.

There are other ideas to update this process from folks that know more about it than me. I am not a lawyer. I didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. I just know there should be a better way to impanel a jury when the stakes are quite high for the people in court.


Michael Jackson gets credit for the title. The song has nothing to do with the post--unless you were actually in my jury pool. In that case you say, hey wasn't that case about...