I learned two two things this morning. I was watching a TED talk by Sugatra Mitra talk. He said the following:

Lesson # 1-- if you could be replaced by a machine you should be. Lesson # 2– if there is an interest, learning happens.

Real world connection: REI
REI sells the experience associated with outdoor recreation. Why do people go there if they’re actually more expensive. I can find it cheaper online and I can use blogs to help answer questions about what I need to camp in the Cascades. Why go there? Because 1. The people who work there LOVE the outdoor activity they are representing at the store. 2. They LOVE learning and sharing what they know. These are two things one needs to experience and feel. They want you to LOVE what you do, too. They want to help you through the details to get you to do what you love. Technology cants replace that. It can only support it. Secondly, they help evolve your interest into a passion. This has been my experience.

The add value to my experience and this makes me loyal. I feel better (even healthier) when I’m inside. I can’t explain this.

Question: how do you (or can you) provide remarkable experiences that add value to the experiences to the people around you?

________________________

Editor’s note: Ed Lu is a former NASA astronaut and current founder and CEO of the B612 Foundation. His mission is to build the world’s most powerful asteroid tracking system to find asteroids on a collision course with earth. Watch his full story this Saturday at 2:30p ET on CNN’s “The Next List.”

Next week on May 31, 2013, a 1.7 mile wide asteroid, 1998 QE2, will fly past the Earth at a distance of 3.6 million miles.

If this asteroid were to hit the Earth (don’t worry, it won’t this time), it would be the end of human civilization.  Think about that.  Not only would it kill billions of people, but it would take with it our very history. Gone would be our cities, our culture, our languages, our art, our music, our scientific knowledge — everything that we as a species have built up during the past 10,000 years. Gone in an instant.

Asteroid impacts are the only global scale natural disaster we know how to prevent. We have the technology to deflect asteroids, but we cannot deflect an asteroid that we haven’t found yet. This is why the B612 Foundation is building the Sentinel Space Telescope, the world’s most powerful asteroid detection and tracking system, to see the millions of asteroids we can’t see today and could pose threats to our planet.  The B612 Foundation is a nonprofit organization, dependent on private donations for our mission. We welcome you to join our efforts at the B612 Foundation and help protect not only our planet, but our future.

Welcome to this new blog in the cyber village.

The word ‘Boudhika‘ comes from Sanskrit and it means relating to mind. As you could see from the tag line of this blog, five core areas of interest in this blog (and the current focus areas of this blog!) are intellectual property, competition, innovation, sustainable development and biodiversity protection. All these areas are connected by information/ knowledge and this blog is also intended as a platform to share information/ knowledge that can build a better world. While these five areas may first sound as distant (and even contradictory at times!), I hope that this blog will show through years how closely inter-linked these areas are and how they should be used as the pillars for building a better tomorrow!! (or lets say that I am one of those nerds who still believe that these five areas are the joint foundations for sustainable development of any nation!!!!!!!)

I intend to use this blog more as a kind of online diary about the things I see and wish to discuss with you! I welcome your comments and suggestion on all posts. I hope to develop this blog as a concrete platform for dialogues and co-operation beyond national boundaries in this small world! You are absolutely free to express your disagreements with any of the views expressed in this blog. But kindly refrain from using the discussion forums as a platform for advocating/ advertising any religious/ political/ marketing initiatives and also please refrain from hate speech.

While I could have written this blog using my real name, I am opting to avoid using my real name here. The primary motivation behind this is to promote more free exchange of ideas through open discussions (In other words, the choice to remain anonymous is not out of fear of defamation suits, but more to encourage conversations within the blog ) If anyone strongly feels that s/he should know my name/ identify, please drop a comment with your email ID. I will contact you back from my email ID!

About me: I am a legal researcher who is highly interested in law and economics and empirical legal studies. My areas of specialisation are intellectual property law and competition law. I was born in India and I had most of my studies in India. I did my Ph.D abroad and I am currently doing my post-doctoral research also abroad (Lets keep the identity of those locations anonymous for the time being ! I hope to return to India and contribute in my own ways to make it a country that provides all its citizens the promises given in its great constitution:

“JUSTICE, social, economic and political;

LIBERTY, of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;

EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;

and to promote among them all

FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation.”

Welcome to boudhika.wordpress.com!

I think that this cartoon is incomplete.  It needs to end with mobile devices such as google glasses!  What do you think?

The ability to copy electronic code makes one-time pads vulnerable to hackers. Now engineers have found a way round this to create a system of cryptography that is invulnerable to electronic attack.

One-time pads are the holy grail of cryptography—they are impossible to crack, even in principle. They work by adding a set of random digits to a message thereby creating a ciphertext that looks random to any eavesdropper. The receiver decodes the message by taking away the same set of random digits to reveal the original message.

The security of this process depends on two factors. The first is the randomness of the digits that make up the one-time pad. If this key is truly random, it offers nothing the eavesdropper can use to break the code. Although there are some potential pitfalls, random digits are reasonably straightforward to generate these days. The second factor is the ability to keep this key secret so that only the transmitter and receiver have access to it. That’s much more difficult to ensure. Digital communication in the form of 0s and 1s makes copying trivial. Whenever a set of random digits is stored in an electronic memory, there is always a small but finite chance that it can be quickly copied and stolen.

Today, Roarke Horstmeyer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and a few buddies say they’ve solved this problem. Their solution is based on a special kind of one-time pad that generates a random key through the complexity of its physical structure. Instead of creating and storing the one-time pad as a random sequence of 0s and 1s, Horstmeyer and co generate a random signal by passing light through a slab of diffusing glass that scatters it randomly. The security of the system depends on the physical complexity of the glass. Horstmeyer and co say that that this complexity means there is no way for an eavesdropper, “Eve,” to copy the glass without anyone noticing.

That cuts out the need to store the key electronically and entirely removes this vulnerability to copying. “We describe an encrypted communication principle that can form a perfectly secure link between two parties without electronically saving either of their keys,” they say. And even if Eve steals the glass, they estimate that it would take her at least 24 hours to extract any relevant information about its structure.

This extraction can only be done by passing light through the glass at a rate that is limited by the amount of heat this creates (since any heating changes the microstructure of the material). And the time this takes should give the owners enough time to realise what has happened and take the necessary mitigating actions. The protocol for sending secret messages between “Alice” and “Bob,” say, is straightforward.  To start off, both Alice and Bob must have their own slabs of diffusing glass and must physically meet to create a key for encoding a message later. They create this by sending the same random pattern of light through their diffusing slabs and then adding the results to create a combined key. They then publish this combined key and the pattern used to create it.

To send a message, Alice sends the pattern through her slab to generate her half of the key and then adds it to her message.  She can now send this without fear that Eve can decode it. It’s important to remember that Alice’s random key is a component of the publicly available one. But Eve cannot use the publicly available key to work out what Alice’s key is.

Bob has to go through a slightly different set of steps to decode this cyphertext. First, having received the cyphertext, he adds it to the publicly available combined key. Next, he re-creates his own component of the publicly available key by sending the publicly available pattern through his slab. He then adds this to the result of the previous step to reveal the message. As long as both diffusing slabs are physically held by Alice and Bob, the cyphertext cannot be decoded by Eve.

Of course, this process can be used only once. But Alice and Bob can generate a huge volume of combined keys by passing different random patterns through their slabs when they meet. Horstmeyer and co have tested their idea using a spatial light modulator to create random patterns that they then pass through opal diffusing glass to generate about 10 gigabits of randomness. They then used this for sending perfectly secure messages, thereby demonstrating the utility of the technique. Nevertheless, improvements should be possible, they say.  For example, the team says that the system generates a small amount of noise caused by the natural drift of scatterers in the glass over time. But that’s something that should be possible to fix with error-correcting codes. And even thought this can only be used once, the slabs can be easily reset by heating the glass to change its microstructure at which point Alice and Bob must meet again to create a new set of combined keys.

That looks to be a significant improvement over any kind of cryptography that stores keys electronically and is therefore vulnerable to an electronic attack that can copy digital information perfectly. “Compared with a large, electronically saved one-time pad, [the new system’s]  key is extremely challenging to copy or model and can easily scale to provide terabits of repeatable randomness within a small volume,” say Horstmeyer and co. They have high hopes for this approach: “We hope the convenient properties of optical scattering can solve enough of the one-time pad’s practical shortcomings to rejuvenate interest in its unbreakable security, even in the presence of infinite computing resources.”

What they mean is that this system should be secure even to attack with future quantum computers. That’s not something that can be said about the codes commonly used to protect messages today. With quantum computers now beginning to perform some serious calculations, anybody still using these codes must be losing a significant amount of sleep.

Original source

More on physical key-protected OTP’s

The repayment of the DoE loans comes just weeks after Tesla reported its first profit after 10 years in the car-making business. And thanks to a stock offering last week that raised $1 billion, it was able to repay the balance of its federal loans.

Good.  Now the risk is in the Free Market instead of on the US taxpayers.  Good for you Tesla.

via Tesla Pays Off All $465M in Federal Loans 9 Years Early | Autopia | Wired.com.

“Because a real gun shooting plastic bullets is more fun than a plastic gun shooting real bullets,” he says. “You have to spend six hours printing a barrel that you’re going to use one time, and it’s not as much fun. It’s more about the enjoyment and the sport. And if you’re having to labor that much, then the enjoyment goes away.”

via Watch 3-D Printed Shotgun Slugs Blow Away Their Targets | Danger Room | Wired.com.

Consider a combo unit if you don’t have much space available for a separate washing machine and dryer. Select a tiny washer that can fit between two cupboards. A combo unit washes the clothes and when done switches to a dryer.

Sealant strips and draft excluders can really help prevent the escape of air through your doors. Draft excluders are made to fit on the bottom side of a door to prevent warm air from escaping and stop cold air from entering. Sealant strips can do the same thing by fitting in the door frames. Look for them in hardware stores.

To keep air from leaving through the doors, get some sealant strips and draft excluders. Draft protectors simply slide beneath a door to keep warm air from escaping and cool air from entering. Sealant strips fit around door frames and do the same function. Sealant strips can be purchased at most hardware stores.

Updating your kitchen appliances can be done on a reasonable budget. Meanwhile, stainless steel is all the rage, but why throw out your trusty fridge because the color doesn’t suit your taste? A simple spray paint application will allow you to make your appliances look however you want. You can change your kitchen in a few hours!

In some houses, basements often lack natural lighting. Plan your basement well so that it gets enough light coming in. If your basement is planned well, it might have taller walls. If that is the case, you should be able to put in windows to bring in natural light.

If you will be embarking on a DYI renovation, write a list with steps needed to complete the project, then have a builder or contractor review it. Even if you have to pay them a small fee, it will save you a bundle compared to the cost of a mistake.

Including handicap-friendly features in your bathroom is a great idea whenever you’re doing significant renovation work in that particular area. This is a good tip to use in case you plan to grow old and live in your house. The market value of your home will be significantly increased by improvements to the bathroom.

Installing all-new, complementary hardware can make your bathroom look a lot more attractive and modern, and the cost involved is eminently affordable. You can find matching fixtures in stores or online. These include towel racks, showers curtains, toilet paper holders and other things. Many retailers offer such fixtures in packages with coordinating patterns and colors which can all be in place within a few hours of starting this simple improvement project.

Basements generally don’t get much in the way of natural lighting. If you want your basement to be very comfortable, you should start with a good lighting plan. You may actually have tall walls that come up from the ground. If this is the case, you can install windows and you can get natural lighting into the basement.

Owning a home ensures some kind of improvement or renovation at one point or another. The real question is if they’ll be successful in that endeavor or not. Go right here

Before you install new hardwood floors, consult with a professional regarding the floors that are currently in your home. You might just have some very nice hardwood flooring way underneath whatever has been layered onto your floors, such as carpeting or linoleum. If this is the case, you’ll just need to strip the old carpet or flooring and refinish the natural floor underneath.

Drive nail holes in the rim of your paint can! The groove where the lids goes on metal cans of paint usually fills with paint, causing it to spill over the sides when you attempt to put the lid back on. Use a nail to make several holes all the way around the can’s perimeter into the channel’s bottom in order to fix this.

To help free up counter space, install an over-the-range microwave. You can find these type of microwave ovens in a variety of prices. Many of them have special features like convection cooking. However, these units often only provide a recirculating filter, so if you are a cook who needs a good ventilation system, you may need to look elsewhere.

If you have sharp furniture, you should put down some padding, which will keep children safe and make your home look nicer. You can protect sharp furniture edges by using foam tape or buying specific child safety corner protectors. Also, make sure that all loose wires are secure to avoid the chance that your child could be strangled by it.

In some houses, basements often lack natural lighting. Plan your basement well so that it gets enough light coming in. If your basement is planned well, it might have taller walls. If that is the case, you should be able to put in windows to bring in natural light.

Allow for a space to place the debris during your future projects. Removing a lot of debris can cost quite a bit, so planning for a space to put it in can keep your project running smoothly.

Use light colors to create a soothing atmosphere: purple, green or blue often work well. The furnishings should be primarily covered with linen fabrics. Avoid heavy fabrics, including brocade. To cap off the space of tranquility you’ve created, introduce harmonious scents to the room utilizing a little potpourri or a scented candle.

If your home has low ceilings, use window treatments to add the illusion of higher ceilings. Position your drapes and valances higher on the wall to elevate the look of your ceilings.

Padding sharp corners of furniture is a small improvement you can make that is especially important if you have young children. Corner protectors and foam tape are available to minimize those sharp corners and edges. Another thing that you should do is tape down loose wiring that can strangle your child.

Home improvement is more complicated than is commonly realized. Every project requires research and a unique set of tools, but you can handle almost anything with preparation. Once you put the above tips to use, you’ll be doing projects on your own in no time.
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At what point did leading a school through a continuous improvement process become so confusing? In my educational leadership classes, I spent a great deal of time focusing on what leadership is and developing a philosophy that would guide me. I thought I had it all figured out. I learned the difference between first order and second order change. I was told to have a vision, communicate it regularly, and work to make it a reality. I also needed to remember that I would be leading people and not machines. They will no longer respond to top-down dictates. If you want to make lasting change to improve education, you must include people in the conversation so they can weigh-in before they buy-in. The visual model I use has four lenses that need to be aligned so when I make a decision I am sure it passes through to continuously focus me on the work of leading reform.

• Lens 1: Building a Leadership Team.
• Lens 2: Action Planning.
• Lens 3: Meeting Facilitation.
• Lens 4: Culture.

Read the entire article on CompetencyWorks at http://www.competencyworks.org/2013/05/leadership-in-a-competency-based-system/  

Tim Kastelle published an article today titled “here’s why you need to build your innovation capability“. When my eye caught the first sub heading I almost stopped reading. It shouts “Competitive advantage is dead. Or at least dying”. Blink. I believe in competitive advantage, and I believe that firms must figure out what it is that they have to do to remain competitive. I also know that once you found a gap in the market it takes hard work to remain competitive. Being a follower of his blog I plowed on.

Wait. Don’t let me spoil a good post. you have to read Tim’s argument for yourself. He argues that it is more important to become innovative than to have a competitive advantage. This is not a new argument in itself, but I like his angle on this. He then provides some simple steps that a manager can take to become more innovative even within a rigid organizational context where innovation may not necessarily be appreciated. His logic will also apply to not-for-profit organizations that don’t believe they compete even though they have to be able to compete for funding.

Reading this article also made me think of how we idolize some of the very famous firms now, but how we tend to forget how many great firms have dissolved here in South Africa and in other developing countries. It usually starts with a refocusing, then with selling off under-performing or non-core units. Then a merger of the remains with another firm with a “strategic fit”. Then, the end. They just slip from our conscious into the past.

Let me not close so depressing. Let me rather ask: how can you use the environment as an constraint that you have to consider in your business model and your innovation process?

If it constrains you it must constrain your competitors. Can getting around this give you an edge? In other words, can you put the constraint between you and your competitors?

Then ask: what are the constraints that are on the horizon, and how can I anticipate these constraints to get them between me and my competitors?

Thinking about this often might save you the anguish of trying to adapt while under pressure to also deliver.

I wonder how your answers will challenge your current view of how competitive you really are, and how innovative you are to respond to the changes in the environment.

I’m writing a chapter for a forthcoming edited book, E Pluribus Prosperitas, which brings together a group of researchers working on the economics of cultural diversity.

The book is being put together by Jessie Bakens (VU University), Peter Nijkamp (VU, Tinbergen Institute) and Jacques Poot (Waikato University) and will be published soon by Edward Elgar.

Our contributors group met in Amsterdam a few weeks back for a workshop organised by VU Amsterdam and Tinbergen. It was an intensive couple of days, but left me excited about the final product. In the typical style of academic timelines, the book itself should be out late this year or in 2014. But you can get a flavour of the thing at the Tinbergen site, where the presentations are up here, here and here. Mine is here. For the other chapters, including contributions by Giovanni Peri and Barry Chiswick, you’ll need to wait til publication day.

Every successful company has a tipping point — a situation when a series of incremental changes reaches a level that triggers explosive growth. The key to creating an environment that nurtures these substantial changes — whether in your personal or professional life — is to take a hard assessment of your current position and find ways to leverage it. Obviously, this is much easier said than done. But being willing to take a series of small steps can lead to outsized results.

Zarca Interactive held an important summit last week for this very purpose. While we feel on the brink of a tipping point, the steps we take now will determine whether we actually reach it. Throughout the many sessions, the wide-ranging discussions enabled different departments to understand their common purpose, while also giving everyone insight into each department’s daily processes. We were left with a deeper appreciation for our roles and an understanding that every decision matters.

These sessions proved beneficial, but it was the larger message of the week that resonated more: namely, learning and adapting after making small mistakes is essential. While it’s okay to make new mistakes, as they provide new opportunities for learning, making the same errors repeatedly is unacceptable — it demonstrates stagnation rather than progress.

Though it may seem like I’m preaching, I feel there’s important truth in this message. Recognizing opportunities (which are often disguised as difficulties) for growth, and taking advantage of them, is integral to this company’s culture and the key to being successful with any company.

It’s a toothpaste tube roller. My Great Uncle Charlie made them—hundreds of them actually. He invented them.

I remember going to Uncle Charlie’s inventors’ shop once when I was little. My eyes were just high enough to peer down the sawdust-covered countertops. Everything smelled of old wood and agitated metal. Scattered among the machines and tools were remnants of fishing reels he’d invented, too, at various stages on their journey to creation.

Back then, I thought Charlie was the only real inventor I knew. Now I find myself surrounded by inventors.

Innovation, according to Merriam-Webster is introducing something new … a new idea, method, or device.

• Moms introduce new people into the world, not to mention endless uses for a laundry basket, silly songs, and ways to get you to eat their veggies.
• Dads innovate riveting bedtime tales and sneaky ways to make chores fun.
• Writers invent great escapes into new personas and worlds.
• Entrepreneurs invent their own futures, brands, and goals.
• Crafters and artists create something physically new, where once there were only materials and a vision.
• Entertainers (game creators, movie makers, theater performers) give people tangible interactions they couldn’t otherwise experience.

They’re all innovators. And if you take time to ponder it, somehow or other, you are, too. In honor of Inventors’ Month, take time to recognize your unique contributions to your world, your community, or even your home.

While you’re at it, start brainstorming something new that only you can give.

Invite a kid into your creative process, too. Perhaps someday they’ll remember the wonder of that peek into your workshop and be inspired to create something wonderful of their own.

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” ~George Bernard Shaw

One Fear illustration from Book of Fears (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We are taught from an early age to conform.  Think about it.  Schools emphasize conformity with rules, regulations and a system built on recitation and memorization. We are told there are two types of answers – “right” and “wrong” ones. I suppose when speaking about math and science, it could be stated that there are only two types of answers or conclusions – it’s either right or wrong.  But is that true?  Are there really only two types of answers?  Or is that merely a mechanism that makes it easier to grade tests and papers?

Is it any wonder that we are programmed from an early age NOT to be innovative or creative with our thinking?  Is it any wonder that we are afraid or fearful to take a leap and question something?  But what are we afraid of? Essentially, we are afraid to be wrong.  We are afraid to fail.  So what do we do?  We let our fear stop us and in doing so we stifle creativity and innovation.

We have been trained to obey rules, comply, sit and stand in an orderly fashion, “don’t rock the boat”, “be a good soldier”, and in the process we stifle innovation and growth.  The problem is that “system” left over from the industrial age doesn’t work anymore. The world has changed.  These days, people are entering a “workforce” that is no longer contained within geographic boundaries with an established set of rules and controls. It’s out of our control. Wow, that’s enough to make anyone afraid.

So, what do most people do when their world is changing and they are scared to death?  Sadly, they tend to desperately hold onto a system that is broken and no longer serves them well.  They spend enormous amounts of energy defending this broken system from the past because it’s all they know.

We can either succumb to change, and merely react to it little by little over time, until there isn’t much left of a life we once knew, or we can face our fears and take responsibility for our lives.  In order to do that, we need to change our outlook and identify what it is we are really afraid of.  Ironically, what most of us fear is failing, so in an effort to protect ourselves from this fear – we ultimately fail because we end up with a life that brings few rewards.

Listen to what Sue Bryce and Seth Godin have to say on this topic.

In Stage 2 of our framework we advocate against “telling” and “showing” students as primary modes of instruction. Instead, we hope teachers will ensure students are actively processing what they are learning by making predictions, categorizing, comparing similarities and differences, explaining in their own words, etc.

If you have not yet experimented with this shift, here is what will likely happen if you jump right into Stage 4, Disciplinary Thinking:

You will “show and tell” kids how to think like a mathematician. They will write down what you told them and practice exactly what you showed them.  You will pat yourself on the back but the students will not be any closer to thinking like a mathematician. They have just demonstrated their ability to follow directions and mimic your actions.

Here are steps to help us get started.

Step 1: Think deeply about what math is and isn’t.

Choose the best description of mathematics:

a. Manipulating symbols by carefully following prescribed and memorized rules and procedures

b. The art of pattern making with careful explanation of ideas

Choice “a” is what the vast majority of math classrooms look like, especially in the United States. Choice “b” is probably what a real live mathematician might say. What would math classrooms look like if choice “b” were at the forefront of teachers’ minds every single day?

Step 2: Plan for students to struggle through figuring out the mathematics for themselves.

There are scores of resources to help you do this. Here are a few:

Teaching Student-Centered Mathematics (practical tools and explanations that are useful for all grade levels)

Problem-Based Learning

Illuminations from NCTM

Dan Myer’s blog

Step 3: Require a justification and explanation of every single answer. The way most math classes are structured communicate to students that the goal of math is to “find the correct answer.”  Let’s say the answer to an equation is 345. The assumption we make is that all students who reached 345 understand the mathematical concepts and relationships to reach it. The trouble is there is no way to know if they understood or not without hearing or reading how they got it. And if we don’t ask for it we reinforce the notion that math is a collection of rules to be memorized and applied mindlessly.

Try out these three steps and let us know how it goes!

Tomorrow will feature Scientific Thinking 101 and compare thinking between the humanities and math/science.

LICUOS was selected to demo at FinovateSpring in San Francisco. FinovateSpring is a demo-based conference for innovative startups and established companies in the fields of banking and financial technology. This May’s presenters included some of the biggest names in financial-technology, including Fiserv, MoneyDesktop, FIS, and TSYS. Each company gets 7 minutes and there is no PowerPoint allowed. Eric Mattson, CEO of Finovate said “this was the biggest Finovate ever”.

LICUOS would like to thank The Finovate Group and its Partners for making the FinovateSpring event possible and the four contributors that covered all 72 demos. Thanks to Erin McCune, William Mills III, Phillip Ryan and David Penn.

You will find below and attached these contributions:

Finovate Blog: LICUOS Launches Secure, B2B Payables, Receivables Processing Solution by David Penn. http://finovate.com/2013/05/licuos-launches-secure-b2b-payables-receivables-processing-solution.html

LICUOS is demoing its core technology: a unique proprietary and patent-pending technology that enables an efficient and highly secure processing of accounts payable and receivable transactions, 24/7 and in real-time, to deliver the best financial optimization and user experience. Our algorithms automatically identify and generate the most convenient and efficient netting, payment and funding proposals. They manage all of the associated transactions that allow businesses to significantly reduce or eliminate their commercial debts. LICUOS gives businesses full control and visibility into the payment process and allows them to easily communicate and negotiate with their business partners.

Bank Innovation: Finovate Day 2 Morning Recap and Ratings by Philip Ryan. http://bankinnovation.net/2013/05/finovate-day-2-morning-recap/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_content=646536&utm_campaign=0

LICUOS is an open payment platform for businesses to reduce debt rather than just pay them. The company hails from Spain where they know a thing or two about corporate debt. Invoices are aggregated into the site and algorithms determine the optimal way to pay. The platform also allows payments netting services and 200 European companies have requested funding its lending platform. It’s not just about reducing fees and improving cashflow — the company is a wide-open payments platform.

• Cool Factor: 4/5
• I Want It: 3/5
• Revenue Potential: 3/5

Payments Views: Live Blogging Finovate Spring 2013 San Francisco by Erin McCune. http://paymentsviews.com/2013/05/14/live-blogging-finovate-spring-2013-san-francisco/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_content=646536&utm_campaign=0

• First payment platform to help businesses reduce debt, from Spain, where business debt is a huge issue
• Businesses from all industries, of all sizes
• Netting is core feature – enabling
• Payments – both traditional supplier payments, from buyer to its vendors, on Licuos open payment platform
• Funding – means of obtaining financing from non-banking third parties
• Dashboard shows over all position, drill down to individual invoices – integrated with ERP/Accounting or invoicing system
• Algorithmic suggestions of the best means to make payments
• Using netting to pay off accounts receivable to pay off accounts payable (what is owed to you to pay what you owe). Enables customers to manage cash flow more effectively
• Can fund payment via wire, or credit card, or gain supplier financing via a third party – corporate investors and family offices investing in fund

William Mills Agency Live Blog: FinovateSpring 2013 San Francisco by William Mills III. http://www.williammills.com/blog/live-blog-finovatespring-2013-day-two/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_content=646536&utm_campaign=0

From Spain, the global B2B payment platform. At first glance it looks like PayPal for businesses-to-businesss transactions. From their web site: LICUOS is the global B2B payment platform where businesses can compensate and pay their debts.

Web-based. Showing validated invoices in the system. “Open payment platform” I think it works and the demo looks good but who is the driver of using this system? The CFO of a SMB? How do they make money? I’m guessing subscriptions or white label from FI’s or other parters. “more than a payments platform”

This seems like something that Intuit or other company should resell as an option for QuickBooks.

Women in Cambridge began as a Meet Up group for professional women from all over the New England area who wanted to get together to socialize, network or just get out of the house for a few hours on a Monday or Tuesday evening. We meet about once a month (though we plan to throw in an occasional special event) and we always meet somewhere in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

We’ve decided to spice things up by showing you some of our favorite spots in Cambridge and introducing you to some of our favorite Cambridge business people. Every month, we show you something new–a hidden jewel of a restaurant that only the neighbors seem to know about, an innovative small business you learn about before it gets big, or maybe a local professional who has been shaping trends in the Boston Metro area for years. We focus primarily, but not exclusively,on women-owned and women-run businesses in Cambridge.

The format is simple: each month we look for an appropriate pairing of a professional or service business that we think you should know about with a great “location.” We invite the women who own or manage these businesses to take 8-10 minutes to tell us more about what they do, how or why they got started, or even what their challenges have been. The rest of the time is devoted to casual conversation and the chance to get to know other great professional women.

To attend an event RSVP by emailing us, or better yet, join our Meet Up page, sign up online and get automatic updates about location changes or other news.  All events are free to attend unless otherwise noted.