Well, Chris Anderson over at WIRED just published yet another article that is sure to get its fair share of praise.  I’m sure it will gain a following and eventually be another book, following up “Free” and “The Long Tail“, both of which essentially started as articles in the mag.  I will start by saying I’m a fan of Chris and his work.  Those two books are some of my favorite business-ish books. Well, on to the article.  This latest incarnation of thought is titled “The New Industrial Revolution” as it is emblazoned on the cover of the February 2010 issue, or “Atoms are the New Bits” as titled within (I don’t know what they want it called).  The line of thought in this piece can be seen not only in Chris’s previous works but many strains of it can be seen throughout WIRED over the past few years. One of the key points that I’d like to highlight regards community & open-source development.

As seen in both Free and The Long Tail, community and open-source are the future of industry, advancement, and entrepreneurship. Even large, blue chips are taking part to some degree.  Take Microsoft’s decisions to open beta-test its latest Windows and Office packages as an example.  Other companies are entirely based on these community participation models. This free or near-free participation and approach has been tested, and proven, with the web and the constant content generation found there. Now, as can be interpolated from the article title, the open-source and open availability of these digital bits is being translated into near-free atoms! Actual physical products and goods are the next step to prove the concept of opensource.  As we translate all the content, development, and innovation of the web into physical products, entrepreneurial opportunity will explode and prices, competition, and innovation will accelerate at levels unseen. Now, resistance will obviously occur, but pressing forward will yield tremendous return.  Threadless is one company that is a common example of this opensource bits-to-atoms process, and a good one at that.  They have demonstrated the win-win possibilities of the model in creating not only more unique, high-quality products but at reasonable prices with low-overhead, high profit business returns. This is only the beginning, of course, as Chris introduces us to much more complex possibilities than t-shirts.

Take Local Motors as an example that he mentions.  They have actually begun production on a car that was designed and voted on by a community, in fashion of Threadless’ t-shirts.  It will be built mostly using “after-market” parts and assembled individually as orders come in.  Interestingly, Local Motors follows a model described in another WIRED article found back in June here. Currently Local Motors is coming out as a niche company, giving little competition to the major car conglomerates but that will likely change as Local Motors develops or others come into the game.  This is only the beginning! Local’s design-to-market turn around is a distant dream to any detroit competition.  As Chris states:

the company says it can take a new vehicle from sketch to market in 18 months, about the time it takes Detroit to change the specs on some door trim.

Even better is the open availability of the design plans under creative commons license.  This allows components, add-ons, mods, and more to be created by anybody, unveiling countless other business possibilities. This is just one example of companies taking technology, community, and open-source to the world of physical products, to “atoms”.  Many other examples may not scale like Local Motors nor have the desire to do so.  The fact is many small entrepreneurial ventures, with today’s technology and tools, have the opportunity to compete with the behemoths or simply fill niches that are untouchable by them.  It is a beautiful thing to behold.  And we aren’t talking about the digital realm here.  This is manufacturing, production, products, this is atoms!  With simple tools such as 3D printers (for less than a grand), access to custom limited-run manufacturing at remarkably affordable prices (thanks again internet), and open community feedback, the opportunity pool is much deeper than it used to be!  Even nuclear power is being approached with this technique as I discussed here regarding yet another WIRED article.  Like I said, this theme can be seen throughout their articles over the last while.

So what does all this mean for the entrepreneur?  Well, if you haven’t picked it up already, its all about endless opportunity and open, community development of ideas!  With that in mind, what do you think? Any other great examples of similar business models in use?  Let me know!!

Entrepreneurs and new business owners have a tough time “changing channels”.  If you are one, you know exactly what I mean.  When we are at work, we work.  When at home, we relax…and work.  When at your kids baseball game, we cheer them on…and work (thanks you blasted smart phone!).  Now, the benefit to this often is seen in the ability to simply take time off whenever desired and still be able to finish up those contracts, or whatever.  This has been handy for me more than once.  The danger is, however, quite obvious.  If my wife said “lets go to California next week” (where she is from), we could do it.  I would, of course, likely take time to chat with clients and do some work.  With such short notice, there would inevitably be things that ought not be left or lack time to delegate.  This can be great, although worthless if I simply worked the entire time we were there!  Learning to manage the “channel surfing” of our attention is an invaluable skill and utter necessity, especially with other important attention grabbers such as family.  This brings us to a powerful principle of productivity, part of the meMethod… fixed-schedule lifestyles.

This principle was illustrated quite well in a blog post offered by Cal Newport here.  You may also learn more about him on his own blog here. The starting principles for fixed-schedule productivity are as follows:

The new year is upon us!  Thousands of bloggers are discussing new year’s resolutions and its a great time to set up goals, renew efforts and get back into the swing of things.  Renewal is powerful and what a better time than following a long holiday vacation, the rejuvenation there from, and a new tax year.  Which brings me to my point today!  What are some areas to remember in business while making your resolutions and starting out in 2010?  Lets list them out:

• Get organized! – possibly a more common goal is to get organized.  The opportunity to re-look at your systems and methods of tracking the stuff that needs to get done is one that should not be missed.  Look at the tools you use, the concepts and tenets you follow (i.e. GTD, 7 Habits, etc.) and the schedule (work, home, balance) you keep.  We will be unveiling a new system and tool to help with this over the next few months called Akomplish.  I’m excited for what it will do and the flexibility it will offer for you to live and work the way YOU want to.
• re-address your tax planning – With 2009 said and done, it is a great time to look at how you do taxes, bookkeeping, and financial accountability and tracking.  It will be much easier to start now than shift gears mid-year and cause confusion and chaos for yourself and your accountants.  Look at the past year and see what expenses could have been written off but were lost in the minutiae of living.  I know, I know, accounting sucks and is no fun (unless you actually ARE an accountant, then it might be okay to you although you also may not like it!).  The advantages of doing it right the first time and from the beginning will pay off, no doubt about it.
• 2009 in review – Take a look at what was done and not done in 2009.  What could you have done better?  What should you have done but didn’t? What bold moves do you wish you’d taken?  Well, lets do them this year!! How can this information and introspection be incorporated into your new year’s resolutions?
• Life Balance – Well, you work too much or too little.  You probably don’t have any hobbies but “family” or something cliche like that.  By the way, family is not a ‘hobby’, although important to you.  What do you do with them?  What can you do to unwind and breakup the life of work?  Having hobbies will prove invaluable as stress mounts from other money-generating areas of life.  For myself, I find this solace in photography, painting, mountain biking, and the like.  In fact, my wife would contend that I have too many hobbies!  Either way, having a good way to be productive without ‘work’ or pay (this does NOT include watching TV or wasting time) is an important part of balance.  Now, maybe you are lucky enough to do what you love for a living! Yay, hooray! I don’t care… find another hobby as well.  That doesn’t mean you quit loving work but you don’t want work to burn you out of loving it anymore.  For that reason, find a hobby!  Now don’t neglect your family for this hobby, again we are discussing BALANCE.  Maybe share your hobby with them or find some other way to balance.

Well, there you go.  Four points to consider with your New Year’s resolutions!!  Any other major points that we all ought to consider?