Wollies Direct to Boot Worked Better Than Coles but there is Room for Innovation

Woolworths Direct to Boot Bay,
Tom Worthington CC-BY 12 September 2021

My second attempt to order groceries online from Coles failed, so I switched to Woolworths. The online ordering was much the same, but the collection process was much quicker, easier, and more pleasant. I received a text message telling me my order was ready for collection, to click when I departed, and click again when I arrived. As with Coles, I got lost in the car-park trying to find the collection bays. But this was in the open air, not an underground car park so much easier to see my way around, and it felt less oppressive (at the wonderfully named Spitfire Avenue, next to Canberra Airport). 

The bays were clearly marked, and the staff already on hand, so I was out in a couple of minutes (rather than 20 at Coles). They had a hand card with crates which fitted to it, rather than the wobbly trolley  Coles was using. All my order was there and the fresh items excellent quality. There seemed to be more plastic bags, but this may be because I had ordered frozen, and chilled food, with each category in a separate bag.

For me Woolworths wins hands down over Coles, assuming the ordering system keeps working. If not, is there a third alternative in Canberra? 

Perhaps the team at the Canberra Innovation Network, Innovation ACT and ANU TechLauncher could design an independent home shopping system. This might use a just in time picking system: when you told the system you were on your way, the picker would quickly go around the isles in a discount supermarket, picking the items, and be ready just as you pulled up outside. The picking service doesn't need to be owned by, or affiliated with, the supermarket.

Gov 2.0 Taskforce: Open is Expensive, Not Just Free

At Gov 2.0 Taskforce: Ten Years On, one of the un-conference presentations was on "Open is Expensive, Not Just Free". The essence of this seemed to be pointing out that open access initiatives are usually supported by unpaid volunteers. The implication is that these initiatives can't be maintain, because we can't expect people to keep working for free. I suggest the start-up community has an answer to this. There are models by which people can work on free open products, but still make money from them. One example is "social enterprises". Also start-up centers, such as the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN), train people how to build a business case, which includes who is going to pay, and also trains people to ask for money. Also there is The Mill House, which specializes in social enterprises.

There is a live stream and online questions are accepted. From the

High Throughput Time Series Data

Greetings from the Canberra Big Data Meetup, on High throughput ingestion of time series data. This is at the Canberra Innovation Network/E29 offices. The first talk was by, Jordan Braiuka, from the host for the event, Canberra company Instaclustr, on using Cassandra to store 1 million metrics a minute. Not to be outdone, Mike Leonard, from Reposit Power (also a Canberra start-up), talked about ingesting 12 Million Data Points per Hour with OpenTSDB.





Instaclustr monitor servers, and Reposit Power the batteries in people's homes, but from a data storage point of view these are similar. The emphasis here is on being able to store large amounts of data quickly, and be able to query it for standard reports. For today's IT professionals, brought up with relational databases, the concepts used to do this efficiently will be novel. However, for someone like myself, trained in the mainframe pre-relational era, it is all very familiar. It is good to see there are modern tools to implement these decades old techniques, and proponents using them.

Future of Innovation in Canberra

Greetings from the Canberra Innovation Network's  First Wednesday Drinks. I have been here since 2:30pm, for a World Cafe on the future of innovation in Canberra. A room full of people moved from table to table discussing what needs to be done to foster innovation, how that can be done and how to get the message out about doing it. It can be very frustrating at such sessions where there is a lot of ideas floated but you wonder if anything will ever happen. In this case we had the satisfaction of then attending the first Wednesday pitches and heard of real things making a real difference.

I did try to get a bit more creative with ideas, beyond the obvious of teaching innovation, I suggested turning CBRIN into a reality TV show, with the real life drama of turning ideas into products and services.
#fwconnect #canberra #cbrin

Chat with Anthony Feint

Entry29 hosted a "fireside chat" today at the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN) with Anthony Feint, founder of Pen.io

Anthony described how he dropped out of university because he wanted to "build things" and went on to start several tech companies. He suggests that universities need to allow students to build and produce a portfolio of work.

ps: One advantage Australian university students have is that they can work in the USA for a year.

Innovating University Education

At Unconference Canberra,on Saturday Dr Shayne Flint from the Australian National University discussed new ways to teach students a wider range of work relevant skills. One of these is "ANU TechLauncher" where students work on a project in a team for a real client. Students have the option of doing their own business start-up through the Canberra Innovation Network (where the conference was held). To help, I am preparing a module on "Introduction to Innovation" which students can do on its own or as part of another course.

Start You High Tech Business in Canberra

The ACT Government, in partnership with local universities, are training former public servants and universality students in how to set up a new business to commercialize an idea. The Entry29 Co-working space is holding a free Canberra Tech Startup Open Day, at its Canberra city office on the afternoon of Friday, 16 October 2015. If you are curious about all the talk of new high tech Silicon Valley type company start-ups, it is a good opportunity to come along and see where it is now happening. You don't need to be a computer genius to start a new venture, in fact it helps if you are not (I mentor start-ups and judge hacker competitions). You can get a free ticket, if you are just interested, already have an idea or are working on your business venture.

ps: A "co-working space" is a shared office where new business ventures can rent cheap space while setting up.

How to Start a Business in Canberra

Recently I was asked how to start a business in Canberra and how to get funding. This should not be difficult, as we have a new local government/university joint facility in Canberra, specifically to help startups: the "CBR Innovation Network" (CBRIN). The hard part is understanding how it operates and all the start-up jargon.

For a start, what is "CBR"? This is the international code for Canberra's airport (just as "LAX' is the code for Los Angeles International Airport). The ACT Government decided to base its marketing of Canberra around use of this abbreviation. This seems a little odd as Canberra's airport does not have any scheduled international flights, so apart from a few plane spotters no one knows what "CBR" is. As a result I tend to spell out the name "Canberra Innovation Network" (and suggest the abbreviation CBRIN be pronounced "See-Brin").

CBRIN's strength is that it provides many start-up services in the one place, provided by specialist organizations. As a result it is very confusing for the novice entrepreneur to work out what are all the  services and which organisations provide what.

CBRIN has an office on the top floor of the ACT Heath building in Canberra's CBD. This is an excellent location, between the ANU campus and the corporate offices of the city, in the center of a cluster of computer companies, private education providers, research organizations. Most importantly, CBRIN is near good bars and restaurants (which research shows is important to the start-up process). However, if you go in the front door of the building you end up in what looks like a hospital waiting room (better to go in the side door and take the lift to the top floor).

CBRIN has:

1. Events space: This is a large room where events and workshops are held. It can be hard to find, down a long corridor on the west dies of the floor (follow the noise to the function). Last week I attended Matt  Fenwick Life Without Lanyards. book launch and a workshop for the CBR xPS project in the CBRIN events space and the first monthly "First Wednesday Connect" last week. This is the way people are introduced to CBRIN.
2. Co-working space: The co-working space is an open plan office with long benches for individuals and small groups to work on their start-up. The co-working space is managed by the non-profit organization Entry 29. This is where start-ups start, after being introduced to CBRIN. The co-working space is more than just a low cost shared office: the idea is to foster work relationships between the members. Entry29 members can use the co-working spaces in other cities, when traveling, such as Fishburners Sydney and Spacecubed Perth. (apparently it is obligatory for co-working spaces to have silly names).
3. Incubator: The incubator is a step up from the co-working space, with each start-up having its own office area, but still located open plan with others. At this stage the start-up is expected to need more tailored and individual business advice. CBRIN's incubator is called "Kiln Incubator".
4. Accelerator: The accelerator is a process, not a physical space.  A start-up in the accelerator program will most likely be located in the incubator space, but also gets expert help and funding for a limited time, in return for giving up a share of the ownership of the business. CBRIN has associated with it the Griffin Accelerator. 

Life Without Lanyards Launch

"You don't have to hate the public service to leave".

Greetings from the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN )office, where Kate Lundy has launched Matt  Fenwick book "Life Without Lanyards". The book is for those considering leaving government service and moving to the private sector. In the USA this would be for people "Inside the Beltway" in the UK it is for Sir Humphrey's frustrated staff. In Australia it is for those in Canberra.

Canberra is reshaping itself, partly through necessity, from a public service town, to an innovation centre.

ps: Matt said "You don't have to hate the public service to leave". Perhaps should be added "... but it helps".  ;-)

Building a Private Sector Future for Canberra

Greetings from the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN) office where I am attending a workshop on the CBR xPS project. This project is sponsored by the ACT Government to help public servants who want to move the private sector. The reason for the ACT Government to do this is presumably change the tradition that when people leave the public service they move out of Canberra, taking their money with them. Canberra therefore needs viable private sector options for people to work in Canberra and also help public servants to transition. My interest in this is that I am designing course material to help those who want to be innovators and entrepreneurs.

First Wednesday Connect Canberra Startup Meeting

Greetings from the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN) office, where the inaugural "First Wednesday Connect" is being held. Start-up companies are giving quick pitches for their ventures, but the main aim of the evening is for people from business, government and academia to meet each other. This has been useful, as I met Kelly Brown from Nexia, who are helping out with training  the startups (I am designing an on-line course for them as well).

Application to Helping New Employees

Greetings from the Canberra Innovation Network, in the heart of the Canberra Start-up Business Boomerang, where Welcomer Chairperson Kate Lundy is launching the WelcomeAboard product. This is an on-line service to help organizations take on new employees. The idea is to take the tedium of paper form filling out of taking on a new employee, with all the details of their bank account (where they want to be paid), tax details and superannuation. The  service is designed to work with clod based accounting packages, such as Xero.

Cambridge Phenomenon's Fifty Years of Innovation

Greetings from the UNSW Campbelltown Library. Seeking more content for my innovation course, I have tracked down the only copy of Kirk, Cotton and Gates (2012) in an Australian public library. In doing so I feel I am back on a journey started twenty years ago. In 1996 I spent several sessions in the ANU library, reading one of the few copies of the report "The Cambridge Phenomenon" (Segal Quince & Partners, 1985) in Australia. I very much had the sense I was holding a precious commodity to which I had limited access. I made extensive notes, appropriately enough on a Cambridge Z88 portable computer. These notes became Appendix A "The Cambridge Phenomenon - Summary of the Report" in Worthington (1999). I have had to drive three hours to read the sequel: I hope it is worth it.

The new the book is much glossier than the original.  The forward is by Bill Gates (There is a Microsoft Research Lab at Cambridge, adjacent to the new Cambridge University Computer Lab). The preface is by Charles Cotton, founder of Cambridge Phenomenon Limited (which appears to have been set up just to write this book) and mentions the Hauser Forum (in the West Cambridge Research and Development Park).

There is a two page diagram "Cambridge Ideas Change the World" which is also available on-line as a PDF document. This takes some liberties with history to place Cambridge at the center of developments in Genomics, Monoclonal Antibodies, Computing and Software. As an example, the Computing time line starts with Charles Babbage and his Difference Engine in the 1800s (was this done at Cambridge?), then Alan Turing before getting on to firmer ground with the 1946 EDSAC computer which was built at Cambridge. The last step in this is the formation of ARM at Cambridge in the 1990s (I visited there a few years after the company was formed and wish I had bought some shares).

The introduction of the book is on firmer ground starting with Tim Eiloart founding Cambridge Consultants in 1960. The authors estimate that 4,000 technology companies have been set up around Cambridge since the 1960s, with 1,400 in 2012 and 48,000 employees.

The chapter on the early days acknowledges Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, found by Horace Darwin in 1881 to make precision instruments, but it was not until the 1960 that conditions were right to make such companies more than a rarity.

The next chapter "Growing Pains: 1970 - 1979" covers Sinclair Radionics, which made the Sinclair Executive calculator, Also Arcorn Computers Ltd. The Mott Report (1969) lead to the Trinity Science Park. The Bolton Report (1971) resulted in government policies to encourage "small Firms".

The authors attribute Matthew Bullock at Barclays Bank in Cambridge with discovering a "triangle of activity between the river, Bridge Street and Jesus Lane" (Kirk, Cotton & Gates, 2012, p. 44). However, looking at a map of Cambridge, I am not sure where this triangle is. Bullock with Jack Lang of Topexpress (one of the companies in the triangle) then invited staff of the other companies to meet informally.

Kirk, Cotton & Gates (2012, p. 45) describe how some of these staff had been students and staff at the Cambridge University Computer Lab and meetings in the Eagle pub acted as a replacement for previous university common room discussions. Outcomes included changes to planning laws to allow R&D functions in commercial, rather than industrial, premises. Bullock identified Cambridge as an area for Barclays to invest in due to improved transport combined with the industry startups.

The next chapter "Putting the Phenomenon on the Map: 1960-1989" starts with a brief description of the first Cambridge phenomenon report (Segal Quince & Partners, 1985). Given that the later work has a name very similar to the first, this work gets remarkably little acknowledgement or analysis. I had assumed that the new report was by some of the same authors, or the same consulting company, or by people in some way associated with the first, but I could find no connection in the text. There appear to be just five paragraphs in this chapter of a book of 244 pages summarizing the previous study. The rest of the chapter describes the rise of various companies, most notably Acorn Computers making the BBC Microcomputer. The chapter ends by discussing the slow start for the Trinity Science Park.

Strangely the next chapter "Momentum: 1990-1999" has a large photo of the Cambridge Judge Business School, with no explanation of what this has to do with technology startup companies (p.66). I recall seeing this building in Trumpington Street on my way to talk to  Andy Hopper at the the much more modest Olivetti Research Laboratory (ORL) in 1996. After reading the original Cambridge Phenomenon I had set out to see what it was all about in person.

At this point, about one quarter of the way through, I lost interest in the book and went for lunch at the UWS Cafe. After a lunch of fish and noodles I came back to the library to consider what I had read. The remainder of the book appeared to be the same detailed catalog of companies and funders as before. What was lacking was an analytical analysis of the reasons for this development which was in the original report.

This is not an updating of the original report, more catalog of what happened later. I suggest anyone interested in the how and why of tech startups should read the original report. You can then read Cotton, Charles and Kirk (2012) which gives a good summary of the second report.

The Canberra Start-up Business Boomerang

Is there anything from this book for my innovation course? Not really. The idea of an informal way for people from different startup firms to meet is useful. The concept of new companies starting in a small area in proximity to a university is not new, but worth restating.

Such an area is now forming in Canberra, on the western edge of the ANU campus and has been referred to as the "Canberra Innovation Precinct". However, the area is now expanding to cover much of the western side of Canberra's CBD. Given the shape of this precinct, it could be called the "Canberra Start-up Business Boomerang": from Marcus Clarke Street extending east to London Circuit, and from Barry Drive in the north to Gordon Street in the south. At the center of this, both geographically and strategically, is the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN). Also it should be noted that this is not far from where the Griffins' first plan for Canberra (1912), had marked as the location for the "Technology" building of the national university.

The Wig and Pen Bar, which was across the road from CBRIN, and serves as the equivalent of the Eagle pub in Cambridge, has moved slightly further away to the foyer of the ANU Music School.

Other Works on the Cambridge Phenomenon

A Google Scholar search finds more than one million references to the "Cambridge phenomenon". Miao and Hall (2014) look at the more ‘cultivated’ Chinese science parks, as a contrast to Cambridge.

Moog (2002) comments "Knowledge intensive new firms often result from high educated, academic founders or directly from academic institutions".

WESTHEAD (1988) points out that the phenomenon of closely clustered high tech firms may not be able to be replicated. may not be replicated. Benneworth and Groen (2010) describe how more formal university entrepreneurship programmes, which grew up partly as a response to the Cambridge Phenomenon, act as gateway to wider entrepreneurship system outside the university.

Yuehua. (2002) concludes that developed countries' experience of science parks is applicable to developing countries.

Garnsey, Lorenzoni and Ferriani (2007), detail the formation of ARM, as a spin-off of Acorn Computers. Ahmed (2013, pp. 122-139) has a useful chapter on "Entrepreneurs, Spinning Out, Making Money andLinking with Industry", with case studies on Shape Data Ltd, Acorn/ARM, Sintefex Audio, Bango,, RealVNC, Sophos plc, Jagex, blinkx, Camrivox,  Green Custard, The Raspberry Pi Foundation XenSource and Rapportive. Also there is a section on how the computer lab supported these developments. Unfortunately this 179 page e-book has very high resolution color images which makes it a 9.5mbuyte download (a version with smaller images would be more useful for students).


Curiously some of these works cite my own summary of the "Cambridge phenomenon" (Worthington, 1999), rather than, or in addition to, the original report. Livesey, Sullivan, Hughes, Valli, and Minshall (2008) in a Cambridge University Economics and Policy Working Paper quote me accusing the the Australian government of believing “if a
high technology/ science park is created, with suitably high-tech buildings, then high
technology firms will be attracted to move in from somewhere.”

References

Ahmed, H. (2013). Cambridge Computing: The First 75 Years. Retrieved from http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/downloads/books/CambridgeComputing_Ahmed.pdf

Benneworth, P., & Groen, A. (2010). " No longer the sparkling new idea": anchoring university entrepreneurship programmes in academic, entrepreneurial and regional policy networks. Retrieved from http://doc.utwente.nl/73396/1/Benneworth.pdf

Cotton, Charles & Kirk, Kate. (2012). Viewpoint: The Cambridge Phenomenon, five decades of success. BBC News UK. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-17982595

Garnsey, E., Lorenzoni, G., & Ferriani, S. (2007)Speciation through Entrepreneurial Spin-off: The Acorn-ARM story. Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Elizabeth_Garnsey/publication/222423713_Speciation_through_entrepreneurial_spin-off_The_Acorn-ARM_story/links/0deec52945dd7279bf000000.pdf

 

Kirk, Kate & Cotton, Charles & Gates, Bill, 1955- (2012). The Cambridge Phenomenon : 50 years of innovation and enterprise. Third Millenium, London

Livesey, F., O’Sullivan, E., Hughes, J., Valli, R., & Minshall, T. (2008). A pilot study on the emergence of university-level innovation policy in the UK. Centre for Economics and Policy Working Papers. Retrieved from http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/uploads/Research/CIG/UniversityInnovationStrategy_FinalReport_RELEASE_140308.pdf

Miao, J. T., & Hall, P. (2014). Optical illusion? The growth and development of the Optics Valley of China. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 32(5), 863-879. Retrieved from http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/98479/1/98479.pdf

Moog, P. (2002). Human capital and its influence on entrepreneurial success. Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung, 157-180. Retrieved from http://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/3395/ssoar-hsr-2002-no_4__no_102-moog-human_capital_and_its_influence.pdf?sequence=1

Segal Quince & Partners (1985). The Cambridge phenomenon : the growth of high technology industry in a university town. Segal Quince & Partners, Cambridge

Trani, E. P., & Holsworth, R. D. (2010). The indispensable university: Higher education, economic development, and the knowledge economy. R&L Education.

WESTHEAD, D. P. (1988). SWP 30/88 NEW MANUFACTURING FIRMS AND NEW FIRM FOUNDERS IN WALES, 1979-1985. Retrieved from https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/bitstream/1826/576/2/SWP3088.pdf

Worthington, Tom (1999). Net traveller : exploring the networked nation (Ed. 1.0). Australian Computer Society, Dickson, A.C.T Retrieved from http://tomw.net.au/nt/

Yuehua, Z. (2002). A developing economy oriented model for science park management. Retrieved from http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1989&context=theses

Company Accelerator Program Launched in Canberra

Greetings from the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRin), where the ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr is officially launching the Griffin Company Accelerator Program 2015. The chief minister said he would "twist the arms" of the owners of surplus office space in the Canberra city center to make it available for startup companies. Perhaps Canberra could emulate Leichhardt Council's excellent "Renew Leichhardt" initiative, which offers property owners incentives to make surplus space available (including at the Italian Forum).

 

The Griffin Accelerator is a three month program, where new startup businesses are mentored. There will be up to ten teams selected for the first intake in 2015. The scheme is similar to the Telstra Muru-D Start-up Accelerator. Currently I am teaching an online curse for the Australian Computer Society in  "New Technology Alignment" and hope to have an improved course for ANU, for next year.

Helping Public Servants Set Up a Business

Greetigns from the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN), where  Dominic Campbell, CEO FutureGov and Mark Headd, Technical Evangelist Accela, are speaking on "Innovation in a public service marketplace". CBRIN has a ‘Public Sector Landing Pad’ (PSLP) program, to help former public servants who want to set up a business. With cutbacks to the Australian public service it is an ideal time to run such a program. There are thousands of ex-public servants who ideas and a considerable amount of capital, but no business experience.

Dominic commented he accidentally left the public sector and started a company FutureGov.

Innovation for Public Service Delivery

Dominic Campbell, CEO FutureGov and Mark Headd, Technical Evangelist Accela, will speak on "Innovation in a public service marketplace" at CBRIN in Canberra, 3:45pm, 26 November 2014.

"... two specialist innovators will explore what it means to innovate in a city designed for public purpose.  

Public service delivery is changing globally – innovative ways of working are being successfully explored – but what does this mean practically?

This facilitated conversation with two international practitioner experts who have “been there, done that” will give you the opportunity to explore and question what this means in reality... the opportunities and challenges, the potential and the pitfalls...."