Versatile Amphibian

One of my core beliefs is that participation in a market is the key to understanding it. Outsourcing is fine by me, so long as the outsourcer is close at hand as letting skills and business migrate offshore is a sure way of creating a tragedy of the commons for the 21st Century. You could summarise this world view as a strong preference for local research, development and manufacturing. With this in mind, I thought it was worth sharing an initiative I've been following for some time: Local Motors . In essence, the business democratises the manufacture of cars. Concept creation, detailed design and manufacture are all achieved through contribution and voting in the first instance, small local enterprise in the later stages. I'll leave the detail to their excellent website and forum, but it's worth pointing out that at the time of writing, Local Motors have succeeded in constructing 108 cars for around $50,000 each. I'd be interested in seeing their financials, or whether...

I just read this story about Ian Livingstone's comment that bidding for Digital Dividend spectrum was not high on BT's agenda. I find this astonishing! Fibre rollout is all very well, but in my opinion BT desperately needs to find some engine for growth in its business. With its fixed network assets it would be perfectly positioned to deploy an LTE network rapidly and efficiently, not to mention bundle mobile services into its fixed packages. Selling Cellnet was a necessary evil back in the day, but to pass up an opportunity to re-enter the market seems madness. With Orange and T-Mobile now merged and Three a pauper, there is spectrum waiting to be acquired at a price that is surely far, far below that achieved in 3G (if the pattern seen to date in Europe continues). I do hope this is a bit of casual game theory from Mister Livingstone as a non-LTE capable BT Retail should be easy prey for the mobile telcos and Virgin.