Kendall Square 4-17-13

Despite a historically strong anti-development bias in Cambridge, the City Council last week approved a new zoning law that will allow further transformation of the already growing Kendall Square. The new law, passed on April 8, approves plans for a new gateway to MIT facing the Kendall Square MBTA Station, the construction of some 1.1M square feet of new commercial space around the T stop, and hundreds of new housing units. (More details at  HarrisCom Blog:   http://wp.me/p1Hocg-Wy            ).

According to Tim Rowe, president of the Kendall Square Association and a founder of the Cambridge Innovation Center,  while, at last week’s meeting,  many Cantabridgians questioned the desirability of new buildings that could create traffic noise, “construction hassle and the like”, others emphasized the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship

“They spoke about how these endeavors are critical to our prosperity in these days of intense competition with other regions, how they bring jobs to residents all across the state, and how the fruits of the labors of our innovators and entrepreneurs are solutions to important problems facing the planet,” Rowe said. “What is super exciting to me is that our political leaders, by their vote, accepted these arguments.  This is a major win for innovation.”

In a blog posted to clients of the Cambridge Innovation Center–including me–Rowe emphasized that the Kendall Square community concerned about sustainability–as evidenced that  “despite millions of square feet of new buildings being built here” during the past decade, traffic in Kendall Square has actually dropped.

Rowe emphasized the need for additional state funding to ensure that the Red Line can keep up with demand in Kendall Square and urged his readers to tell their state senators and representatives to support Governor Deval Patrick’s proposal to invest  heavily in updating the Commonwealth’s transportation infrastructure.

Having worked in the Cambridge Innovation Center for nearly three years, I can attest to the vibrancy and vitality of this growing area.

–Anita M. Harris

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning public relations and digital marketing agency located in Kendall Square.

Photos by Anita M. Harris; kindly request permission and link before re-posting.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning public relations and content marketing firm located in Cambridge, MA.

Cambridge-based Latitude News is a global Website with a mission is to make what’s going on in the world relevant to what’s happening in the US.   It’s a sort of  “local global mashup” in which writers and editors produce stories that are ” fresh, relevant and crying out to be told,” says founder and veteran BBC journalist Maria Balinska.

Recent examples include :

• Texans Victims to Algerian Hostage Crisis?
• Do Casinos Prey on Asian Americans?
• In Turkey The Simpsons and Game of Thrones Are Blasphemy

Balinska points out that Latitude News stories have  been featured in the Christian Science Monitor, the Week, Mental Floss, Marketplace, Hoy and the BBC.  And PRX (the Public Radio Exchange, another Cambridge-based outfit) commissioned a series of monthly podcasts last summer.

Latitude News recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund production of  a weekly audio program, The Local Global Mashup Show,  that, Balinska says,  “will give you the inside edge on the stories that connect Americans with the world.”   It’s an ambitious project, Balinksa adds,  in part because it proposes to use  a subscription model in order to become a sustainable business.

For more info or to donate and receive a reward,  go to the Latitude News  Kickstarter page  before February 15.

–Anita M. Harris

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, a collaborative team of experts in public relations, content marketing and new media services.

Dropped by last night’s opening at the Davis Orton Gallery in Hudson, NY, where former Cantabridgians Karen Davis and Mark Orton featured photographers  John Chervinsy,  John Cyr,   Elaine Mayes, and  David Torcoletti –each making powerful statements about  photography, art,  perception,  human emotion and the passage of time.

In “Studio Physics,” Chervinsky’s images challenge traditional photography by depicting not a single instant, but the passage of time.  He begins by composing and photographing a still life. Then, he crops a subset of the image sends it as a  file digitally to a painting factory in China, waits weeks for an anonymous artist in China to complete an oil painting of the cropped section and send it back in the mail, and, finally, he reinserts the painting into the original setup and rephotographs.

According to the Davis-Orton Website, “Chervinsky is interested in the tensions expressed in the comparison between reality vs. representation while adding, in this series, an unusual collaboration process with an anonymous artist half way around the world and subtle changes over time that we might otherwise take for granted.”

John Cyr’s photos of   developer trays memorialize the specific, tangible  tools used by photographer for a century–before the advent of digital media.

By titling each tray with its owner’s name–some quite renowned–” Cyr references the historical significance of these objects in a minimal manner that evokes thoughts about the images that have passed through each artist’s tray.”

While a few of the photographed trays appear relatively clean and empty, others frame beautiful abstract  patterns and formations.

Elaine Mayes,  former chair of the photography department at New York University,  takes photos of artistic and advertising  images in their  context–usually through glass–to  include not only the surrounding scene but also environmental particulars of the world beyond as reflected  in the glass.

“While thematically, the project is about how photographs and advertising imagery permeate our lives; it is also about how the flattening of space in a photograph can produce  a collage filled with unexpected content. ”

Especially moving were David Torcoletti “Soldiers”, a small portion of  hundreds photographs of U.S. soldiers that, during the Vietnam War,  were mailed to  a South Vietnamese radio and television personality known professionally as “Mai Lan.” For hours every day, Mai Lan broadcast to American troops stationed there. She also spent much time visiting wounded soldiers in hospitals all around the country.  English was her second language, but she was able to communicate very directly with her audience  Often the photos were inscribed with simple, touching and sincere declarations of appreciation for giving comfort to the subjects of the pictures. When the North overran South Vietnam, Mai Lan had to leave quickly;  she chose a small box of photographs to bring along, leaving hundreds behind.

According to  the Davis Orton Web site, ” Years later, Mai Lan, now Denise, and a colleague of David Torcoletti’s at a private school, showed him the images”–many of which were not well preserved. Torcoletti photographed all of the images and, with her permission, digitally adjusted twenty-four that he found most powerful  for  exposure, contrast, burning, dodging, color balance and saturation. All of these decisions were emotional and aesthetic. “For Torcoletti, the power of these objects was in the way they were disintegrating, barely holding on to the original image while becoming something else entirely.  They were now less specific to the individuals depicted and more about war and hope and a peculiar, distant “love” that sustained these men in impossible circumstances.”

The show closes November 11, 2012.

–Anita M. Harris

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, a public relations and online marketing firm based in Cambridge, MA.

Sorry I couldn’t make it to this year’s Global  Cleantech Meetup but am pleased to post information provided  by Harold Simansky about his company, 360 Chestnut , which provides resources for consumers and service providers  in the home improvement market, and about WeFunder, a crowd investing platform for startups.

Both companies are headquartered at the Cambridge Innovation Center in Kendall Square, where I share space, although I have not yet met either Simansky or WeFunder cofounder and President Mike Norman.

Simansky says the two companies “stole the show,” but I’ll bet they got a run for their money (so to speak) from my friend and informal PR client,  Christine Adamow, who announced that her company, EuphorbUS,  which has produced pure fuel oil from tree seeds in Africa since 2007, is setting up shop in Hawaii. [Link to Euphorbus release.]

Simansky writes that WeFunder is the premier crowd investing platform for startups, while 360Chestnut is growing into one of the largest home improvement sites on the web.

Both startups were featured presenters at the  two day conference: Norman gave the keynote address to the more than 500 attendees and Simanski spoke on home improvement and sustainability.

Simansky points out that 360Chestnut is using the WeFunder  platform to raise its most recent round  of  investment, and in his  keynote, Norman called  360Chestnut an “ideal company” to use crowd investing to fund its growth.

Simansky describes WeFunder as “a crowd investing platform for startups.”  Using the platform, crowd investors can purchase stock for as little as $100 in promising new businesses around the country.  With the passage of the  US JOBS Act in April,  startups will soon be allowed to solicit investment from small, “unaccredited” investors and sell small stakes in their businesses online.

He says that  360Chestnut is “a no-cost, trusted source” where homeowners learn what to do to make their homes more healthy, energy-efficient and comfortable;  connect with qualified service providers, and access the more than 5000 rebate and incentives that will pay for this type of work.

For service providers, 360Chestnut is “a constant source of educated, nurtured customers; marketing & sales support; easy-to-use software and applications; online training; financing options and more.   Service providers pay to join and may purchase products and service son the site.

–Anita M. Harris

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning public relations and online-marketing firm based in Cambridge, MA.

Cambridge startup  Latitude News and Public Radio Exchange (PRX) have  launched a  podcast series aimed at bringing global stories with local importance to new audiences.

Latitude was founded earlier this year by veteran BBC producer Maria Balinska to bring “a new  brand of global storytelling connects on an emotional level to audiences who are curious about the world,” Balinka said.  Its  journalists–based in Cambridge and abroad, use  a Website, social media and podcasts to crowdsource stories that connect Americans with the world.

PRX operates public radio’s largest distribution marketplace, offering thousands of audio stories for broadcast and digital use. Signature PRX programs include the Moth Radio Hour, RadioLab, This American Life, KCRW Music Mine and the Public Radio Player.

Under an agreement announced earlier this week,  Latitude will produce 12 podcasts and broadcast segments for PRX showcasing a distinctive editorial style that links Americans to the rest of the world.

The first podcasts launched this week; one looks at why the US faces a shortage of cod and Norway does not; the other examines the role that one US preacher has played in the anti-gay movement in Uganda.

The Latitude News podcasts are hosted by award-winning journalist Daniel Moulthorp.

Moulthorp  is co-founder of The Civic Commons. He is also a former program host of 90.3 WCPN’s Sound of Ideas and co-author, with Dave Eggers and Ninive Calegari, of the best selling book Teachers Have it Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers (The New Press, 2005).

John Barth, Managing Director of PRX, said, “The extension of Latitude News to podcasts and broadcast is a natural step as PRX reaches engaged audiences hungry for more meaningful  international stories.”

“We’re thrilled to work with PRX to illustrate how our new brand of global storytelling connects on an emotional level to audiences who are curious about the world,” Balinska said.

The podcasts and segments are made possible by a grant to PRX by the Open Society Foundations aimed at expanding global storytelling for American audiences.

http://www.prx.org/group_accounts/142068-latitudenews

–Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is a writer and communications consultant  in Cambridge, MA.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group–an-award-winning strategic communications firm based  in Kendall Square, Cambridge.

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Governor Deval Patrick and Medicon Valley Officials after signing collaboration agreement at 2012 Bio International Convention on 6/20/12. Photo by Anita Harris, Harris Communications Group.

“It’s not about what we can give you or take; it’s about how we can share.” So said Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick before signing a collaboration agreement with officials from Medicon Valley MOU –located in the Capital Region of Denmark, Region Zealand in Denmark and Region Skåne in Sweden. The  agreement was one of two  partnerships signed today between Massachusetts and European regions. The second was with Catalonia, Spain.  Both  agreements were signed at the BIO International Convention.

“Our innovation economy is thriving here in Massachusetts and establishing and encouraging international partnerships is an important part of our future growth,” Governor Patrick said. “Catalonia and Medicon Valley are important regions in Europe’s innovation sector, and these partnerships will allow us to move forward on our mutual goals in this part of the global economy.”

The Medicon Valley memo of understanding (MOU) was signed by Governor Patrick and officials from the Capital Region of Denmark, Region Zealand in Denmark and Region Skåne in Sweden.

The agreement focuses on enhancing research partnerships in life sciences by an exchange of researchers and students; identifying special projects, partnerships or collaborations that can lead to new or enhanced research opportunities; and establishing a framework to be used in joint projects that could be financed by the European Union or National Institute of Health to develop new products and processes that can be used in the global market, according to a press release furnished by the governor’s office.

Medicon Valley is a bi-national region composed of the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark and the Skåne region of southern Sweden. It is home to over 200 companies in biotech, med-tech, and pharmaceuticals with over 350 additional companies in those fields having affiliate or branch offices in the region. These industries employ 40,000 people.

The MOU with Catalonia, Spain was signed by Governor Patrick and the President of Catalonia, Spain Artur Mas I Gavarro, with U.S. Ambassador to Spain Alan Solomont present for the signing. The Patrick-Murray Administration has partnered with the Catalan Government to put real collaboration into a renewed agreement on the 20^th anniversary of Lieutenant Governor Paul Cellucci signing a Declaration of Intent of Cooperation in 1992 between Massachusetts and Catalonia, according to the release.

The agreement facilitates collaboration in the following areas:

a)         Bilateral cooperation in research, and technological and industrial innovation;

b)         Business cooperation and economic development in key productive sectors, especially in life sciences, renewable energy, information technology, advanced manufacturing and infrastructure, and;

c)         Academic cooperation.

Catalonia has pursued a policy similar to Governor Patrick’s of investing in the innovation economy. Areas of convergence include the life sciences, mobile devices, clean energy technology, and advanced infrastructure. In 2011, Spain was Massachusetts’ 21st largest export partner, with Massachusetts exporting approximately $326.99 million worth of goods and services.

The BIO International Convention provides Governor Patrick, Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray, state and industry leaders with an opportunity to showcase Massachusetts as a global leader in the life sciences industry, and the preeminent place for life sciences companies to invest in and expand. On Tuesday, Governor Patrick announced the first round of grants awarded under the Massachusetts-Israel Innovation Partnership (MIIP). MIIP is a formal collaboration between the State of Israel and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to encourage and support innovation and entrepreneurship between Massachusetts’ and Israel’s life sciences, clean energy and technology sectors. A total of at least $1.3 million is being awarded to four research & development (R&D) collaborations between Massachusetts and Israeli companies that have been jointly approved by the funding agencies on both sides. The total budget of the awarded projects is estimated at approximately $3 million. The Massachusetts awardees are located in Natick, Needham, North Billerica and Wilbraham.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Governor joined seven global biopharmaceutical companies to announce the formation of the Massachusetts Neuroscience Consortium. Participating companies include Abbott, Biogen Idec, EMD Serono, Janssen Research & Development, LLC, Merck, Pfizer and Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. The Consortium will fund pre-clinical neuroscience at Massachusetts academic and research institutions.

Governor Patrick’s ten-year, $1 billion life sciences investment package has strengthened the state’s global leadership in the life sciences. The initiative melds all of the state’s key resources in order to spur research, investment, innovation and commercialization. Now the life sciences industry in Massachusetts is thriving, with more than 52 percent job growth in the biopharma sector since 2001 and more than 80,000 employees working in the life sciences.

–Anita M. Harris
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning  public relations and marketing communications agency located in Cambridge, MA.

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CNN host Fareed Zakaria said yesterday that despite the world’s current economic and political difficulties,   he is optimistic about the future  but that it is by no means clear “who will be winners and the losers”  in what he called a “new global landscape.”

In a keynote talk at the Biotechnology Industry Organization International Convention in Boston,  Zakaria said, that the world is currently “extraordinarily  peaceful” compared with previous decade and that it is quite “unified, with a global economic system, interactive communications and technology and greater computing power than ever before.  (For example,  the cell phone has more computing power than did the Apollo spacecraft capsule in 1969. ” It could go to the moon, he said, but it could not tweet,”  he quipped. )

In the past, he said, the US has always been able to emerge from  economic difficulties  due to its tremendous capacity to innovate–and in the second half of the twentieth century, maintained a substantial economic and innovative edge over other nations.  But, he said, “we forget that at other times, other countries have  had the edge.”    He asked, “Will the US  maintain its edge?”

Zakaria outlined what he called three distinct historical  phases or causes that, he said, account for the US’  “extraordinary” lead:

(1) During World War II, the forces of destruction had a huge spillover effect.  Germany, a major US competitor, was “leveled to the ground” and England was bankrupted.

(2) During the Cold War, fears of losing out to the USSR in the 1950s  led the US government to make double the investment in US companies than it is making now;  government purchases of US computers and components accounted for the lion’s share of profits for those companies, until the cost curve began to decline. What is more, the government invested heavily in higher education, so that citizens could obtain the world’s finest education in public universities” without paying a cent”

(3) “The third pillar was Jews ” he said. “If  Hitler had not made the morally reprehensible to target Jews, the US would not have had the influx of scientists who created the bomb, transformed theoretical physics and gave the US a 30-year lead.”

What this shows, he said,  is that America’s propensity of innovate is “not due to DNA,” but rather, that there are specific historical reasons why the US took a commanding lead.

Today, he said, there is a new global landscape  in which it is possible for smaller nations– such as Denmark, where  the Global company Novo Nordisk, known for its diabetes treatments,  was founded–  to be at the leading edge in certain technologies.

What is more, Zakaria pointed out,  innovation does not necessarily correlate directly with spending for research and development.  Apple is often considered one of the most innovative companies in the world–but that is because it understood consumers and  how to create a new need,  rather than because it offers the most cutting edge technology, he said.  “Big company and big country advantages no longer hold, going forward.”

On a panel following the talk, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder and chair  of the Indian biotechnology company Biocon, said that the current process of biotechnology development is unsustainable and most products are too expensive to benefit most of those who need them.  “Countries in Asia must reinvent the process of drug innovation,” she said.

Greg Lucier, CEO of Life Technologies, which supplies systems, biological reagents and services to enable scientific research, said that  new genomics tools will be the stimulus to streamline innovation, cut costs,  and change the future of  human health.

Derek Hanekom,  South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Science and Technology emphasized the importance of  government’s role in providing access to care and sanitation. Governments can promote innovation by recognizing and supporting it,  reducing unnecessary regulations yet adding regulations to promote competition, and supporting  education to develop a skilled workforce.

Yucel Altunbasak, president of Tubitak, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, listed financing, talented people, regulatory framework, and a governmental support mechanism as keys to helping emerging markets do “what the US did in the 1950’s.”