“Hands-on” and American Inventors in 2012

Where do American Inventors go in 2012 to get hands on experience in a “Flat World?”  The image of the great American inventor is a bicycle mechanic who is inventing an airplane or a motor car.  Or they could be an engineer working out of a garage to assemble electronics or a computer.   The vision and ideas came and the inventor had the means to work locally. Most of the great inventors were very hands on.  Edison, Wright, and the likes of Jobs & Wozniak were all hands on inventors. The technologies they worked with were readily available for them to get their arms around.  The inventors that I have interviewed tell me the importance, “hands-on”  being right on top of the prototyping and building of the inventions that they are working upon.

However, in today’s world, quite often the technologies are remote from the inventor.  It is hard to get your “hands-on” to a technology that might be built overseas or in a large corporate lab.   If you look at the top 5 categories for patents granted in the US as posted in the 2009 World Almanac, patents filed in the US in 2005; 1. Semiconductors, 2. Active-Solid State Devices, 3. Drug, Bio-affecting and body treating compositions, 4. Multiplex Communications, & 5. Chemistry, Molecular Biology and Microbiology, you will notice that the areas are not easy for the individual inventor to work on as a small company or startup.  Or if you are in a large company the work that you need to be involved with might be 6,000 miles away.

Does this mean the startup inventor or corporate gate keeper, because of the lack of “hands-on” that is available is limited to the “Gadget Economy,” the television commercial audience?  This is a tough question to answer, and any negativity in response on the part of America, could result in our economy becoming 2^nd rate.  New ideas and IP drive the 21^st century economies.  How well our inventors are able to network and get their hands on technologies throughout the world will have a great deal of influence upon how well our economy does in the 21^st century.  

Inventors of America is going to tackle the “hands-on” issue in 2012.  We are offering a new round of training this year that looks at how the inventor can obtain the needed experience in the “Flat World” of the 21^st century.  We will start offering ½ day classes on Saturday to help inventors build the skills they need to be hands-on in the 21^st Century.  Check out our web site and look at the programs offered.  R. Arnold, D. Halsey, G. Ott