Monday 30 August 2010

Simple Ideas

After watching Dragons Den and discussing the three sides of this duvet idea with my family about how simple it is, it became apparent that members in my family have also had some really good ideas in the past. But they never followed any of them through.

If only they had known or had the impetus to make their ideas into a business: My Granddad apparently made his own caravan and entered it into a competition, but was denied entry as the competition judges were not convinced that he had not made it, but were instead interested in his folding table for the gas cookers. Which were put into the caravanning news etc. and is now a standard design and general purchase of every camper!

But he did not patent it or have any knowledge of Intellectual Property. My Dad has many ideas which he has seen come to life and be invested in by the dragons. The point I am trying to make is that everyone will come up with at least one idea whether through adversity, frustration, chance or by merely by being observational. People need to know about Intellectual Property and make their ideas work for them. However, not everyone is an entrepreneur and therefore ideas don’t always come to the market – like my Dad!

Thursday 26 August 2010

New Passport

I have just seen this article today.

It makes me think of a number of things in terms of how technology is changing, personal identity and just how much information about us is actually out there.

The fact that banks have set up fraud squads at a huge cost to them which we the consumer will indirectly pay for. The latest scandals in the news are crash for cash and the worst thing is that the innocent party generally has their insurance claime off, hereby increasing their premiums when they come to renew their insurance the following year because they have lost their no claims. 

Fraud is big business and it is a pity that we have to take such drastic issues against these people.

Gone are the days of stamps in your passport which were a badge of pride for the seasoned traveller.I had the fortune of travelling worldwide and I enjoyed collecting the stamps at the border post and looking back at them. We simply now have our passports scanned. However internal flights are good when you have an e ticket and produce some form of picture ID to fly,it speeds up the process,there is less chance of losing tickets etc but it takes away your mementos.

Putting the landmarks in passports and reminding us of our heritage is a nice touch. A lot of what we valued in the past is now forgotten. It would be great to do an experiment where the general public have to label the landmarks on a map and see whether we are aware of our landmarks or not.

Should passports be free or are you happy to pay for them?