Next move, warm up the engines
@Matthias and @Natalia_Skoczylas
I’ve submitted an entry to a design challenge over at local motors (also warrants a visit for they technical platform implementation):
It is a design for a civil drone. I’ve been going through likely use cases now and in the future for a while, and there is one in particular that I would like to discuss with you guys and ideally Millie. I’ve already contacted her and gave her a heads up. This is relatively tight deadline (26 days left). If you would be open for a group call, I’d like to proceed as follows:
Pick a tiny team of EdgeRyders with complementary skills and creds, find the right person at LM - probably Florian Feise, and the right person or two within UN/NGO scene (Milie +?), sit down together and build a very rough scenario / 80-20 business case that has just enough detail to get a Letter of Endorsement from the next higher level, and with that knock on Airbus’ door.
If you (anyone) is interested in what this is about, and would like to help please get in touch with me. I don’t feel comfortable plastering this all over the web at this stage, but it is not a state secret. Also it has nothing to do with military applications.
Lastly, while I was browsing around local motors I thought that there could be a good bit of symbiosis & learning from each other going on between the two communities. So if someone of you talks with Alberto anyway, perhaps you could mention this to him. Local Motors could really use someone who knows networks and communication patterns. On the other hand they’ve been around for a good while and could probably give Alberto some pointers on mentoring possibilities.
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Let me get this right
@trythis, you’ll have to walk me through this. Let’s see if I got it right:
- You already submitted an entry, and are now looking for use cases
- "Use cases" is shorthand from "plausible revenue models". Use a drone for something, get paid as a function of the value of that something.
- You are thinking about use cases in disaster relief and development in general, as per this thread.
- So, you would like a brainstorming session with (a) a few Edgeryders; (b) someone from Local Motors, that you have already identified; (c) someone smart from the dev sector.
Is this right?
Suppose we do come out with 2-3 plausible use cases. What happens next?
What does success look like? For you, for Edgeryders, for the people we involve?
Sorry, all of this is probably obvious to you, but remember we have never remotely done this before.
Close
Up to the last bullit you are pretty much correct.
Not exactly a white canvas session but it is early stage none the less. I already have a very specific use case in mind. But it is a tickly one. I would like to push it with @ElaMi5 and perhaps one or two people from EdgeRyders who can attest that this is not completely bonkers and makes some sense (from their experience, and also so we don’t completely rely on the UN to push this). It is out of competition for the ongoing challenge though. That challenge just sparked the idea. The idea does not threaten any business field of Airbus and they could use it as a test case to see if they actually can get more agile.
Other story:
If Edgeryders were to help me with my current entry in the challenge (e.g. through illustration, or something I can’t think of right now) - and I make a lot of monies. Then I would be very happy to fork some back. They have 3 categories including community prize, I don’t think “storming the election process” would be fair - even though it would be easy money with 10k$ for the first prize. The other prizes are considerably more substantial.
@johncoate : I’ll answer here if that is okay. Airbus is a organizational dinosaur that has existed with no real predators going after it for decades. It is afraid that natural selection will soon ring its doorbell. They can see the future markets shifting to their disadvantage and realize they probably have to re-invent themselves. This drone challenge is only a placeholder (even though it is one of the actual threats to many of their products). It could also be the move to electric aviation for example. It is probably just as much a test case for implementing different info flow/process architectures
How public?
So, here’s what I’m hearing. We organize a call for the “Edgeryders DroneTech Instant Group”. You introduce. We discuss use cases. The output is some form of documentation. The EDTIG gains a small stake in your entry, to be formalized and quantified in and when.
When could that be? Early next week OK? (BTW, at LOTE we got friendly with two young Romanian aerospace engineers who are doing a stage of sorts at Euro Control… might be useful, and they are nice people).
Also: do we go off platform? How public are you comfortable with being?
And how would it be different that Amazon’s Drone Air?
Other than it being non-commercial.
http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8037720011
Market position
They also have a different market position, in-house capability, and thus motivations. On top of that the amazon drone skit is highly effective advertising (6M views) for people who don’t chuckle at the drone performance pictured there (which is also just a placeholder of course).
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