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New Look? Yes, I'm still working on it but here's a tip for everyone, always make two *copies* of any backup being written to CDRs, this media is not perfect :-(

Quite a long time ago (I can't remember exactly when) I wrote a column in which I suggested that instead of the Technology Grants scheme (which has been a rather dismal failure), we should consider alternatives to fostering entreneurship and innovation in the knowledge economy.

I cited the X-Prize as a great example of how a bit of lateral thinking can encourage such innovation at very low cost.

Now I see that NASA has also picked up this ball and is running with it.

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Being forced to work with very tight constraints on its funding, NASA clearly realises that there are better ways to get value from its development-spend than by simply paying highly educated folks to sit around and drink coffee.

Instead of pouring all its money into NASA's own in-house programmes, they've opted to set up a number of "challenges" that can earn the successful party a small but worthy amount of cash.

Now smart folks can get stuck in and try to come up with solutions, designs and good ideas that could ultimately earn them a goodly sum of money.

Unlike the normal R&D route, they don't have to get involved in the whole conception to consignment process -- just turning their good ideas into something that satisfies the demands of the challenge.

You don't have to be a PhD in rocket science or have any other qualification other than the ability to solve a problem -- and that's great.

Now if our government could do the same thing, perhaps we'd be a lot further down the track to forging a strong knowledge economy.

Forget the current system of rewarding those who are best at spinning a wonderful story and filling forms -- let's reward those who actually come up with the good ideas and implementations thereof.

I would like to see the government put up a $10m prize for anyone who can devise a sustainable method for significantly (and economically) reducing our reliance on fossil fuels for transport.

Such a challenge would surely motivate a huge number of engineers, biochemists, biologists, genetic engineers and others to put their thinking caps on and contemplate the options.

So, if there's so much to be gained from such a development, why aren't these folks wearing their thinking caps already?

For the same reason it took the X-Prize to get the concept of private space travel off the ground...

Right now, the problem is that if you or I were to come up with (say) an alternative way to fuel our transport fleet, we'd still be stuck with navigating the torturous path of implementing such a scheme, trialing it, raising capital to commercialise it, fending off the less-ethical VC wolves, negotiating the red tape of bureaucracy, etc, etc.

These are the kind of things that can put off all but the most dedicated entrepreneur -- but with the "challenge" model, that's all taken care of in advance.