I’m a visual guy and things make much more sense to me when they’re displayed properly. For example everyone keeps talking about how the unemployment rate keeps going up.  Latoya Egwuekwe created the following visual chart as a graduate student at American University showing the “Geography of Recession” by displaying the changing unemployment rates over time, it’s very well done.

Visit Latoya Egwuekwe’s Blog to learn more about the work she is doing.

Also thanks to @bwyman for pointing this out on Twitter.

Silicon Flatirons hosted Fred von Lohmann, a senior attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation who gave an outstanding presentation on Digital Copyrights specifically the 1998 Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act. I have to admit that being in the User Generated Content business I should have known more about these “Safe Harbors” adopted in 1998 that protect internet service providers like JobSiteVisitor.com. The law protects service providers on the Internet from the liability that may be caused by the activities of its users.  Basically it protects us from the bad behaviors of some of our users. I also enjoyed Fred’s optimistic outlook on copyright law and how the law has left the door open for the disruptive innovation that we all love.

Stat-ups should keep in mind that copyright protection is very important to both the corporations we establish and the officers who run them because you can’t hide behind your “corporate veil” in a Copyright lawsuit (good to know). This protection doesn’t mean you’re not going to get sued however if you’re running a legitimate business and playing by the rules you should have lots of protection with these safe harbors. However if you think your stepping on some copyrights it’s best to get a good copyright lawyer on board early. Investors don’t want to buy a lawsuit they want to buy a company. (more…)

I read an interesting market report on the construction industry put out by Davis Langdon. The report outlines some very important issues that the industry will be facing over the next 3 years. We’re entering new territory and companies will need to be creative and flexible as they navigate through the ups and downs that are coming our way. Here are some of the obvious items that we should all be thinking about:

- In the short term prices are being driven down as bidders compete for fewer projects.

- Pool of Contractors is currently shrinking which is likely to cause greater inflation in 2011 when market demand increase.

- Credit crunch, problems with cash flow and other financial factors are likely to cause greater contractor and subcontractor failures. Expect Projects to start carrying higher contingencies in these uncertain times. Also likely to see increased cost for insurance and performance bonds at all levels.

-The Global Economy is likely to cause large cost fluctuations in Steel, Copper, and Oil as we’ve seen over the past 5 years. Owners and Bidders involved with fixed price contracts for long term projects will need to manage these risks. Think about reimbursements and commodity contingencies.

- Labor prices are expected to dip slightly as unions are forced to renegotiate agreements made during the recently strong market however we’re not likely to see huge cuts in labor cost.

- Slow moderate growth in the range of 3-5% for the next few year will produce better long term stability as we try and recover the nearly 40% decline we’ve seen over the past few months.

It’s amazing how quickly the market can come crashing down and how long it will most likely take to re-build. Which reminds me, they just tore down another house in my neighborhood. It took them 2 days to drop the house and will probably take them around 300 days to build it’s new modern replacement. If these two things are related in anyway which I know they really aren’t, but stick with me,  we’re in for a long road to recovery however in the end we’ll have a new rebuilt industry that should be better than before. I know it’s not a great annalogy but one we can all relate too. One thing is for certain is that we’re going to see many variables affect the industry over the next few years, hang on and try to enjoy the ride.