Protest over Florida Tech Dean's Ouster

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Anyone can register at no cost at www.WeAreSmarter.org and start editing and adding to a book outline about how businesses can better use networks of people to carry out projects (much like the outline itself). If the material makes the cut, the contributor's name will be listed among the authors when the book, tentatively titled We Are Smarter than Me, is published next Fall.

"I think it's a way of asking an obvious question: If you can write an encyclopedia this way, why couldn't you write other books this way?" asks Thomas Malone, the director of MIT's Center for Collective Intelligence.

Indeed, discovering new ways to publish text was one of the reasons Wharton is interested in this project. Wharton Vice-Dean of Executive Education Jon Spector says the content of the book will be what interests business people but it will be the process that benefits those in publishing. He adds that this sort of project also helps B-schools reconnect, on an intellectual level, with alumni, which is something they rarely get to do.

The response has been strong. The organizers sent out an initial e-mail to about 8,000 people to encourage them to participate in the project and test the system. After three weeks, about 800 people had registered for the site, far more than Malone or Spector had anticipated.

Security System Wins B-School Competition

Ingenia Technology, a British company formed three years ago which has created a product that reads the surface of objects to combat counterfeiting, is the winner of London Business School's inaugural Global Security Challenge—a competition designed to feed the growing market for new security-technology businesses (see BusinessWeek.com, 9/4/06, "Fighting MBA Flab").

Ingenia's Laser Surface Authentication (LSA) technology uses a low-cost laser to analyze the structure of paper, plastics, and metals. The reflected laser captures microscopic signatures of the surface or the material's "fingerprint." This information can then be used to authenticate and track goods and documents—everything from credit cards to passports.

"The product is in the pilot phase now but already has customers in tobacco and pharma companies that are battling counterfeit products," says Mark McGlade, Ingenia's director of business development. "Government agencies in the U.S. and Europe have shown great interest as well," he says.

Having knocked out four other finalists, whose entries included technology to identify people by their walk, protect databases, detect bioterrorism agents, and carry out accurate surveillance over 5,000 feet away in the dark, Ingenia won $10,000 and mentorship from Siemens Venture Capital to possibly launch the product. "It's a disruptive technology that was well thought through," says Uwe Albrecht, managing partner for the Corporate Fund of Siemens Venture Capital in Munich, and a judge for the competition. "It could have an impact on the market," he adds.