Edison Network

Introduction

The Edison Network is a completely private technical small business incubation program for the Bay Area that can help technical inventors find information. By bringing together voluntary contributions from many entrepreneurs, the Edison Network can help aspiring entrepreneurs to get started developing their own ideas into successful commercial ventures.

The Edison Network can help inventors answer questions such as these:

How does one start a new business from nothing more than a great idea?
How does a motivated inventor get over all of the legislative hurdles imposed by various government entities?
How does an engineer with expertise in a relatively narrow field handle the technical details of their project in fields outside of their own specialty?

The Edison Network is a very nebulous entity. There are no regular meetings, no membership dues (other than AIAA membership dues), and no councils. Instead, the Edison Network operates by providing sources of information for inventors in the following areas:

Inventor Resumes: Inventors in the Edison Network may provide electronic versions of their professional resumes for display within the AIAA On-line web pages. In this way, other inventors may search through these resumes to find inventors with experience in particularly helpful areas. For example, an inventor working on a software development project may need to find somone with expertise in creating installation programs and distribution methods for various hardware platforms and could possibly find someone with this experience by searching through the Edison Network Inventor Resumes.
Project Profiles: Inventors may choose to provide brief profiles of their inventions for display within the AIAA On-line web pages. These project profiles may be very useful for attracting capital and for attracting other inventors who may be interested in working on such a project.

Contests for Inventors

Entrepreneur of the Year Awards: Nominate entrepreneurs for this year's award, or learn what you need to do to win this award yourself!

Edison Network Hotlist

Here are some interesting links for you crazy inventors and entrepreneurs to peruse. Hopefully they are helpful. If you have suggestions for other types of links you might like to see here, or if you know of another Web site that should be added to this list, please send it via email to jardin@osprey.arc.nasa.gov.

General Entrepreneur Resources

Inventor Entrepreneur Business Start-up Resources:
This site can help you bring your ideas and inventions to the market.
IDEA MARKETPLACE:
A magazine for inventors and entrepreneurs, "written by the foremost experts in the entrepreneurial fields..."
Machine Research Corporation.:
A very interesting new company to help inventors get prototypes of their ideas manufactured in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Check this one out!
VPrototype: The objective of VPrototype is to bring inventors and investors together to fund the construction of product prototypes.
Inventor's Awareness Group: An all-volunteer consumer group to protect "...our nation's greatest natural resource, the individual inventor."
Edge Magazine Online: An online magazine for entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs in their Own Words: This site showcases articles by entrepreneurs based on their own experience.
CEO Resource Network: Links to helpful information related to starting your own business.
Entrepreneur Info: This is probably the best entrepreneur Web-site we have yet seen!
Robert Massey: A prolific inventor has set up quite an interesting web page here... check it out.
NCSU Engineering Entrepreneur Program: Information about the North Carolina State University's program for engineering entrepreneurs.

Edison Network Events

AIAA Sponsored Events

Robot Wars (Premiere of the da Vinci Forum!)

Other Events

Stay Tuned!

Last Updated: July 17, 1996 1:20 pm