

Ignorant Silicon Valley judges - maxwin

link: http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/13/what’s-better-saving-the-world-or-building-another-facebook-app/<p>I always thought silicon valley is full of intelligent and open-minded people(just look at HN). But I am really SHOCKED by the IGNORANCE of the judges for Berkeley 2010 Hackathon.<p>One of the judges Vivek Wadhwa from TechCrunch revealed that 
"One commented,If the villager has a cell-phone, why doesn’t he just call 911? This is really dumb. (Most of the judges didn’t understand that 911 services don’t exist in most places in the world, and that SMSs have become the internet of the developing world)"<p>Isn't this appalling? Did this judge never travel outside of US? What happened to all the other judges besides Vivek Wadhwa? They are supposed to be judging for an app for "social good" and they don't even have a tiny clue about what is going on in developing countries. Coming from a third world country, I understand how important and valuable it is for the presence of a system that enable villagers in developing countries to send SMSs to volunteers across the globe who provide emergency medical advice.<p>Here is the list of judges besides Vivek Wadwa:<p>Cadir Lee | CTO, Zynga<p>Scott Dale | VP of Engineering, Zynga<p>Trevor Blackwell | Partner, Y Combinator<p>Paul Twohey | Berkeley/CSUA Alum, CTO, Trumpet Technologies<p>Dave Fetterman | Facebook<p>Brian Harvey | UC Berkeley<p>To the judges listed above, Here is some common sense knowledge (in case you have never been to a developing country)<p>If a messed-up country can provide GOOD and EFFICIENT emergency medical advice and service to its tens of millions of poor citizens, chances are that they would have been recognized as a developed country already.<p>(I hope this post is not downvoted because the list of judges includes a YC partner)
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anactofgod
It could be that Mr Wadhwa was willfully ignorant. Hard to believe considering
his CV.

So, perhaps the fault lies with those who were pitching to him during the
conversation that you overheard. Perhaps they failed to explain sufficiently
what business and/or social need was being addressed. Or, perhaps there really
was not value to their service. Hard to say from the information you provided.

To varying degrees, everybody is ignorant to new opportunities. The key for
entrepreneurs is to identify for their audience what level to communicate,
educate and compel, and then follow through effectively. Even then, there are
no guarantees.

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maxwin
See <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1123211> for more comments

