Thomas Friedman has an inspiring article in the NY Times on a virtual start-up.  Virtual companies are nothing new in the world of software and services.  What’s new here, though, is that this company is a virtual manufacturing company.

“‘Three guys with laptops’ used to describe a Web startup,’” writes Chris Anderson from Wired Magazine (as cited by Friedman). “Now it describes a hardware company, too” thanks to “the availability of common platforms, easy-to-use tools, Web-based collaboration, and Internet distribution. … Global supply chains have become scale-free, able to serve the small as well as the large, the garage inventor and Sony.”

In the world of the virtual manufacturing company, production capacity and manufacturing flow seamlessly to the cheapest source, much like programming services have in the world of software development. Producing a widget is no longer that special. It can be done in many places at a relatively low cost. Like the name of the essay in Wired Magazine says “Atoms are the New Bits.”

And this is the kind of thing that can actually save manufacturing-based economies like Detroit.

What?

You may ask how it could possibly be a good thing that other countries or regions can produce high quality goods at cheaper prices and that companies can by from them so easily. How is that good for Detroit?

In a word: Value.

You have to look at where the value is.  Where wealth is created, where the unique advantages is.  It isn’t any longer in producing run of the mill goods.  The value is in creating a really great product.

Virtual manufacturing means that a clever innovator with a good idea can experiment with a new product and produce that product for a lot less money than it used to take. Engineers and product managers can get a new ventures off the ground with much less capital and much faster than ever before. It means that the amount of risk involved in manufacturing is less than its ever been.

It means its easier than ever to create a valuable product. It is easier than ever to create a product that is truly remarkable.

All of that is great news for Detroit.

It used to be that only software and service businesses were cheap and easy to get off the ground.  From the 1970’s on the remarkable breakthroughs were in software or innovative financial products.  That helped create the success stories of Silicon Valley, Seattle and Wall Street.

The cost of getting a manufactured product off the ground was high. It made it risky to invest in or to quit the day job, as it were, to give it a try.

But now, that has all changed.  And that plays into the strength of the people in Detroit.

As the article states, this can be a huge engine for growth in the United States.

Invented and financed in the West, further developed and tested in the East and rolled out in both markets.

Inventing and managing the lifecycle of a manufactured product is right up Detroit’s alley.  And not just Silicon Alley. I’m talking about the straight, old-fashioned grease covered alley of Detroit’s past. The alley filled with mechanics, backyard tinkerers and engineers.

If mechanics, engineers and tinkerers can dream it up, it can now become a reality. And if there’s one thing we have lot of in Detroit -its mechanics, engineers and tinkerers.

It is up to them, and to each one of us, to help make it a reality.

I want to highlight a few of the things Vertabase has been doing for Haiti. This is not to toot our own horn but to point out a few extremely meaningful programs and ways to help.

1. We participated in sponsoring medical supplies that went with doctors from Holy Cross Hospital in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The surgeon that helped raise the money has an incredible, first-hand account of his time there. You can also contribute on the site.

2. The One Laptop Per Child program has started planning for the educational needs of the children of Haiti by launching this great collection of XO laptops for Haiti that were given out as part of the Give a Laptop Get a Laptop program over the last few years. As eary participants in this program we are sending them our XO’s.

One other neat program that is the geeks for Haiti t-shirt. You can promote your support and help your choice of charities like UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders at the same time.

Two top economists (one a Nobel prize winner) provide an excellent analysis of the current financial crisis. While they don’t say it, it also points to a counter-intuitive solution to the problem. Its all in the hands of the American consumer.

Their main hypothesis is that this current meltdown is very similar to the meltdown that led to the Great Depression. Both were caused by massive consumer debt.

“It appears that we’re witnessing the second great consumer debt crash, the end of a massive consumption binge.” Steven Gjerstad and Vernon L. Smith, in The Wall Street Journal.

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This month we moved our Michigan offices into a great new space in Southfield. Its got tons of room and a nice training center. Its perfect for our company.

Aside from the fit with our corporate goals, the space reflects our vision for the changing face of Metro Detroit and its future.

The space is located at the crux between Detroit proper and the suburbs. Its right off of 8 mile road.

The building itself is a mix of dedicated front office and light industrial. Like the location, it is a meeting point of urban and suburban, physical and virtual, industrial space and internet space -and it captures a moment in time.

These days are a fulcrum. These are the times when the citizens of this area can decide what they want to be in the future or let the forces of the past drag them down. No-one is helping. Its up to the people alone. If people don’t step up and move themselves forward, this area will be dragged down further and it won’t be pretty.

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What an amazing game. Super Bowl 43.  Players playing their hardest.  Doing incredible things. A field full of passion.

And great entertainment.  Tons of fun to watch.

Stock full of swag from Mid-Michigan CFUG and MAX, my son decides to reveal to the world his secret identity of Adobe Boy.

Here he is suited up for a RIA mission.

The bailout is on track to rack-up another $800 billion. That’s in addition to the original $700 billion, which is in addition to $25 billion here and there to rescue various financial service firms before the $700 billion and the roughly $135 billion of other funding that was attached to the $700 billion.

This brings the total amount to over $1.6 trillion dollars

And people are fussing over $25 billion to the auto industry?

The biggest winner was Barack Obama (though the RIA technologies definitely shined on the news websites).

Every major news site seems to have caught the RIA bug.

Check out http://www.cnn.com and http://www.foxnews.com for some electoral map Flash fun. On Fox News the electoral vote count below the map re-tallies in real team, right before your eyes as the new numbers come in. Can’t tell if its just animation or if its actually counting it up.

NBC News has got the desktop pegged with RIA Widgets they call Newsware Widgets.

Fun stuff.

Since the start of the talk of bailouts, I thought that $700 billion was low. The price tag will likely be around $3 trillion dollars.

Several recent factors appear to lend credence towards that estimate.
1. The US Government appears to be moving towards taking direct stakes in banks;
2. Despite falling gas prices, the pain on US consumer may increase - if so, the government may decide to directly help the consumer and pick up a portion of the consumers mortgages/debt -much like Mexico did after the collapse of the peso in 1994.

Once the full cost of the bailout is known, their might be another short term buying opportunity in the market as retail investors re-evaluate the stability of the market and the US’s ability to pay. But I believe that most institutional investors have already factored in this size of a price tag and would be buyers at lower prices.