My head is bursting. Social text http://www.socialtext.com/ in the morning, Intel http://www.intel.com/ in the afternoon and a pitching event in the evening. Combined, the whole day simply reinforced the openness here. As I watch and listen to these enterpreneurs, I can't help thinking "you're giving it away--your knowledge, your experience, your frankness." How can people be so generous with their time, so open with their ideas and so frank in their assessments? The cynic in me is screaming, "whats in it for them." Apparently nothing; well not today anyway, that is just the way it works here. Silicon Valley takes the idea of collaborative competitor to a whole new level and in a whole other direction.

A great idea is the simple and the obvious idea. The pitching event we attended this evening brought that home. Not with the businesses on display, which were all great, rather the event itself. Bring a bunch of entrepreneurs together and have them pitch to venture capitalists, not for money but for feedback, and have an audience of interested individuals give their opinion. IP was not exposed or undermined, and no-one wanted to steal ideas. This was about taking a look at what people are doing and telling them what you thought. And they were interested; the feedback was genuinely welcomed. Why aren't we offering this level of support back home more often?