If ever an idea has, um, hit its stride quickly, it’s the one we wrote about last week to create an Entrepreneurial Walk of Fame in Kendall Square to honor local and regional entrepreneurs in much the same fashion as the Hollywood Walk of Fame honors movie stars.
As Xconomist Bill Aulet, managing director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center and the idea’s originator, puts it: the Boston Celtics have retired the jerseys of greats like Larry Bird and Kevin McHale, and so have the Bruins, Red Sox, and Patriots. “There are people who deserve recognition like that, here in Kendall Square,” he says. And those peoples are entrepreneurs, who like sports greats not only elevated their company (or team), but inspired others—grownups and kids alike—around the world to try to do great things themselves (more on this later on, as the inspiration aspect to the Walk of Fame is extremely important).
Our story drove a slew of comments on our website—including a number of potential candidates for stars to go with the initial list I advanced. It also generated an onslaught of private e-mails, not only to me, but to Aulet and Cambridge city councilor Leland Cheung, who is championing the idea at city hall. A variety of other media, including the Boston Globe (a syndication partner with Xconomy) picked up the story—and today (Monday) WBUR is planning to air a radio interview with Aulet taped in the plaza just outside the Marriott Hotel in Kendall Square where the first stars might be established. “This story has captured the imagination of people,” Aulet says. Agrees Cheung, “It’s really getting around. People love the idea.”
That’s all good news. But along with the extremely positive response, some potential stumbling blocks are arising as people consider the details of making this idea reality. Here’s a recap of what I’ve learned from Aulet, Cheung, our readers, and various sources, including entrepreneurs. Bottom line: it is a great idea, but nothing like this is simple to implement:
—For starters, there’s currently a prohibition in the city against naming things like street corners (a tried and true Cambridge tradition) that extends to the Entrepreneurial Walk of Fame, Cheung says. “The problem is we’re just held up right now with the whole thing…the council right now has a moratorium on naming anything,” he says. This stems from the fact that apparently some councilors went a bit overboard on this naming tradition, Cheung says—to the extent that things were named without much due diligence about who they were being named after (I guess this means my idea for Xconomy Square won’t be going anywhere). Cheung says the council is working to come up with a better system, “so it should be cleared up in the next couple of months.” That’s politics for you.
—The Entrepreneurial Walk of Fame idea is nevertheless being advanced in the council’s Economic Development Committee (which Cheung chairs), which could bring it to the full council for approval as soon as early October, Cheung says. The committee’s next meeting is set for 4 pm on September 15 in the main chamber of city hall at 795 Massachusetts Avenue. “Everyone who has an idea should come to the September 15 meeting to hammer things out,” he says.
—The phrase “hammer things out” is more apt than we might have realized at first blush. A good idea spurs lots of other ideas and thoughts—and boy are they coming. Some are from people who might be seeking to grab credit for some part of it (as reader George McQuilken humorously pointed out in the comments), others from those who are genuinely interested in advancing the idea but realize the devil is in the details. Here are some of the biggest potential sticking points, with a few thoughts from local innovators.
Who, exactly, do we want to honor? Is it specifically entrepreneurs, or
