Beginning last year, I noticed a pattern on Podtech‘s podcasts with and by venture capitalists. The theme was, "…if someone brings us a business plan and it DOESN’T include open source software or outsourcing of certain functions, we won’t fund it. Why re-invent the wheel?"

This theme has been discussed at CIOInsight, Computerworld and other publications, but today’s Washington Post had an article entitled, "The New Dot Economy. Plummeting Costs Give Rise to a Wave of Internet Entrepreneurs" which expressly discussed this theme.

The tsunami of open source software, cheap hosting, scalable-by-the-drink on-demand offerings like Amazon’s, and rapid programming techniques like Ruby on Rails, are providing the ability to quickly put ideas and vision into action and deliverable products.

The good news? Huge innovation. The bad news? Well…how many social bookmarking sites does the world need?

I’m stunned with the entrepreneurs I’m guiding and the projects which involve me directly. It’s exciting but I realize that if this is happening here in Minnesota, imagine what’s happening in some corner of New Delhi or Beijing?