April 2009
54 posts
Reinventing the Book in the Age of the Web →
There’s a lot of excitement about ebooks these days, and rightly so. While Amazon doesn’t release sales figures for the Kindle, there’s no question that it represents a turning point in the public…
Procter takes a real gamble →
INNOVATION: “How P&G Plans To Clean Up: CEO A.G. Lafley is fully focused on pushing growth even as markets are shrinking around the globe,” interview with Roger O. Crockett, BusinessWeek, 13…
Social networking sites as business tools →
anthrodesign is a Yahoo! group of (currently 1693) individuals interested in the role of applied anthropology in the corporate, public sector, and medical contexts.
A recent…
Links for 2009-04-29 [del.icio.us] →
The new Architectural Review [The Sesquipedalist]
“Inevitably I compare any architectural magazine with my fictional perfect ideal version.” And then Steve outlines a fantastic vision of what an…
CR Annual Best in Book: Nokia viNe →
The current issue of CR features The Annual, showcasing the best work of the past year. Nine projects have been chosen for our Best in Book section, the ultimate accolade. We will feature…
An Aspirational Twitter →
Big couple of weeks for Twitter. Biz was on Colbert. Ashton got a million followers and bought a bunch of mosquito nets. Oprah showed up sans shift key. Twitter seems to be on the…
Reinventing the Book in the Age of the Web →
There’s a lot of excitement about ebooks these days, and rightly so. While Amazon doesn’t release sales figures for the Kindle, there’s no question that it represents a turning point in the public…
BIG →
Dan very kindly took me to a talk by Bjarke Ingels last night. It was very good. I liked the architecture, but I’m not really qualified to talk about it. However, it was really…
If US government contractors had designed the... →
It’s an unseasonably beautiful day here in Western Massachusetts, roughly 30 degrees farenheight higher than it has any right to be, and I was sitting on my front stoop reading when my local census…
The beautiful baby brain →
Jonah Lehrer has an excellent piece in today’s Boston Globe about how babies’ brains develop and what psychologists are starting to understand about the infant mind. It’s largely riffing…
Keynote Kung-fu Two →
You’ve taken some hits. Being taken apart by the execs because they could smell you weren’t prepared. The slide deck you loved that the audience ignored. That guy… snoring. In the front row. …
The unripened word →
He was off by two centuries and a medium or two, but it was, nevertheless, the French poet and bureaucrat Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine who, in an 1831 letter, foretold all: Before this…
The Social Enterprise →
I’m a huge fan of lists. If they’re read with some existing context/knowledge, they’re an incredible way to trigger ideas. So, here’s a list from notes made from a talk by SocialText’s Ross…
LINKS: PANDEMIC? →
In a hyper-connected world, even small events can turn into global disasters. More:
The BBC has some personal stories (this one was particularly interesting):
I work as a resident doctor in one…
LINKS: PANDEMIC? →
In a hyper-connected world, even small events can turn into global disasters. More:
The BBC has some personal stories (this one was particularly interesting):
I work as a resident doctor in one…
Locavore's Open Data →
Buster McLeod is taking an “open data” policy towards his latest project, Locavore the iPhone app, by revealing the first month’s stats. Locavore is a great app that helps you eat…
How to Save Newspapers (Or, Why the NYT Should... →
It’s a paradox: society can’t survive without newspapers, but newspapers can’t survive 21st century economics. Is there a solution? Let me step back into my M&A shoes for a second, and humbly…
Reverse psychology in a pill: anti-placebo →
You may be aware of the placebo effect, where an inert pill has an effect because of what the patient thinks it does. You may even be aware of the nocebo effect, where an inert pill…
CRTV: Japan’s New Mohemians →
M-novels, M-soap operas and a musician who goes on world tour from his living room - Kirsty Allison reports from Tokyo in this special CR film on Japan’s mobile culture
More on…
How to Save Newspapers (Or, Why the NYT Should... →
It’s a paradox: society can’t survive without newspapers, but newspapers can’t survive 21st century economics. Is there a solution? Let me step back into my M&A shoes for a second, and humbly…
BBC iPlayer goes HD, adds higher quality streams,... →
N.B. Editors note: As Chris Cornwall noticed last week there was a premature announcement of BBC iPlayer going HD. But now it’s ready, and Anthony has the full details. Internet video used to…
Confluence and JIRA --- $5, for small teams... →
You heard that right. We’re giving away fully functional 5 user licenses of Confluence and JIRA through April 24th for five bucks each. Atlassian wants to help small businesses, nimble teams…
Choice blindness →
New Scientist has a fascinating article on some ‘I wish I’d thought of that’ research that looks at how we justify our choices, even when the thing we’ve chosen has been unknowingly swapped….
How to Draw and Judge Quadrant Diagrams →
The quadrant diagram has achieved the status of an intellectual farce. If you, as a presenter, do not make an ironic joke when you throw one on the screen, you will automatically lose a lot of…
Mobiles in Education on Mobiles (Loop) →
A concise overview of mobile phones in education from Michael Trucano at the World Bank - including a video of the text2speech project in action. Earlier this year the …
BBC HD: Joining the BBC iPlayer family →
Hello everyone Another week, and another step forward for BBC HD to share with you. There have been hints, veiled references, and then announcements that it is imminent but finally BBC HD -…
Forbes: “The Best Country For Business In The... →
Well, Forbes magazine has given progressive advocates of climate action a terrific talking point: The “best country for business in the world” — for two years running — is uber-green Denmark…
The Change We Need: DIY on a Civic Scale →
I’ve been working a lot lately to imagine what Government 2.0 might look like. One of the most inspiring and thought-provoking stories I’ve read recently might not look like a Gov 2.0 story, but…
Low-Fi Sci-Fi →
If the main objective of a book cover is to make you stop, pick up said book, perhaps read the back or the first few lines (and consider buying it, of course) then the new Gollancz range…
The Chinese stimulus package: Is it starting to... →
FRONT PAGE: “China Turns A Corner As Spending Takes Hold,” by Andrew Batson, Wall Street Journal, 11-12 April 2009.
China’s $585B is second only to the U.S.’s roughly $800B. In China, demand is…
Amazing 3D immersion technology →
Thanks to the good folks at WATG’s Wimberly Labs, we got a tour today of some truly remarkable visualization and collaboration technology, including EON Reality’s immersive 3D room.
The…
Hemispheres of influence →
Discover Magazine has an interesting Carl Zimmer article on one of the most intriguing questions in neuroscience - why do we have two cortical hemispheres? And why are they not quite the…
Graphic Series: Earthly Ideas, 20-Minute... →
This week’s cartoon describes 20-Minute Neighborhoods. This term for walkable communities, which has often been used by urban planners, gained a lot of attention in Oregon last summer as…
CERA on the reverse oil shock →
BUSINESS DAY: “Rising Fear Of a Future Oil Shock,” by Jad Mouawad, New York Times, 27 March 2009.
The sharp reduction in global demand means far less near-term investment in production…
04.07.09: Belfast →
Shared by Guy
David Byrne’s capsule UK histories
I’d been to Belfast twice before. Once for an art exhibit, and once to visit my cousin Maureen, who married a sheep farmer in a little town about…
The Pond →
“Can I work remote?” I cringe. It’s Ian and Ian is a senior engineer. He’s a rock. He gets it done. I never have to ask him twice and, after six years, Ian has every right to ask to work remote….
Final Word On Goldman Sachs…’WE WANT ANSWERS’! →
The New York Times finally ran a story…conveniently after Goldman ‘Sweaty Ball’ Sachs had raised their $5 billion…with the dumb ass title ‘Big Profits, Big Questions ‘. It’s a good read no doubt….
Gamers Anonymous →
I am not a gamer.
I do not consider myself a gaming enthusiast, I do not belong to any kind of “gaming community” and I have not kept my finger on the proverbial pulse of interactive entertainment…
(un)book about books and unbooks →
Shared by Guy
Great idea. I want to do this at #Reboot11 - overnight MT transcriptions
Jeremy’s finished The Little Book Of Bookcamp and you can get one from blurb. (Above is…
04.01.09: Newcastle upon Tyne/Gateshead →
Shared by Guy
David Byrne tours the NE of UK, with amazing writeups
I have memories of this town as a gray, depressed, former industrial giant that’s been turning its previously abandoned and…
Africa perspective on the role of mobile... →
Last week, the W3C Mobile Web Initiative organised a workshop on the “Africa Perspective on the Role of Mobile Technologies in Fostering Social Development” in Maputo,…
Best Way to Lose Weight: Live Near the Grocery... →
If you want to lose weight, move closer to your food: A new study from the University of British Columbia shows people who live within a kilometre of a grocery store are half as likely to be…
Solar Takes America Block By Block →
by Claire Baylis
So you think small-scale solar remains the preserve of die-hard environmentalists? Think again. A new movement gathering momentum in the US could make photovoltaics a common…
Inevitable Minds →
The rock ant is tiny, even for an ant. Individually each ant is the size of comma on this page. Their colonies are small too. Numbering about 100 workers, plus one queen, they normally nest between…
Active Networks on Facebook →
Today Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg posted How Many Friends Can You Have? as a followup to her Ad Age Digital Conference keynote. Based on some research by their Data Team she points out the…
The stream →
“Controlling the stream” is not just one of the major life-challenges facing elderly gentlemen; it is the center of industrial competition on the realtime social network that we once termed “Web…
Oxfam’s new campaign on UK poverty →
Image via Wikipedia
Tomorrow, Oxfam are to launch a new campaign on UK poverty led by a new online character. Meet Fred.
Their words: “Now, more than ever, it…
Show Us the Ball →
A cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions is actually a carbon tax. So let’s stop hiding the ball and have a strategy, message and messenger that tell it like it is.
Postopolis! LA, day two / Los Angeles →
(Photos to follow)
Day two of Postopolis! LA. I now have a fingernail grip on the city, and the place is increasingly growing on me.
My friend Ben Cerveny took me for a drive around LA, not…
The rise of the mobile divides →
Rich Ling is a sociologist at the Telenor research institute and a visiting professor at the IT University of Copenhagen, who is particularly interested in understanding the…