June 2009
21 posts
JOURNAL: Resilience Judo →
There are growing signs — from a black swan in savings/debt reduction to massive debt loads to quarterly trillion dollar losses in personal wealth to stagnant/falling consumer purchases to…
Jun 30th
The start-up checklist. →
Jun 30th
Thinking about complexity in the world we live in... →
A few decades ago, I read a book called AI: The Tumultous History of The Search for Artificial Intelligence, by Daniel Crevier. In it, the late and brilliant Donald Michie is quoted as saying…
Jun 28th
Roundup: Scientists Write to Obama, Retrofitting... →
An Open Letter to the President If you think it’s frustrating to be a climate activist watching Washington, imagine what it’s like for the scientists who are running the numbers while…
Jun 28th
The sour Wikipedian →
Forget altruism. Misanthropy and egotism are the fuel of online social production. That’s the conclusion suggested by a new study of the character traits of the contributors to Wikipedia. A team of…
Jun 28th
Why Technology Can't Fulfill →
At the beginning of this summer an Amish guy I met online rode his bicycle out to our home along the foggy Pacifica coast. Online, is of course, the last place you’d ever expect to meet an…
Jun 28th
First LIFT09 France videos are online →
The first LIFT France conference took place last way in Marseilles. Being in Seoul, South Korea, myself, I missed it entirely, but luckily the videos are now becoming…
Jun 23rd
Stop Press for June 19th →
On the library / from a working library quot;I wonder, then, if the promise of an ebook isn’t the book but the library. And if, in all our attention to a new device for reading, we’re neglecting…
Jun 21st
UK report on how cities use innovation to tackle... →
British Council press release: Breakthrough cities is a groundbreaking report on how cities can mobilise creativity and knowledge to tackle compelling social challenges. The…
Jun 20th
Iran, Citizen Media and Media Attention →
It’s been an interesting few days for people who study social media. As the protests over election results have continued in Iran, and Iranian authorities have prevented most mainstream…
Jun 20th
Out of control decision-making →
I’ve just noticed that TED has recently put another talk online by the entertaining and thought-provoking behavioural economist Dan Ariely where he discusses why our feeling of being in…
Jun 20th
Maps as service design: The Incidental →
Schulze & Webb worked as part of the team producing a unique service for the world’s biggest furniture and design event: Salone di Mobile in Milan, this year. The British Council usually…
Jun 17th
Swine fl(u/ight) precautions →
The temperature drill on plane @ Shanghai.
Jun 15th
CENTRALIZED OR DECENTRALIZED ENERGY? →
There’s little doubt that the centralization (the current approach) of alternative energy production is more efficient than decentralization.  It enables location optimization (better…
Jun 15th
Portugese Sporting Information Graphics →
I saw these recently on Chiqui Esteban’s excellent infographicsnews.com. They are from a new newspaper launched in Portugal called “i” They show why the Latin world is ahead in newspaper…
Jun 15th
The New Properties of New Property →
Arnold Schwarzenegger is a lefty, and he does not know it. Or maybe Arnie is one of those righty freedom fighters that end up so far off to the right they end up going full circle and re-emerging on…
Jun 14th
Mobile at Radio 1's Big Weekend →
My thinking behind this year’s mobile offering for Radio 1’s Big Weekend was ‘How do we make it spreadable?’. Of course we’d deliver a wap site as usual. This year we also offered some nice and…
Jun 12th
Alternative Vote: Why we should change to voting... →
Here’s the text of an article on the need for constitutional reform that the Guardian have kindly published today: Parliamentary democracy is on its knees. Lachrymose MPs haunt the corridors of…
Jun 11th
What Is conversational currency? →
Jay Deragon argues in a short piece on AlwaysOn that social media and related tools are generating a new currency that is created by the propagation of your conversation and its…
Jun 11th
Obama’s Cairo Speech →
I don’t think I could improve upon M.J. Rosenberg’s summary of what the meaning of the Obama speech would be to the Mid East. Clearly it was directed at that audience and its reception…
Jun 5th
Mapumental: Time & Scenicness in Maps →
MySociety has given us a sneak peak at Mapumental, a map app that lets you pivot on travel-time, “scenicness”, and house-price in the London area. Just enter a postal code and if…
Jun 5th