Dr. Mohammed Yunus collected his Nobel Peace Prize speech the other night in Oslo. Yunus has been my hero since I read his book in college and learned about Grameen, but I didn’t realize how remarkable of a speaker he is. The text of his speech is available here. Tidbits that I found particularly interesting: [...]
This year’s social capitalist awards, sponsored by Fast Company, and Monitor group were released. The problem with having access to the web while you’re trying to finish final projects is that I spend hours and hours researching these organizations. All fantastic in their own way. Find the 43 winners here: The 2007 Social Capitalist Awards
A vision for a convergent alarm clock Originally uploaded by quami77. Dearest Consumer Electronics Manufacturers, I know you, collectively, have a hard time playing in the same sandbox, but I beg of you, please, please solve this problem soon. You can’t blame it on the bully anymore, Microsoft is being nice now (but whatever happened [...]
Wealth & Politics Panel: Gregg EasterbrookHazel Henderson * Milton Friedman (who just passed away recently) was the first to hold the notion that standard measurements of economics only tell half the story.* Hazel Henderson grew up in patriarchal society (Britain) and realized that her mother was producing the basic fabric of wealth– but was not [...]
Information Panel: Jimmy Wales, wikipediaAmy Czerwinski, Microsoft * Amy referenced attention economy (buzzword alert * Microsoft is doing research about user interruption– When is the best time to interrupt someone to alert them about something? (an email, an impending task, etc)* Don Norman: recognized that interruption during a task is worse than an interruption later.* [...]
Energy Discussion:Gunther Pauli & Reginald Modlin * The first person to write about “healthy cities” was Leonardo Da Vinci* Da Vinci talked a lot about “flow”. He saw the importance of flow in cities, the flows of people, and even the flow of joy in the body. Leonardo was also known for the integration of [...]
Massive Change Global Visionaries Symposium Originally uploaded by quami77. This weekend, I skipped the Michigan-Ohio State football game to go to the Global Visionaries Symposium put together by the MCA and Bruce Mau’s Massive Change campaign/exhibit. It was well worth it. I’ll be posting notes from the conference over the next few days. Squatter citiesStewart [...]
There is a Bizweek article about Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com’s "Mechanical Turk" which aspires to be a platform for "human intelligence tasks". There is huge potential here… but… why Amazon? I have trawled around and can’t really seem to place my finger on why here, why now (apparently Mechanical Turk has been up for a [...]
I always used to be wary of books that read “N ways to ______”. That is, I guess, until I read Tom Kelley’s book, the 10 Faces of Innovation. Here is a list of 12 consumer values to drive tech related innovations– This comes from Social technologies, a company that I was introduced to at [...]
With the advent of low cost video chat, faster bandwith and connectivity, and now haptics on the horizon , I wonder how long it will be until retailers don’t need to travel to manufacturers to “experience” different choices in materials. I know some meetings still might require face-to-face, real time ineraction, but how much of [...]
Tomorrow is the kickoff for the University of Chicago GSB’s New Venture Challenge. I’m leaving class early with a team of design students to make it there on time. I’m a little apprehensive of a swarm of MBAs thinking I’m some sort of "decorator" and ask me to "design something cool" to sell (pfft). Also, [...]
Participants:Nick Aster – Treehugger.comDavid Geihufe – CivicSpaceJustin Perking: Care2.com , movingideas.orgMartin Kearns: Green Media Toolshed Key takeaways: * On average, the # of social ties that internet users have is greater than non-internet users by 4 (37 v. 33). * Where has the time come from to connect with other people? Two places: Sleep and [...]
