March 2009
71 posts
Genetic engineering breakthrough →
Another research break through that takes the public understanding a step closer to the real potentials and possible dark side of stemcell treatments:
“This study in mice has not only shown us how stem cells turn into muscle in the living body, but brought us closer to the day when we can use stem cells to repair wounded flesh or a maimed physique.”
We better start read Mary Shelley...
Honda connects brain thoughts with robotics →
Their have been a lot of research for some time where researchers have learned to read and interpret brain signals. Before this I haven’t seen a commercial company on another business than the medical showing of results in this area.
Users vs. Experts - who to trust for health... →
Health is an increasingly collaborative area, but how should society manage it?
Given "Expert" Advice, Brains Shut Down | Wired... →
This ministudy confirms that we first and foremost are followers which in turn makes us herding creatures. Is anyone surprised?
The problem is really that we constantly are rationalizing about ourselves and maintain a mental image of ourselves as individually rational and thinking beings.
Eide Neurolearning Blog: fMRI of Learning Styles:... →
Are you verbal or visual? Interesting that theories are confirmed but it seems like a strange test though… I think I am a visual learner, but scored 7/15 on the test.
Of course there are many more pieces of this puzzle to add…
Looking ahead (Shell) : scenarios →
Interested in scenarios? Here you can see Shells scenarios for 2050.
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Ikea Announces Car-Pooling Service - Wheels Blog -... →
Another project in another industry. Last time I posted about IKEA here, it was about phone and 3G services activity in Spain.
Are we seeing local activities or are they centrally encouraged?
Stem Cell Therapy To Grow Bigger Breasts →
A small indicator about how stem cell therapy might creep into our daily lives.
Do nations go to war over water? : Article :... →
An article arguing against popular truth that lack of clean water will be a reason for armed conflict: water is NOT a cause of wars. Oil on the other hand is a real source of conflict. The reason is that water is apparently more included in e g food trade agreements, which means that water trade is in many cases already negotiated but invisible.
Water management will need to adapt. But the...
FT.com / Comment - Cloud control →
A serious and good article about Cloud computing and how it might/is on it’s way to transform the IT world in general and more specifically the corporate IT departments.
A revolution that is sweeping through corporate data centres is the untold secret of modern business. The information factories of the digital age are going through a transition that is every bit as significant as the advent...
Watching the Income Tax System Implode →
Interesting and though provoking writing about that tax system will implode due to it’s own complexity. I somewhat agree that complexity might be a huge problem, but what we see here in Sweden is a situation where Skatteverket (IRS) in fact are on top of some of these things. It is the politicians that seems to be the problem since don’t understand the consequences of their decisions....
Tesla's Model S is here (a prototype, anyway) | Up... →
A step forward for electric cars.
The Long Tail - Wired Blogs : Terrific survey of... →
Is the free business models users innovative? The biggest group is using ads: 34%… Then there is a long tail of users of other models. It almost looks like a long tail of different models… ;-)
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Patrol watches Texas-Mexico border - from pub in... →
This is an interesting and maybe frightening example of crowdsourcing the surveillance of a critical border. If this would appeal to normal citizens, it would probably not be a problem. It would be like parents walking the streets in the city at night to signal that teen agers know they aren’t alone.
I would guess that this would attract and connect a somewhat more militant and radical...
World Economic Forum - Global Information... →
Even if these kinds of results are interesting and encouraging, it is important to remember that it is real social, cultural and economical results that counts.
Denmark and Sweden once again lead the rankings ofThe Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009, released for the eighth consecutive year by the World Economic Forum. The United States follows suit, up one position from last year,...
McKinsey: What Matters: Globalization: slowed but... →
Still, unless the world sees a major war or pandemic, this is more likely a bump in the road than an end to globalization. Yes there will be temporary slowdowns but there also will be periods of catch-up and acceleration as well. Most of the major processes favoring globalization are already in place.
Nice to read something from somebody trying to be a bit more positive for a change!
Gary Hamel on Managing Generation Y - the Facebook... →
Virtual World Developer MindArk Granted Real World... →
Will this open up the possibilities with new virtual bank services and new financial models or does this mean that the traditional regulatory system have been granted control and insight of another digital and borderless domain?
To tweet or not to tweet at halftime - is it a... →
Twittering during a basketball game…? Interesting discussion and I agree that it might come back as an example in the discussions around using social software at work…
(via Wikinomics blog)
MIT Backs Free Access to Scientific Papers | Wired... →
Finally it happens! A large academic institution is playing their trump cards and argue that they, who actually have produced the knowledge, should decide for themselves about when and how to publish research articles!
“Who actually should be controlling the scholarly record?” Abelson asked. “Universities have a mission that has something to do with producing and disseminating...
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Worldchanging: Fifth Scenario Thinking →
Input on stretching the scenario planning thinking further. It aims at catching what usually falls between a set of good and interesting but sometimes unsurprising scenarios and the wild cards where the ramifications are too extreme to grasp. Some kind of “double stretch scenarios” maybe??
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Taking Risks Is More Important than Stability... →
Online poll on the issue in innovation in Business Week is maybe providing biased result but could be interesting anyway.
The answer to the question ““What would you tell your boss to boost innovation at your company?” was:
Appoint a chief innovation officer 8%
Encourage all employees to submit ideas for new products 55%
Hire an outside innovation firm 3%
Increase R & D spending...
Top Internet Threats: Censorship to Warrantless... →
When Internet is diffusing to all individuals globally the fundamental organizational order of things is challenged.
This post in Wired is summing up some of the different fronts in the threat vs Internet.
I wrote about the possible future scenarios of the communications revolution vs the traditional society in my blog a year ago.
Wikinomics» Blog Archive
» Crowdsourcing on... →
Ushahidi seems to be a really interesting example of a technology that might have real political impact. By integrating mobile phone technology (SMS) and Internet reporting and feedback becomes available everywhere as long there is a mobile phone network.
WatchThe Sequoia “RIP: Good Times” presentation: Here it is » VentureBeat
How bad is the economic situation? Look at Sequoia Capitals slides to get a clue and some forecast.
Is it really from Sequoia? Venture Beat assumes so:
Now, a very kind anonymous tipster has sent in the slides used at the meeting. Because it matches previously-leaked information, we’re assuming it’s real.
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Henry Mintzberg: America's monumental failure of... →
An angry article pointing at the management culture, behavior and education as culprits.
He is not in favor of saving the big (sick) corporations:
And beyond: Our planet is becoming as sick as many of these corporations, yet we are being implored to get back to consumption. Fix the problem now; continue to forget about the future. Except this time, we may be consuming ourselves.
LET IT DIE: Rushkoff on the economy →
Even if I think Rushkoff sees things a bit too simple his analysis is really interesting and he have some interesting points.
He says e g this about the financial meltdown:
So what went wrong? Nothing. The system worked exactly as it was supposed to. The problem was that after America’s post WWII expansion, there was really no longer any real growth area in the economy from which to extract...
In Iraq withdrawal, equipment poses a key... →
They US military are thinking of storing some of the equipment in the Middle East instead of taking it home or move it to Afganistan.
But as important, millions of tons of armor and weaponry will be used to restock huge U.S.-run warehouses across the Middle East — in case it is needed in the future.
The plans follow a pattern set by the military for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and...
Creative Entrepreneurship in a Downturn — HBS... →
A: My advice here is simple: Think business model.
Most managers tend to focus on cost management and operational efficiencies when they strategize during a downturn. While there is nothing wrong with that, I do think such measures often miss the unintended consequences of the actions.
Cost cutting can severely impair your ability to be competitive or could cause you to lose customers. This...
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Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable « Clay... →
A must read! Clay Shirky puts the newspaper issue in context in a really good way.
Two core insights:
It makes increasingly less sense even to talk about a publishing industry, because the core problem publishing solves — the incredible difficulty, complexity, and expense of making something available to the public — has stopped being a problem.
Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is...
Open source is a company; social media is a... →
Chris Anderson tries to answer a question that at first sounded confused, but then turned interesting. I am not at all sure that the answer is so easy as Anderson is putting it.
Interesting reference about Charles Barnard though…
UN report - How to tackle a disturbing consequence... →
It is interesting to read a report from the UN that argue for legalization of drugs.
Over time, international controls have limited the number of people who take illicit drugs to a small fraction of the world’s adult population, much smaller than those who use other addictive substances, like tobacco and alcohol. This undeniable success has also had a dramatic unintended consequence: a criminal...
WatchTim Berners-Lee on the next Web | Video on TED.com
20 years ago today Tim Berners-Lee sent the first memo describing his idea of a networked hypertext based communication protocol. Listen to him talking a few minutes about and then on what he is working on now: a way of linking all the DATA in the world.
Global warming 'will be worse than expected' warns... →
“Internet monitored and controlled, even in... →
There is a crucial question almost noone seems to ask: can hierarchical structures (e g the nation states) and the Internet coexist in the long run given the human nature?
Since some time both nation states and corporations are trying to restrict the activities in the Internet. And the more Internet spreads the more organizations are recognizing new and unwanted effects.
Taking it to the...
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GOVERNING: Disaster warnings/March 2009 →
Amanda Ripley writes about the logic of catastrophe management. How should warnings be formulated?
An relevant topic for most government officials and other leaders on this planet. Even if we not are talking about natural catastrophies…
“This much is certain: when we finally enter into the post-crisis period, the...”
– The new normal - The McKinsey Quarterly - The new normal - Strategy - Strategic Thinking
It is always interesting to read somebody who basically have written exactly the same things and make the sames conclusions that you are doing yourself. At the same day!!
WatchPattie Maes demos the Sixth Sense | Video on TED.com
An 8 minute video where Patti explains more behind the concept behind “sixth sense” videos I published some time ago here and here
WatchTED.com: Juan Enriquez shares mindboggling new science - fun presentation about the financial crisis and the next evolutionary step caused by technology - in this case biotech and genomics.
It is very clear that these biological technologies, of which he speak, are developing as I write, but he is making it a bit easy for himself when he make implicit assumptions (in fact doesn’t touch at...
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LBS/Management 2.0/Labnotes October 2008 →
Interesting writing from London Business School of about e g managing generation Y
"Social Media is Here to Stay... Now What?" →
One of the foremost researchers in social media is sharing her thoughts about the area:
1) How did social media - and social network sites in particular - gain traction in the US? And how should we think about network effects? 2) What are some core differences between how teens leverage social media and how adults engage with these same tools? 3) How is social media reconfiguring social...
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Global Guerrillas: TRIBES! →
Which is the solution to human survival? Building a TRIBE! John Robb sketches out what constitutes a tribe:
Shared histories and historical narratives
Rites of passage
Rules of conduct and honor
Sharing is prized
Segmental organization with overlapping skill sets
Reciprocal loyalty
“The first law of mass media
Organizations will work tirelessly to...”
– Seth’s Blog: The first law of mass media
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A Global Retreat As Economies Dry Up -... →
When economy is stalling a lot of people are laid off and starting to return to their home countries.
“You are seeing an undoing of a lot of the drivers of growth that we relied on for the last 20 years,” said Simon Johnson, an MIT economics professor and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. “I do think we’ll have a lost decade, an unwinding of labor...
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WatchNeuromarketing » Signs and Sales DO Work
so eat before you shop! This experiment shows, rather unscientifically though, that signs do work in the store and underlines how emotional shopping behavior really is.
What advice do Martin Lindstrom have to us in the end of the program:
Make a list
Disrupt your routine
Eat before shopping
In the end Martin is telling us that if we are hungry...
