It's the people... Earl has a nice riff on Euan's post about the real value in networks being the people and not the technology. Euan puts a better suit on something I've been saying since I found out what end-to-end meant. That the...

Revoultions are chaotic A tweet from Jeff Jarvis led me to Clay Shirky's post: Newspapers and thinking the unthinkable. Clay looks back to Gutenberg and says that while we understand a lot about the world before printing, and even more about the world...

The white economy I was reading how the Black Economy is booming as the banks are unable to provide finance to business. It just made me wonder if we should also acknowledge a White Economy, which is all the great stuff that gets...

Life Inc I like the sound of Douglas Rushkoff's new book, Life Inc. Something has gone terribly wrong. Unquestionably but seemingly inexplicably, we have come to live in a world where the market has insinuated itself into every area of our lives....

Hacking education There's a good post by Fred Wilson: Hacking Education (continued). Here's a couple of snippets but I urge you to read it all. The education system we currently have was built to train the industrial worker. As we move to...

Panic and response I like Bruce Sterling's speech at Webstock.Market failures have blown holes in civil society. The Greenhouse Effect is a market failure. The American health system is a market failure — and most other people’s health systems don’t make much commercial...

Cigarette breaks and innovation I thought this event looked quite interesting when it cost £150 to get in. Now that the good people at NESTA have made it free, it's even more so. It's a day long workshop on March 20th. Deciphering trust: How...

Let them take cake I was very impressed by Dr Ben Goldacre in this remarkable TV smackdown of Prof Susan Greenfield and Dr Aric Sigman's sensational claims about Facebook rotting children's brains. There's even more in Ben Goldacre's Bad Science blog. Watching this stuff,...

Twitter backlash Good post by Lloyd Davis on the recent flurry of articles having a go at Twitter....

Challenging blackout Earl Mardle writes about New Zealand's proposals to black out alleged copyright infringers - the idea is to cut off their access on the mere accusation of illegal downloading. It sounds draconian and Canute-like. Still, reading Earl's analysis of how...

Jennifer's back My friend Jennifer Rice has just started a new business, Fruitful, to help/encourage companies that emphasise social good. It's great to see Jennifer heading out on her own again and it seems to have coincided with a return to blogging....

Maverick professor has some interesting lessons Nick Smith highlighted this article in a recent tweet: Professor makes his mark, but it costs him his job. Prof Denis Rancourt implemented Ben Zander's idea of giving all his students an A grade at the start of term. The...

Community on community I met up with Neil Perkin today and heard about his elegant solution to making a presentation about community. Which was to get a community to do it for him. Actually, Neil did a bit of collating and linking, but...

Open for conversation Earl has a good post about how Obama is continuing to work with his network of supporters. Earl's highlighted some key phrases that resonate for me, emphasising the value of talking and sharing rather than simply pushing out sound bites....

Social banking There are few things I enjoy more than heady conversations about disintermediation. And the disintermediation of the banking industry has a special appeal. So last night's gig at NESTA, a launch event for an initiative called Webank, was very stimulating....