It's the network, baby Harold Jarche has written a good, succinct post on the shift managers have to make from hierarchy to network. It makes lots of sense to me, and it's a challenge I'm seeing lots of organisations wrestle with. Harold challenges the...

Another disintermediator... John Steen asks,Have you heard of Ruslan Kogan? I think he is one of the most exciting business entrepreneurs in recent years. I only got to hear about him when the major Australian electronics retailers started to complain about how...

Networks and complexity I enjoyed Antony Mayfield's notes on business networks. This line resonated strongly:We don’t grasp how magnificently, terrifyingly complex networks are. We like to draw pictures of them and then think we’ve captured their meaning, when they are more like the...

Thoughts on networks Roland Harwood has written a nice post about working in networks. Short on jargon, long on common sense. Viv and I often riff on Roland's mantra: conversations, then relationships, then transactions. He remembers the days of the maligned "old boy...

Benny Hill on social networks In a hierarchical world, the cohesive authority group has the edge over a loose agglomeration of individuals. In a networked world, the scales may be reversed. The loose agglomeration have a far higher capacity to reorganise themselves, and the authority...

Mickey Mouse and Social Media Rob makes a great point in his post about Boingo's human approach to social media. At Disney the surface of the Brand Icon never changes but inside the mask is a person who changes all the time and so is...

The whites of their eyes Roland Harwood talks about the range of innovation projects made possible by the net, from global to hyper-local. He includes this viewWhat they miss is the power of people connecting face to face, so they can literally seeing the whites...

In the shadow of networks Earl Mardle reflects on James Kunstler's post: Scary people, scary times. Kunstler writes about the massive climate, financial and energy challenges we face and observes:On the eve of the only other comparable national convulsion -- the lead-up to the Civil...

Open Data Ton Zijlstra describes his recent presentation on Open Data and Government. His slideshare on this struck me as a brilliant, insightful explanation of the whole issue and why it really matters. And a terrific example of weaving together very specific...

Networks as living systems Andrew Rixon shares this presentation on networks as living systems. I enjoyed it. Living systems mappingView more presentations from AndrewRixon....

Trolls Stumbled on this and wanted to share it. ...

Thinking images This blog made me think: What is the shape of thought?. It kicks off with this provocative quote:"Words and language, whether written or spoken, do not seem to play any part in my thought processes. The psychological entities that serve...

Being different I liked this argument for taking the risk of being different, from Gavin Heaton: there's already a surfeit of sameness in the world. But it is precisely because of this connectedness that you must take the risk with your idea,...

Web Shadows A long time ago, the estimable Antony Mayfield was kind enough to send me a review copy his new book, Me and My Web Shadow. This is a great book to give anyone who wants a primer on all things...

Connections... Viv emailed me this article from Businessweek: The importance of connecting with colleagues. If you can forgive the slightly office politics tone, there's some interesting nuggets here. For instance, there was research looking at the effect of students' locations in...