future
Free people offering their labour in exchange for monetary reward has been fundamental concept for western society. Since the mid-nineteenth century we have not really used forced labour for production. But two examples in recent times make me wonder if that assumption still holds true: 1. Prisoners painted room
civil society
I was reading Bill Bonner's recent post Zombies Born of Government Spending where he posits the notion of zombies in our economy. As Bill defines it: "In economic terms, a zombie is a parasite. He contributes less to the economy than he takes from it. He lives
social innovation
Jeff Jarvis sparked my thinking on this recently with his post on The Jobless Future. As Jeff so bluntly stated: "We’re not going to have a jobless recovery. We’re going to have a jobless future. Holding out blind hope for the magical appearance of new jobs and
management & leadership
Over the past 150 years businesses have dealt with the challenges of increased scale by optimizing processes, resource allocation and expenditure. However, there is a limit to how much one can optimize a business and not damage the society within which that business exists. I have spent a goodly part
civil society
Want is a funny word. It can mean different things, such as: "absence or deficiency of something desirable or requisite" or "to be lacking or absent, as a part or thing necessary to completeness", or "to feel a need or a desire for; wish for&
future
I have argued previously that capitalism is broken and that we need to find new approaches that are good for people, animals and the planet. Further I asked if social innovation might be part of that new approach. The world is facing an unprecedented financial crisis that is creating a
civil society
One of the people who is vocal in his calls for change in how we do things in our westernised societies is Umair Haque. His work is worth reading whether or not you agree with his perspective. Some of his recent provocative tweets include: History may have been ruled by
innovation
This rare video of US Air Force Colonel John Boyd shows his 1991 House Armed Services Committee Testimony and is worth watching. Many consider him to be one of the best strategic thinkers of the twentieth century and his ideas have influenced many of today's leading strategists. Of
civil society
Yesterday in New South Wales there was a major shift in the state's political landscape. We saw a significant shift in voting with enormous swings against the ALP across the state and especially in traditional heartland seats. The Liberals won seats in which they'd never imagined
innovation
This is a fascinating interview by Parag Khanna (@paragkhanna) with Don Tapscott (@dtapscott). Tapscott discusses the potential upside and downside of collaborative revolutions for societies around the world and the implications for dissent, noting that: "the Internet radically drops the cost of dissent"
social computing & social media
I had a chat with Stilgherrian (@stilgherrian) on ZDNet's Patch Monday along with Open-source software advocate and developer Jeff Waugh (@jdub) and James Purser (@purserj) from Collaborynth, a consultancy that develops collaboration tools for business, government and not-for-profits. You can listen to our discussion on
civil society
Historian Niall Ferguson, in his Civilization: The West and the Rest, notes that: "For 500 years the West patented six killer applications that set it apart. The first to download them was Japan. Over the last century, one Asian country after another has downloaded these killer apps — competition, modern