Old wineskins, new wine, and bottling up value in technology
In a brief and penetrating post, John Hagel and John Seely Brown focus the question best set up (though not by them) in the Biblical metaphor of wine and wineskins. Our institutions are the old wineskins. The new wine of disruptive technological innovation is being steadily poured into them. Its value is increasingly failing to … Continue reading
Toward the future of the conference – knowledge networking by the sea. #NNN13
One of the themes of my professional life has been conferences. Organizing, hosting, moderating, attending, and even speaking. As an undergraduate at Cambridge I once penned a guide on how to run them. Last spring I wrote a piece about a series of 9 I had attended within a period of 3 months – each … Continue reading
Has the Social Media #Bubble Popped? #sm #IPO #Facebook
I posted earlier on the debacle of the Facebook IPO and some longer-term considerations in respect of the valuation and staying-power of these early-generation social media brands. And they are early-generation. Part of the problem we are facing is that we are in the throes of exponential change. One thing that means is that we … Continue reading
Federal #Science and Ideology: #DC and the #Valley
In a largely historical op-ed in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, Michael Lubell of CUNY and the American Physical Society lambastes the current parties for their inability to agree on the priority of science funding – in marked contrast to earlier efforts over the past generation when, despite differences of emphasis, bipartisan collaboration led … Continue reading
#Apple CSR #Strategy – #Risk risk risk
Triple Pundit has just published a strong critique of Apple’s approach to corporate social responsibility. The leadership point is especially telling (see my post earlier today), but in general what this sharp series of points suggests to me is that with the passing of the baton a fresh approach is being explored that has yet … Continue reading
#Facebook again: And Biz Models
Doc Searls has taken the critical analysis of Facebook’s value to another level, by pointing out the fundamental weakness of its ad-supported revenue model. His argument is worth serious reading. Put a somewhat different way: We assume too readily that exponential pressures mean we can just draw lines up graph paper from anything that has … Continue reading
#Facebook being dumped, says Reuters: What’s the real issue? Well, there are 3.
US STOCKS-Wall St rebounds, but investors dump Facebook | Reuters. Whether Facebook is “worth” $100bn or (as one serious voice suggests) $30bn is neither here nor there – unless, of course, you bought your stake on Friday. The P/E ratio is way out of whack with comparable companies like Google – though, as can … Continue reading
The #CSR Business: Alignment and Transparency in C21
In the old (pre-Murdoch) days, The Times of London, which then had a fair claim to be the world’s premier newspaper, promoted itself for years with the tagline, “When The Times speaks, the world listens.” But in the 1960s when I first began reading it the entire front page was still filled with classified ads. … Continue reading
Of #Work and Its #Future: #workplace #design humans and exponential #change
UNWIRED :: WORKTECH 12 New York. I’m unpacking my thinking after one of the most stimulating days in some time – Unwired’s NYC version of their WorkTech conference that is offered around the planet. The future of work and the workplace brings together people from real estate, architecture, interior design, human resources, and assorted other … Continue reading
#California and Destiny: #Valley #DC #China #Innovation #Singularity #TED et al.
As news keeps coming in of California’s decline – budget, public schooling, even the UC system – some strategic stock-taking is in order. I have written before of the disastrous divide between the culture of Silicon Valley and that of Washington, DC. Here’s a sample: https://nigelcameron.wordpress.com/risk/the-valleydc-divide/ Part of what I note is that one thing these two … Continue reading