Call #360: Facebook's IPO
2012-02-06
It probably won't make the Earth wobble on its axis, but Facebook's huge pending IPO is making waves among investors, the technorati and others.
Facebook is already a major force in many domains as it races toward its first billion members -- a seventh of the population on the planet. It's become expert at stretching privacy boundaries (heard of passive sharing?).
With Al Chang, Paul Kedrosky, David Blumenstein, Jorgen van der Sloot, Stuart Henshall and Aaron Gabin, let's discuss:
- What effects will the IPO have across the industry?
- How might Facebook use the proceeds? Acquisitions?
- Is it really worth more than Disney and GM?
- What might be the path of Facebook's downfall?
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Call #359: Lessons from the Arab Spring
2012-01-16
It's been a year since the rise of the Arab Spring. Multiple leaders have fallen, several countries are still mired in struggle, and a few have even held elections.
Many factors have been credited as contributing to the Arab Spring, including Wikileaks, the price of bread and broad use of Facebook and Twitter. How much they actually contributed is up for debate.
Together, let's discuss:
- What broad lessons can we draw from the year's events?
- How have those events affected others around the world?
- Where might these forces take us over the next few years?
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Call #358: Dark Innovation Redux
2011-12-19
Last week we began our discussion about the dark side of innovation, but there was much more to cover, so let's stay on the topic.
Like mood music, Congress is debating amendments to the SOPA and Protect IP bills as I type.
Together, let's discuss:
- What instances of dark innovation trouble you most?
- One person's defense is another's offense. How do we manage the points of view?
- Who speaks for the Commons?
- What are the ethics of defensive innovation?
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Call #357: Dark Innovation
2011-12-11
We often frame innovation as inherently positive. Innovations will save us; they're about progress.
Yet plenty of innovations have a dark side. Incumbents innovate madly to destroy or at least defer incursions from market disruptors. For examples, click through this Prezi on innovation, focusing on the Dark topic.
Together, let's discuss:
- What other examples of dark innovation come to mind?
- How might we motivate managers to innovate more positively?
- When and how might this topic be more visible?
Tags: Add Dark Innovation+tags
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Call #356: Black Friday Cyber Monday
2011-12-05
The big shopping days of the year, offline and on, are now past. Black Friday held its own, and Cyber Monday set some records.
Amid many worries about the economy, these seem to be good signs.
Together, let's discuss:
- What do this years' numbers tell us?
- Who did well? Who didn't? What categories are hot?
- How might this play out into 2012?
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Call #355: Twenty-twelve
2011-11-28
I'm not sure I buy the Mayan calendar warnings, but it sure does look like something major is coming.
What if the global financial crisis, the awakenings around the world, warnings of climate change and chronic underemployment are just the overture?Where might these all lead in 2012? A Singularity? (if so, what kind?) The awakening of global consciousness? The collapse of the money economy? (and the rise of local self-reliance)Together, let's discuss:
- Is 2012 just hype, or do you think it's a turning point?
- Turning what? Which narratives make sense to you?
- What should we do to prepare for your scenario?
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Call #354: Uncertainty
2011-11-21
I'm trying to avoid saying I'm not sure what we'll talk about on this call. And failing.
Does it feel like the world is getting more uncertain? Whether it is or isn't is probably a matter for philosophical inquiry, but there are several reasons why we may be perceiving greater uncertainty.
Glenda Eoyang, founder of the Human Systems Dynamics Institute, sees several reasons for this shift, from boundaries falling everywhere, to the growing presence of "high-dimension systems" and the failure of simple cause-and-effect responses to deal well in this environment.
With Glenda, let's discuss:
- What are better ways of seeing and framing the world's dynamics?
- How can organizations and individuals take adaptive action?
- Where might you apply these ideas in your worlds?
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Call #353: Seeing Abundantly
2011-11-14
Maybe the old nostrum, "scarcity equals value," is getting in our way.
It's a hard idea to let go. If things are abundant, how will businesses stay alive?
I've been exploring what it means to see abundantly, diving in with this screencast about learning and more broadly in the (unfinished) Prezi it's a part of.
For inspiration, look at The Three Toxic Myths About Scarcity, The Plenitude and Towards an Economy of Abundance.
Together, let's discuss:
- Do we really fear abundance? Why?
- What's really scarce and abundant around us?
- Who is creating scarcity? How?
- How can we shift our perceptions of scarcity and abundance in useful ways?
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Call #352: Trust Networks
2011-11-07
Spend any time online and at some point you'll hit that disconcerting moment: who is this? Is it even a person? Can I trust them?
To protect itself from bots, virtually every site you visit needs to ask those same questions about you: please verify your email address, fill out this CAPTCHA, connect your social network....
Many groups have tackled the thorny online-identity-management problem, with less-than-stellar results. Now Connect.me has built a useful reputation system built around (human) "trust anchors," who personally vouch for others.
With Connect.me's spark, Drummond Reed, plus many of the service's initial Distinguished Trust Anchors (including yours truly), let's discuss:
- What are the uses of an online reputation system? What is vouching?
- What are the trust levels in the system, and how are they earned?
- How is Connect.me connected to other efforts?
- What benefits would pervasive use of a reputation system bring?
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Call #351: Key Questions Through 2013
2011-10-31
Sometimes, asking great questions is more useful than coming up with answers (here's a germane short story by Isaac Asimov).
As we look out through the next two years -- in telecom, media, the Internet and more -- what should we be asking?
Together, let's discuss:
- What kind of questions open useful paths of inquiry?
- How can we frame questions that keep opening up?
- What questions do you wish we'd asked yourself five years ago?
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Call #350: Startups That Rock
2011-10-24
Take the plunging cost of launching a startup, add the growing number of incubators and factor in the tech-launch conference circuit -- no wonder we're running out of good startup names!
Which startups have turned your head?
Together, let's discuss:
- What startups in the recent crops make the most sense?
- Are they apps, services, hardware or something else?
- What startup do you wish someone would launch?
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Call #349: A TV By Any Other Name
2011-10-17
What is TV now? The old system, with affiliates and 500-plus channels, has a lot of company, on a lot of devices, with a lot of creators on duty, full time.
The TV ecosystem is already so complicated that it's hard to imagine it changing radically, yet change it must. It faces too many pressures.
With Dave Bujnowski leading some guest analysts, let's discuss:
- What are those pressures? What's the big shift afoot?
- Is the iPad what TV will look like in ten years?
- How will content creation change?
- How will advertising react? Where's the money?
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Call #344: Where Are We
2011-09-12
Global financial markets are jittery, to say the least. There's plenty of dis-ease in the air, and few safe harbors for assets.
At the same time, people worldwide are coming together around projects in permaculture, open government, open source, and many other value-generating activities outside the money economy.
Where do you think we are, in the broader sweep of history?
Together, let's discuss:
- Where is the financial economy headed over the next decade? Why?
- How do you describe the non-financial economy? What's its role?
- What's the relationship between these two economies?
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Call #348: Occupy Wall Street
2011-10-11
Apparently, some citizens want change.
Inspired by an AdBusters challenge (itself inspired by Tahrir Square), a smallish crowd met near Wall Street on September 17. After a few weeks, things got interesting, with "Occupy" movements now starting in many cities across the US and abroad.
With Pete Kaminski, Spot and Doug Rushkoff, let's discuss:
- Is this movement a threat or a promise? What powers it?
- What are its demands? Is it about demands at all?
- How connected is this movement to other protests worldwide?
- What's the best thing that might happen? The worst?
Some useful sites and stories:
- OccupyWallSt.org
- Right Here All Over: a short film on Occupy Wall Street
- The Anti-Politics of #OccupyWallStreet, by Matt Stoller
- Occupied Wall Street, Seen From Abroad in NYTimes
- #Occupy Locations (map)
- Protesters Against Wall Street, NYTimes editorial
- OWS in context, in my Brain
- Statement of Solidarity from Chinese Activists and Academics in Support of Occupy Wall Street (original: 支持美国人民伟大的“华尔街革命)
- Alan Grayson on Occupy Wall Street, from Real Time with Bill Maher
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Call #345: Currencies, Wealth and Banking
2011-9-19
Today is the start of Sibos, SWIFT's annual banking conference (it runs through Thursday). The Innotribe group at SWIFT has brought together a great group of thinkers and doers on the subjects of currencies, wealth and banking.
If you had a chance to talk with Sibos attendees, what would you want them to understand? Would you want them to know about shifts in perception, the Easterlin Paradox or the Soul of Money?
Together, let's discuss:
- How is the banking and finance system doing? What would you change?
- What measures, individual and collective, should we pay attention to?
- Looking back from 2021, what will be the biggest change in this domain?
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Call #343: What Jobs Did Right
2011-09-06
With Steve Jobs stepping down from day-to-day leadership at Apple, many have pondered the implications for Apple's future and some have thanked him for past products, insights and revolutions.
Let's use this call to infer some lessons from Jobs' career.
Together, let's discuss:
- What did Steve learn from his first reign at Apple?
- What lessons showed up during his "exile" at NeXT and Pixar?
- How does the iPod Era manifest these lessons?
- Have you adopted any of the lessons?
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Call #347: Crowdfunding with IndieGoGo
2011-10-03
Just a few years ago, getting a $2,000 arts grant would have been a pretty big deal. That was before crowdfunding, which has already brought tens of millions of dollars to artists and their projects, stimulating a renaissance in patronage in the process.
It's not just artists who can use these platforms. Entrepreneurs are building clever iPhone stands and social activists are funding laptops for remote police forces. It's open season.
With Slava Rubin, co-founder of IndieGoGo, one of the key players in this market, let's discuss:
- How did crowdfunding suddenly spring forth? What is driving it?
- How big is the potential market? What do people respond to?
- Where is crowdfunding headed next?
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Call #346: Our Quirky Neurons
2011-09-26
The study of decision making has been accelerated (and complicated) by the advent of the fMRI machine.
At Temple's Fox School of Business, Angelika Dimoka and Paul Pavlou have been on this quest. At the Center for Neural Decision Making, Angelika has been studying the effects of information overload on decisions, building on Paul's expertise in combinatorial auctions (see this article).
This line of research has profound implications for marketing, design and beyond.
With Angelika and Paul, let's discuss:
- What is the frontier of fMRI technology applied to decisions? What do we know?
- How might we cope with info-paralysis?
- Where will we see these technologies applied next? Best?
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Call #340: Unwinning
2011-08-08
Who won the Powerball? Which movie had the biggest opening weekend? Whom did the Bachelorette pick? Why are we so obsessed with winning?
Spiritual gambler Jason Anthony is developing games that deal with unwinning, drawing on James Carse's Finite and Infinite Games, alongside many other influences.
With Jason, let's discuss (FTW!):
- What's with this "win" obsession? Where's it from?
- How might we live differently? What's life without winning?
- Are cultures heading toward other measures of success or happiness? Who's ahead? :)
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Call #339: Mission Asset Fund
2011-08-01
Picture the many waves of immigration that constitute the United States. Put yourself in their shoes for a moment. When do they feel that they've "arrived"? What achievements or signifiers help them feel this way? What obstacles are in their way?
That's what got José Quiñones to found the Fondo Popular de la Misión, also known as the Mission Asset Fund.
With José, let's discuss:
- What's do newcomers experience? desire? have?
- How is MAF set up to help them?
- Where are such support services headed? What's their evolution?
Tags:
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