China in Africa

Africa has been on my mind a bit lately, in part due to a wonderful (though likely quite controversial) article from last month’s Fast Company, which I finally got around to reading.  The article touches on China’s land grab on the African continent, telling a story that many will be fascinated to hear. Certainly, part [...]

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Not-only-for-profit organizations

I am a huge believer in the idea that we’re going to begin seeing more and more organizations that have a very explicit social mission but operate within traditional markets and rely on sustainable sources of revenue to survive and grow.  This NY Times article cites a couple such attempts, though it somehow suggests the [...]

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Innovating at the Bottom of the Pyramid

I want to extend a hat tip to Jon Ingham for picking up on this fabulous article from C.K. Prahalad. Prahalad is a Professor of Corporate Strategy at the Ross School of Business at the Univ of Michigan.  He, along with Gary Hamel, is responsible for the concept of Core Competence, and independently he has [...]

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The Potential of Open Source Learning

Now I’m really reaching back (2006!!), but I’m having a wonderful time exploring the TED Talks series and this one is just way too compelling to not share. It’s a bit long, but Richard Baraniuk has conceived something truly valuable and unique with Connexions.  Ultimately much more powerful than a $100 laptop and absolutely in [...]

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19.20.21

While I ripped on BusinessWeek’s innovation article a couple of weeks back, I do have to give them credit for introducing me to the 19.20.21 project. I have little doubt that the world of the future will be one in which the vast majority of the world’s population lives in major urban centers.  The sociologist [...]

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Chris Anderson’s Take on the Technology Life Cycle

I am (finally) reading Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail.  This is one of probably 5 books that I am reading or have read lately and have thus far failed to write about. In the meantime, I also came across this TED Talk, where he shares his own view of the Technology Life Cycle. Not nearly [...]

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