Monthly Archives: August 2010

NGOs & Government
| 08/25/2010 | Anthony Williams

Climate activists spoofed on Twitter

For years I’ve been a fan of the Yes Men and the outrageous impersonation stunts they have deployed to (in their words) publicly humiliate leaders and big corporations who put profits ahead of everything else.   Read more

Technology & Media
| 08/24/2010 | Anthony Williams

Cognitive surpluses and deficits

About two months back I was asked by the Globe and Mail to review Clay Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus and Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows, two books with sharply contrasting accounts of the digital age to date. …   Read more

Science, Education & Health
| 08/24/2010 | Don Tapscott

OneBeep Offers One-Way Connectivity to Remote Communities

In true Wikinomics spirit, every year Microsoft’s Imagine Cup challenges students around the world to dream up new ways to use technology to solve some of the planet’s toughest problems. Participation in the contest has …   Read more

NGOs & Government
| 08/16/2010 | Jeff DeChambeau

Better parking through technology

Every so often an idea comes along that seems to get a lot right, and you’re left with little to do but sit by the sidelines and watch, hoping that it thrives and makes its …   Read more

Energy & Environment
| 08/16/2010 | Macrowikinomics

The Birth of a U.S. Wind Power Manufacturing Industry

Windmills

As the U.S. wind industry’s installed capacity went from 6.7 megawatts to 35,000 megawatts between 2004 and 2009, its manufacturing sector expanded from a few dozen facilities to more than 240. By 2009, over 60 percent of wind’s U.S. capacity was sourced domestically.

This is a growing ecosystem supporting U.S. middle-class labor as well as capacity to generate emissions-free electricity. “For wind turbines, which have large components like towers, nacelles and blades,” according an American Wind Energy Association, or AWEA, spokesperson, “transportation is a big part of the cost.”   Read more

Business & Economics
| 08/13/2010 | Don Tapscott

What nature teaches us about building better human organizations

Here’s a book that’s just out in hardcover (and Kindle) and deserves reading: The Smart Swarm: How Understanding Flocks, Schools, and Colonies Can Make Us Better at Communicating, Decision Making, and Getting Things Done. The …   Read more

Business & Economics
| 08/13/2010 | Naumi Haque

A view of self through a digital mirror

Given the proliferation of digital information about ourselves and our online interactions (and the prospect of more to follow), I find it fascinating when companies put out tools that help reflect our digital personas and …   Read more

| 08/09/2010 | Don Tapscott

Macrowikinomics in running for Business Book of the Year Award

The Financial Times has announced that MacroWikinomics is one of sixteen books on the longlist of competitors to win the 2010 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. More than 200 …   Read more

Business & Economics
| 08/03/2010 | Jeff DeChambeau

Want to see the future? Look to the games

There was something of a “big deal” event in geek circles last week: StarCraft 2 was released, about 12 years after the release of the original. It’s a “real time strategy” game, which pits factions …   Read more