“Heuristic” — an ugly word that everyone should know — is used differently in various contexts. It generally refers to a process of making open-ended, provisional decisions in order to get into a better position — “for now” — from which to act and decide better later: Let’s see how this works out — find [...]
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cultural evolution,
culture,
decisions,
heuristics,
learning,
music,
progress,
society,
technology
[Here's a bit I've got so far prefacing That Project Provisionally Called a Book.] Say Everything, Scott Rosenberg’s book about “how blogging began, where it’s going, and why it matters,” begins on the morning of September 11, 2001. Along with first-hand witnesses in Manhattan, many other people across the US gravitated online to share their thoughts [...]
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9/11,
blogging,
digital media,
social media,
writing
After the Google Wave announcement in May I went in to work all excited to share the awesomeness with my colleagues — one of whom caught me off-guard by asking, “Ok, so what good is that?“ My first thought was, “Hmmm, obviously I didn’t stress how awesome it’s going to be.” Then I realized maybe we’re [...]
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customer service,
daniel goleman,
google,
google wave,
henry chesbrough,
innovation,
jeff jarvis,
learning organizations,
open innovation,
openness,
organizations,
process,
service,
service design,
social media,
social web,
technology,
transparency,
wave,
web,
zappos
Generativity is one of the core concepts I keep coming back to. I think it’s at least as important as “sustainability” and we shouldn’t think about one without thinking about the other. Recently I noticed Tim O’Reilly mention it with new (to me) associations in a TechCrunch post about Gov 2.0: The government may build [...]
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cultural evolution,
development,
evolution,
generativity,
innovation,
institutions,
intellectual evolution,
jonathan zittrain,
open government,
open innovation,
open source,
tim o'reilly,
twitter,
web
Props to TechAlliance and BIOTECanada for booking Adam Bly to speak at the launch of National Biotechnology Week. I’m very grateful to have attended; I came away rejuvenated with energy and ideas… Bly made the case we need to reorient “our collective ideology, our collective imagination,” towards science — towards “Big Science.” Some of his remarks [...]
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adam bly,
biotecanada,
culture,
data visualization,
infographics,
innovation,
knowledge,
love of learning,
mindsets,
national biotechnology week,
seed magazine,
society,
techalliance,
technology
Two books covered in this post; best is last… Via BusinessWeek I read about a new book called Exploiting Chaos by Toronto’s Jeremy Gutsche (founder of TrendHunter and apparently an all-around busy guy). The subtitle is “150 Ways to Spark Innovation in Times of Change.” Billed as a “visually delicious business book,” it looks like a great [...]
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bob sutton,
books,
business books,
chaos,
collaboration,
mort hansen
The book project has evolved from the “world-turned-upside-down” concept to a more general, but better-organized, case for blogging — by which I mean any kind of social, citizen-driven media. [Update: Seconds after publishing I realized what a profound understatement that is... I guess I'll just leave it to readers to figure out exactly what it's [...]
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autobibliography,
blogging,
book,
history,
personal,
writing
This is a more positive followup to yesterday’s post, trying to work out what the key idea or shared ethic might be for London’s economy. I’ve already expressed doubts about the “transporation hub” idea here and here. It isn’t a bad idea to beef up London’s transportation capacity as one specific part of a broader plan, but [...]
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capitalism,
cities,
constructive capitalism,
creative capitalism,
culture,
generativity,
humanism,
life,
livability,
new economy,
substance,
sustainability
This might seem like a joke or a bunch of rhetoric but it isn’t. Ok, maybe it’s somewhat extremely rhetorical — but no less serious: What exactly is supposed to come out of this economic summit on Thursday anyways? On Saturday I read a passing mention of it in the subhead to some comments by Chris Bentley, [...]
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discourse,
economic summit,
ledc,
london economic development corporation,
london ontario,
london's economy,
open democracy,
public sphere,
social media,
web
I’m working on trying to select and organize some of my best posts into a book I’ll publish through Lulu. If you have any you like — or stuck in your mind at least — or if you’ve been reading without ever commenting, now’s the time to say something. The working title is “The World Turned [...]
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blogging,
change,
history,
journalism,
social media,
writing
Continued from Insignificant Verbiage. It’s been fun the last few days, taking the position in a running office argument that “irregardless” is a word. I’m well aware that it’s ridiculous. That’s precisely why it’s so much fun. When I hear people complaining in an exaggerated way — e.g. “Ughh, I hhhate when people say that!” — my [...]
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communication,
language,
neologisms,
rules,
writing
Robert Fulford’s recent column addresses a favourite topic, irritating phrases: A boss I endured in my youth told me early in our relationship that he favoured “forward planning.” His voice spoke of stern commitment to management principles. Afflicted as I was by the frightened politeness of the young, I lacked the nerve to say that [...]
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clichés,
communication,
editing,
grammar,
insignificant verbiage,
jacques barzun,
language,
robert fulford,
vocabulary,
writing
