The gist of Connected, the excellent book about the power of social networks, is that the most important factor in whether a person will do something — e.g. donate to charity, gain weight, steal a car, or simply smile — is whether the people around them are doing it too. It isn’t true of everything, [...]
Tagged as:
apathy,
changecamp,
connected,
elections,
mobilization,
networks,
relationships,
social networks,
sociology,
voter turnout,
voting
This is my first post following ChangeCamp London (there will likely be one or two more) in which I’m suggesting points for probable improvement: mostly things I actively promoted through the planning process, and which I hope to see emphasized more in the future. This post argues for the need to be open throughout the process. [...]
Tagged as:
changecamp,
changecamp london,
crowdsourcing,
events,
groups,
motivation,
open government,
openness,
organizations,
planning,
psychology,
sociology,
strategy
Reality Hunger: A Manifesto by David Shields One of 2010′s most talked written-about books. For anyone interested in writing and storytelling this might be worth owning and occasionally flipping through for inspiration. A lot of great insights about truth and fiction — and whether either can really exist in pure form — much of which [...]
Tagged as:
anthropology,
books,
clay shirky,
evolution,
fiction,
history,
literature,
nicholas carr,
non-fiction,
reading,
richard florida,
sociology
This article is amazingly rich… I’m still playing with all the threads. Michael Lewis comes through again — huge (literally, at about 10,000 words) – this time for Vanity Fair with a piece on the economic crisis in Iceland: ”Wall Street on the Tundra.” Highly recommended [via Felix Salmon]: Back away from the Icelandic economy and you can’t help but [...]
Tagged as:
anthropology,
economics,
finance,
fishing,
iceland,
sociology
I’m happy to see a lot of concentrated discussion around London about issues I actually know something about. In the past week we saw Orchestra London successfully appeal for financial support from the city, and we heard news that Ribfest might be cooked. Now I know next to nothing in terms of background specifics about either of [...]
Tagged as:
arts funding,
civic institutions,
classical music,
creative capital,
creative city,
creative class,
creativity,
elgar concerto,
glenn gould,
london,
music,
orchestra london,
performing arts,
social capital,
sociology
As I was reading about the radical cultural and organizational changes at Cisco (“Revolution in San Jose,” Fast Company, December/January), I found some great insights into my questions about how ‘socialist’ our large corporations tend to be. Regardless of their possible relevance to political-economic theory, the changes at Cisco are fascinating in and of themselves. Cisco was once the largest company [...]
Tagged as:
capitalism,
cisco,
compensation,
economics,
markets,
motivation,
organizations,
socialism,
sociology
