The iij Top 10 Sustainability Books
A painfully difficult new year’s choice amongst a host of highly relevant titles covering a dizzying array of essential issues, but we gave it our best shot.
A disturbing but important lecture about reinventing the lecture
As a keen watcher of lectures online, my initial reaction to this fierce assault on their value was hostile. But after watching this video again, I’ll admit that some valid points are being made
Clash of innovation news titans
An epic transatlantic on-air wrangle over Google’s future. Veteran BBC innovation investigator Peter Day vs. US prediction guru Mark Anderson. They each put up a characteristically robust performance. But who won? Whatever, it was riveting radio.
Required reading for the intrepid innovation reporter
Those of us afflicted by the innovation reporting bug, confronted daily by a seemingly limitless diversity of complex issues, need all the help we can get
Say anything you want to, we trust your judgement
Encouraging your staff to be unfettered champions of your values carries the risk of them ‘going native’. They may side with outsiders who might want to hold you to those values when they seem to conflict with your immediate operational goals.
Lean investing: what is it?
Dave McClure is not exactly a shy or timid voice in the startup investment community. He offers the unique perspective of someone who describes themselves as a geek who became a startup founder who moved on to become an investor in many startups.
Legends in disagreement: Kevin Kelly vs. Jaron Lanier
Kelly says that technology isn’t ‘neutral’, it’s ‘good’. Not because it’s solving our problems, but because the choices it offers propel us forward. Lanier doesn’t feel this view resolves our confusion about technology
Ron Conway, archangel, on video, on how it all began
He’s been investing in a new company every six days for fifteen years. What’s that like? He secured Google’s first Venture Capital when Google had six people. What was that like?
Disrupting Silicon Valley
If Silicon Valley investors began diverting more of their energies towards increasing entrepreneurial diversity and inclusion, could this put their impressive track record of success at risk?
Emotion: the new weapon of choice for experience designers?
Could it be true that we’ve finally mastered the art of controlling users’ emotions? This talk by a design consultant claims that this is what their research has made possible
A replicator you’d give your right arm for
This video includes the most memorable anecdotes I’ve ever heard. “What’s that doing in there?” his freaked-out girlfriend asked. “Well, I just wanted to see if the artificial leg I just made was dishwasher safe”
The rebirth of the rebirth of distance
It’s been quite a while since the last big fuss about ‘peak oil’: hardly surprising, once oil fell from its pre-crash peak. A guy who made a lot of that fuss is back giving his post-crash perspective in a video. He believes the ‘local vs. global’ balance could be about to change
When social innovation is a matter of life and death
But does it scale? What if scalability, instead of being assessed in terms of ‘financial growth potential’, has to be measured in terms of ‘social impact’?
The apps creators are on fire
So many ideas, all coming at you at once. Don’t expect these people to pour anything onto the flames but gasoline. iPad (and tablet) apps from a content creation perspective
We’re universities and we’re being globalized
The developing world has an insatiable hunger for everything our best universities have to offer. Are those universities doing enough to address this?
Next year’s innovation books
A carefully selected (but woefully incomplete) list of some fascinating titles that you can’t buy yet
Is there a real difference between Transmedia Marketing and Integrated Marketing?
If the essence of Integrated Marketing of was “message consistency” across platforms, then in Transmedia Marketing they’re saying it will be all about “storytelling and conversation” which is supposed to need a whole new approach
Will tomorrow’s aspiring startup staff need to sharpen their elbows?
Power has become a dirty word in a culture which favours cooperation over competition, so will this leave future recruits imagining that they’ll be able to avoid office politics by joining a startup?
Charisma failure = innovator failure?
Problem: many brilliant innovators wouldn’t recognise their own shortcomings in the charm department even if … (insert painfully humiliating scenario) Solution? Get ready for the Science (or Zen?) of Charisma
Does the idea of “turning everything into a game” just sound silly to you?
Then you may be behind the times. Your business might soon be someone else’s football and you may become nothing more than their pawn. Just because business is only just starting to realise that turning everything into a game can work, doesn’t mean that you can afford to just sit back and wait for the results
What’s authenticity got to do with innovation?
This video doesn’t ask or answer that question. But it makes it clear that something highly relevant to both of these issues is heading our way and it’s on a collision course with the way we think about everything.
Priceless video: father and son grappling with the past, present and future of design
Alex Bogusky, legendary poster boy for the ad business, rashly decides to interview his dad online. The outcome reveals what looks like a stormy relationship between a ‘designer parent’ and a ‘designer child’
Is it a game? a learning tool? a programming language?
Whatever it is, it’s been around for years, I’d never heard of it and it’s become a huge educational phenomenon: it’s been used to create over a million projects
Gave content away free, raised live show seat price 50% to $6,000: still sold out
TED risked everything by putting their precious content online for nothing, but it paid off, they are now bigger than ever: the future is live
Education, prepare to meet thy maker
If you’d kept an eye on this man over the years, you’d have had an inside track on many things, long before they became important. Now he’s turning his mind to the future of education
What does it take to be a leadership guru?
Hidden away in an old ‘speaking showreel’ on YouTube: a showcase of the exceptional talents of René Carayol
Customers as community: dangerous yet necessary
Necessary because it’s something which will happen anyway: dangerous because some of your business instincts will get you into trouble, communities are not a safe place for the inexperienced to innovate
Turning university science breakthroughs into businesses
A superb panel video from Princeton covers just about everything: Angels, Venture Capital, Intellectual Property as well as the academic, engineering and technology licensing perspectives
So you think you’re innovative enough: meet the new boss
Same as the old boss: I don’t think so; if you can’t demonstrate to her that you can truly innovate, don’t even bother applying for the job
Everything we thought we knew about privacy needs rethinking
Could health authorities force us to publish every detail of our daily activities by insisting we all carry smartphones with monitoring apps revealing not just how long we slept, but where?
The valley’s angel scene is going crazy
It’s unrecognisable from just a few years ago: lots more angels, much bigger sums, many more investments
What’s wrong with the way we think about education?
The old educational model of ‘compulsory knowledge consumption’ is still here, but becoming shockingly irrelevant
You may not be a Web designer, but…
It might just be useful to see the world from their perspective: this video does quite a good job of conveying their ultimate ‘nightmare experience’: the dreaded Design Review with the client
What role does ‘synthesis’ play in the design process?
It’s the missing link, halfway between discovering an original idea and using it to make something new: this video tries to explain how it works
Haunted by the price of commercial success: using up the planet’s resources
Who you gonna call? These guys aren’t Ghostbusters, but they do believe they’ve discovered how to banish the spectre of industrial wastefulness
Put the kettle on – the nanotech teabag has arrived
Safe drinking water is still an issue in many parts of the world. Will the nanotech teabag provide a solution to this problem?
Ten things entrepreneurs get wrong
16 year old kid starts a business from his bedroom, sells it 18 months later for $40m: you just know the video from him and three other top innovation legends is awesome
Not ashamed of your product on day one?
Then maybe you should be ashamed of launching it way too late
The impact of women in the boardroom
This extraordinary video is still full of breaking news about the future of the board, over two years after it was filmed
How relevant are ‘parenting issues’ to today’s innovation investment?
Checking out these news stories may help you decide
What on earth is an Anthropreneur?
Need to attack poverty, environmental and language issues simultaneously? Then maybe you need one of these: as far as inspiring videos go, I haven’t seen anything much better than this
Martyn Poliakoff: green chemist, big hair, YouTube god?
Even his much more famous brother is probably not as famous online
Left Microsoft for Google: What’s startup catalyst Don Dodge doing now?
Here he is chairing a panel of top VCs on the ‘freemium’ business model [Video]
What can innovators learn about creativity from a fiction author?
Amy Tan writes about mother /daughter relationships and talks about the creative process in this video
Bluffer’s guide to gene therapy
A 10-minute video guide to gene therapy
So how does a leading VC defend optimism in a crisis?
Innovators may need all the help they can get fighting off the bears and DFJ boss Steve Jurvetson delivers some interesting ammunition [Video]
How to present to the board
American coaching company Bates Communications gives pointers on presenting to the board
Investment stages: a rough guide
IIJ’s short and simple definition of investment stages in business development
Round-up: big bucks for Sybase
SAP sees advantages of mobile access and new options in the world of social networking.