We create the stories of the connected society

Designer Jonathan Harris explores new territory.

Back in the September, I wrote that “one of the fundamental tasks of design and business is to stand between revolutions and life, to help people deal with change.” That was the premise of The Right Brain Rules, a strategic vision and a portfolio of assets for creating value into the future. Allison Arieff goes [...]

We Media members, readers, fans and friends are invited to breakfast and a conversation with Fast Company magazine founder Alan Webber and best-selling author Dan Pink. When: 8 am – 10 am Tuesday, June 2, 2009 Where: The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner, 1700 Tysons Blvd. McLean, VA USA To register: Click here. The Washington Board of [...]

Over on my Fast Company Experts blog, I have issued a challenge. Here is what I wrote: I have come to the conclusion that most (maybe all) business and strategy books are useless. They over-generalize. They offer little value. I go in with such high expectations, based on reviews and descriptions, and am almost universally [...]

A few months back we asked each of our 2009 Game Changers Awards finalists to write about their projects, what they have learned along the way and what’s next. (Here’s the rest of the series). Somehow, amidst the flurry of conference preparations, this one slipped through our crack(ed) editorial process. But it’s important, so here [...]

Bernie Madoff’s prison Twitter page, via jean’s blog. Priceless.

From The Economist: “A piece of the American experience has faded away. Fisher-Price, the toy company that used to market them, has just eliminated almost all the View-Master titles that have been a staple of young lives for almost 70 years.” I first discovered the world in 3-D on a paper disc and a plastic [...]

My daughter Amanda took the above photo in Nepal. The picture on the right is of my new granddaughter, Elizabeth Jane. I thought of them as I discovered The Girl Effect, a project from the Nike and UN Foundation that stunned global leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The big idea: unlocking the [...]

I like to play with word mashups that impart new meaning and metaphors, but sometimes you’ve got to be careful when you apply them to a URL. Like: www.newstools.org New stools? A furniture-maker’s site? Horticulturalist’s? Bishop’s? African chieftan’s? Informant’s? Or gastroenterologist’s? Creative capitalization helps: NewsTools. The site highlights the work of the Journalism That Matters [...]

The first full day of WeMedia presented interesting challenges and opportunities regarding the state of new media, social change, and journalism. Conversations revolved around the future of traditional media, expanding the scope of social media companies to facilitate social change, how to more effectively run a business, how to reach target audiences, and more. As [...]

We Media’s Brian Reich and I were wondering, based on the Game Changer Award winners, what would be the attributes that would not only win today’s Pitch It! presenters some of the available funding, but also see them be the Game Changers a couple/few years from now. A few things have marked the Game Changers, [...]

We’ve recorded another podcast! WeMedia is producing a regular podcast that features in-depth interviews with prominent media, technology, and social change figures, as well as distinguished experts on current affairs and news.  Today marks our second installment.  Our goal is to help the WeMedia community understand the roots of the changes taking place in our [...]

McDonald’s has decided to pick a fight with Starbucks. In addition to offering espresso drinks to their billions of customers served, the fast food chain has launched a massive online/offline/outdoor marketing effort to distinguish itself from the world’s most popular coffee chain.  The concept is not original – Dunkin’ Donuts has been comparing itself to [...]

With the economy sputtering and job losses mounting, there is a lot of discussion right now about what kinds of jobs, and more importantly skills, are needed to get things back on track.  This discussion is all the more complicated because of the massive changes our society is currently undergoing, as we become more diverse [...]

We’ve heard enough. That’s why we want – and get – something different from tonight’s final presidential debate. Sosolimited, three MIT-educated software engineers-slash-culture jammers, will remix the debate using software that allows them to sample and analyze the video, audio, and closed captioned text of the television broadcast. Through a series of visual and sonic [...]