For Patrick – the German Gummi Bear video – don’t watch! It’s addictive!

This is for my eldest, Patrick – he is watching with me – we’re going through YouTube on a Sunday afternoon here in Berlin

Pyramid Schemes waiting to collapse – Beanie Babies and more

I was quoted in the UK Investors Chronicle last week as one of the quotes or the week:
“We have been living in a 15 year pyramid scheme”
Since then I have been thinking about various pyramid schemes that exist that are just waiting for a crash. What do I mean? Pseudo-economic structures where people assign ever-increasing [...]

I love this video – always pays to read the small print!

My CFO would love this one – maybe we can use this for the next sales incentive program?

The Internet Took Our Money – how our global communication network is taking down the world economy

I was recently asked during an interview for my favorite invention. Without hesitation, I replied… “The Internet”.
Now, with a little more time to think, I’d still agree with my answer, but I now fear that this same wonderful invention itself is bringing to an end the world we have grown comfortable with. Let’s explore why.
Immediate [...]

The Domino Clusters – how the world is collapsing

I have done a lot of work on network theory, particularly in the area of contagion. I am preparing a lot more content in this area, based on around three months of work done recently. In the meantime, rather than waiting to roll it all out at once, I thought I would share one of [...]

Collaborative problem solving – but let’s try not to obsess about ‘free’

http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/229727/35956092
I came across a blog posting by Dave Tebbutt, a technology analyst writing about collaboration and social computing. I read his comments on doing what Imaginatik does with great interest, particularly in focusing on the ‘use of free tools’ angle. Here is my response, saved on his blog as a comment:
The funny thing is that [...]

Reviewing an online collaboration initiative – the IBM Partner Jam

http://acceleratingbusinessvaluejam.ning.com/forum
An interesting experiment in what NOT to do.
Normally I would not write about something which my company might just about be involved in In this case I am prompted to share my thoughts based on visiting the web site for the first time in a couple of months, and seeing some pretty damning statistics. My [...]

Another FaceBook tale – how the ‘Relationship Status’ tag destroyed a relationship

Another fun, real story I picked up, this time from Boston. One of my friends, S, a girl, was going out with a guy – a six month relationship, decent distance between them, but at least planning to take things to the next level. He was originally from Boston and was going to move back, [...]

Buying people’s identities for $150 a time

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7732569.stm
I have a scary belief that within a small number of … I’ll say months … we will have to accept the fact that we are living in a world where you will not be able to trust that anyone is who they say they are. This post just describes the tip of the iceberg.
I [...]

Innovating in a Recession? Time for Depression.

Innovating in a recession. Or a depression. It is enough to make anyone depressed, and sadly in my view, rightly so.
 
When economies hit recession, what do firms do? They cut back. They cut back on advertising, training, marketing, IT and, of course, innovation. Who cares about a brand new product line that can only get [...]