LEADING-EDGE BUSINESS IDEAS.

A few interesting articles on innovation, knowledge and the future of business - worth a read: Distributed Social Software, by Eric Gradman via Seb Paquet at Many 2 Many: A grad student surveys the current generation of social software and agrees with me that it needs to be simpler, less centralized and more personal. Life in 2010 - Home and Work, by Patrick Dixon: A futurist who sees that new technologies are going to be smaller, more portable, more specialized, easier-to-use and more personal. Some excellent thinking here. Weblogs and Journalism (jump to pg 59 of this pdf), features 18 articles by bloggers and journalists, that I've mentioned before, but are worth a second read because of their broader implications for the use of weblogs and other personal content management and personal publishing apps in business. WL Gore & Associates, per this case study by Cyndy Payne of the Foundation for Enterprise Development, is not only one of the world's most innovative companies (they invented waterproof, breathable, Gore-Tex fabric and a whole bunch of high-tech materials you've probably never heard of), but also are a prime example of a true partnership of equals (what they call a Non-Hierarchical Corporation and what I've called a New Collaborative Enterprise).

[How to Save the World]
5:55:15 PM  #  

One of the things I told the Microsoft people this week is that if they screw with RSS the way Google is, I will quit, permanently, and never look back. If the result of all this hard work is just another venue for the ongoing pissing match between Microsoft and Silicon Valley, I'm out. It occurred to me that I should say this publicly too. I mean it. The users now have enough data, and the tools to speak for themselves. That was the point of doing blogging software, so that we would never be held hostage to people who sit at the top of a pyramid and look down at us, their minions, and sigh when they have to kill our dreams. It doesn't have to happen. The political bloggers have been able to out Trent Lott, and now are working on Dubya. We've launched a Presidential campaign. We are powerful. Use your minds, and gather all the bits of data you can, and form an opinion. As Howard Dean says, and he's right, you have the power, not me. Tell Google to get with the program and work with the developers who brought you aggregators, publications, blogging tools, and other RSS apps. Tell Schmidt and Ballmer to view this space as not-theirs, not to be fought over. Make products for us, compete to serve us better, but if you try to break us, we'll break you. [Scripting News]
5:53:29 PM  #