Rich insights into the state of social media today

By

Here is a very good compilation of statistics, perspectives, and news on social media as at the middle of 2012:

2H12: The State of Social Media & Social Media Marketing in the Second Half of 2012

A few things in particular that I thought worth noting from these stats, apart from the usual Social Media is BIG and GROWING FAST!
Read more →

Moving the CIO to the heart of strategy

By

My recent European speaking tour was divided around equally between deep dives into crowdsourcing and where it is going, and keynotes and workshops for Chief Information Officers on shifts in the business environment and how that will shape the future of the IT function.

A key theme of the CIO workshops was their opportunity and responsibility to move to the center of strategy within their organizations.

My Transformation of Business Framework provides an overview of some of the driving forces and how they are playing out across the business landscape.


Click on the image for full-size pdf

I think it is often useful to consider what the business environment might be in say five years from now, and the characteristics of organizations that will be successful in that world.

Some of the ways we are likely to describe those successful organizations include:
Read more →

The fantastic initiatives that are creating City 2.0

By

TED (which not many people remember was originally founded by information architect Richard Saul Wurman in 1984) has expanded dramatically over the last years, from a single annual event to activities spanning a network of thousands of TEDx events, the TED-Ed educational network, the TED Prize, and now its City 2.0 initiative.

Part of City 2.0 this year is a project of 10 awards of $10,000 being given away to support local ventures that are making a difference. We are half way through, with now 5 awards being given.

The City 2.0 project site gives a full rundown of the winners. Below is an overview of the five fantastic projects.
Read more →

The rise of micro mavens: Building business empires around personal brands

By

Trevor Young, aka PR Warrior, is launching a new site Micro Domination which covers the “Global Microbrand Revolution”.

The site already includes an excellent free e-book The Micro Maven Revolution. You can download it from here or by clicking on the cover below.

Trevor opens the book by practising what he preaches, highlighting his capabilities and brand in a low-key way in front of excellent content. He then describes the core idea:
Read more →

Don Tapscott: The arc of history is a positive one, towards openness

By

This week’s TEDGlobal2012 event is themed Radical Innovation. The opening presentation, very fittingly, was by Don Tapscott, who spoke about Four principles for the open world. Do take the 18 minutes to see his exceptional presentation.

The four principles for openness that Don offers are:
Read more →

What will we do with the extraordinary potential of crowd business models?

By

I was just interviewed by Martin Metzmacher as part of his Netrepreneurs series. The 30 minute video interview is below.

While the broad topic of the conversation was about how to use crowds effectively, Martin focused through the interview on my motivations for what I do. At the end of the interview he asked me to summarize what I felt was most important in what we’d covered.
Read more →

Zynga’s new game The Ville takes virtual sex to the masses

By

This article was originally posted in Future of Sex magazine.

Social gaming giant Zynga, purveyor of Facebook games such as CityVille and FarmVille, is making things a little racier with its latest product The Ville, launched today.

As the video shows, users can build the “home of your dreams” and invite their Facebook friends over to have fun there. The fun can start with talking, cooking, and dancing, and then go a little further.
Read more →

Sorry Grant Thornton, amorphous fears about IP loss should not trump value creation

By

Sorry, Grant Thornton, I think your instinct is very likely wrong.

I saw this advertisement (also in French and Flemish) in Brussels-Midi station when I was recently passing through.

Grant Thornton claims to have an ‘instinct for growth’. For some reason it seems to have an instinct (it appears without any evidence) that expanding into new markets will lead to loss of intellectual property. So the instinct is one for inaction, and in turn no growth.
Read more →

Sunrise: The technologies that will change our lives

By

Yesterday morning I appeared on the Sunrise national breakfast program together with science broadcaster Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, being interviewed about the big ideas and new technologies that will change our lives. The video clip is below.

The four ideas that I pointed to were:
Read more →

Free webinar July 19 on the Future of Media – Mobile, Social, Cloud… and Paid? with Ross Dawson and Gerd Leonhard

By

Gerd Leonhard is a greatly valued friend and colleague in our shared calling as media futurists, and work together in The Futures Agency.

As part of our intent of working more together in both public forums and with leading media organizations we are announcing a free webinar:

The Future of Media: Mobile, Social, Cloud… and Paid?

July 19, 2012

8am US EDT
1pm United Kingdom
2pm Central European Time
8pm Singapore & Beijing
10pm Sydney
Read more →