10 most popular blog posts on the living networks of 2012

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I have just had a look at the most popular posts this year on my blog, and very interestingly almost all of the top dozen were written before this year, with perennials like the launches of our Web 2.0 Framework, Social Media Strategy Framework, Trend Map to 2050, and Newspaper Extinction Timeline still attracting consistent very healthy traffic.

Below are the most popular posts written this year on my blog. I will share the list of all-time favorites another time.

1. Which countries have the most Twitter users per capita?
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How divergence in labor productivity is shaping the future of work

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My recently launched Future of Work framework provides a highly summarized overview of the future of work. Over coming months I will delve into specific aspects of the framework.

One of the most important issues is divergence in labor productivity, mentioned as the fourth point under Labor Productivity in the Economic Structure section.

Across industries as well as countries, the productivity of labor is diverging dramatically, creating job opportunities in some sectors and constraining them in others. There are many broader issues in shifts in labor productivity that I’ll come back to another time. For now, it’s worth looking at these two charts.


Source: Andrew McAfee
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The future of fast food: faster, more convenient, healthier, more luxurious

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On Friday I was interviewed on the current affairs program Today Tonight about the future of fast food. Click on the image to see a video of the segment.

Perhaps the dominant trend in society today is increased expectations. Those expectations apply across all domains, but absolutely in the immediacy of our everyday lives.

As people feel – and increasingly are – time-poor, speed and convenience dominate. Not surprisingly, customers are expecting fast food to become even faster.
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The enormous opportunity for writers and readers in an ebook world

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Last Friday I was interviewed on ABC’s News Exchange program about ebooks and their impact.

Click on the image to view the video of the program. The ebook segment is around 13:30 – 17:15.

We covered a lot of territory in the interview, ranging across topics including why ebooks are rising so rapidly to the impact on booksellers and libraries.
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Research on the declining credibility of established news organizations – this creates opportunities for new ones

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Pew Research Center has just released the latest results in an study that has been running since 1983 on the credibility of US news organizations under the title Further Decline in Credibility Ratings for Most News Organizations. Some of the data is shown below.


Source: Pew Research Center for the People & The Press
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Study: Increased customer expectations are driving corporate uptake of social media

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Yesterday I spoke at a business leaders lunch event in Darwin on the Future of Business organized by the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce and Optus.

Following my keynote John Paitaridis, Managing Director of Optus Business, shared some of the highlights of a recently released Optus Future of Business report, based on an extensive survey of corporate Australia.

One of the pointed themes that emerged from the study was that customer expectations are driving uptake of social media and digital intiatives. This happens to be highly aligned with my perspective that increased expectations are at the heart of social change, as expressed in my Transformation of Business framework.

Here is some of the interesting data from the report:


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

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

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

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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.
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The potential massive social impact of gamification for weight loss and savings

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Last night I was fortunate to be at a dinner with innovation strategist Charles Leadbeater, hosted by Martin Stewart-Weeks of Cisco. One of the conversations we had together with Hugh Morrow was about the potential of gamification of weight loss and personal savings.

Diet and savings habits aggregated across a society have a massive impact on the common good. Poor diet and obesity lead to vast increases in health care costs, among other issues, while savings do not only drive economies, but mitigate against financial stress and dislocation.

Anything that can have even a minor impact on diet and savings can have extraordinary value. As such, we certainly need to apply what is being learned in the field of gamification, particularly its social aspects, to see how it can help positively change behaviors.

Health Week Plan reports that:
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