SEC opens the gates to crowdfunding and a new structure of capitalism

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This is significant. While talk doesn’t necessarily lead to action, a significant shift in capitalism could be coming.

On Wednesday US SEC Chairman Mary Shapiro sent a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa, chair of the House Oversight Committee. The letter is embedded at the bottom of this post.

Many have focused on the potential from the current SEC review to relax limits on shareholders for private companies, notably the rule that if a private company has 500 investors or more it has to disclose its finances. Changes to this and related rules could have a significant impact on capital raising for private companies.

Few seem to have focused on what I think is potentially a bigger issue from the SEC moves: opening up crowdfunding as a mechanism for equity investment. The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece called SEC Boots Up for the Internet Age. The article begins:
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List of the 242 most influential publications in the world

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Nate Silver, the political statistician extraordinaire, has turned his attention to publishing. His interest is honed by the fact that his blog is now hosted on the New York Times, which is currently implementing a paywall.

He has done an analysis of the most influential publications, consisting of a simple review of how frequently publications’ names appear in Google News and Google Blogs followed by the word “reported”, to give a representative sample of how often publications are quoted by others.

The full list of the top 242 is below.

A few quick comments:
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11 recommendations to create the future of government

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The Institute of Public Affairs of Australia (IPAA), the professional association supporting senior Australian public service executives, is not prone to rash statements.

Thus it is very encouraging to see its new policy paper, The Future Course of Modern Government, provide some pointed insights and recommendations on how to create the government of the future.

I have put the 11 recommendations provided at the end of the report at the bottom of this post. The full policy paper is absolutely worth a read for anyone interested in the topic.
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Five awesome music videos

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Of a Saturday morning I feel like watching some nice videos and music as I work. So, as we go along, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite music videos:

Bjork – All is full of love

One of the best videos ever, exploring the future of sexuality amid humans merging with machines. If you like this kind of stuff, check out our new media site: Future of Sex.
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When will tablets be given away for free? Perhaps before the end of this year

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When we launched our Newspaper Extinction Timeline I noted that tablets similar to the iPad of today will cost less than $10 and given away for free by the end of the decade, a prediction that interviewers have frequently questioned me on since. 

I have since realized that tablets are likely to be given away far earlier than this, probably first bundled with content subscriptions. However it is not just publishers who would consider subsidizing the cost of a free tablet. Marketers may find it less expensive than traditional advertising to reach the right audience by giving them tablets which embed carefully presented messages. Consumer services companies such as banks could provide handy interfaces within tablets to embed and broaden relationships with select customers.

The following chart comes from John Walkenbach’s blog via Kevin Kelly, suggesting that Kindles will be given away for free by November 2011.


Source: John Walkenbach
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Crowdsourcing attracts the best advertising clients, and it all began with a tweet…

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John Winsor, founder of Victors & Spoils, the world’s first crowdsourced agency, gave the opening keynote at our Future of Crowdsourcing Summit in September last November.

It was fascinating to hear about how he had brought together an extraordinarily talented distributed team, and convinced major brands such as Harley-Davidson, GAP, Levi’s, and Virgin America to use a crowdsourcing approach.

Harley-Davidson moved on from its long-standing agency Carmichael Lynch last year, shifting to Victors & Spoils for its creative work. The first work from the agency for Harley-Davidson, based on an idea from “passionate amateur” Whit Hiler, has just been launched:

AdAge interviewed Harley’s Chief Marketing Officer Mark-Hans Richer, who said about the ad:
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Update and most popular frameworks: business models, predictions, media landscapes

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I very occasionally send out email updates on what I’ve been up to and the most interesting content generated by our companies. I thought it was worth sharing the one I sent last week, as below.

Please go to our newsletter signup page if you’d like to receive our future updates.

Update and most popular frameworks: business models, predictions, media landscapes

Happy New Year! I hope it’s a stunningly good 2011 for you.

In what are now very occasional emails I will share the most interesting content and resources from my work and across our companies. This email includes::

– a visual overview of our companies’ activities and business models
– our most popular visual frameworks from the last year
– excerpts from interesting keynote speeches
– a brief personal update

[NOTE: click on any of the images below for more details. The section links above only work if you are viewing the complete post]

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It is the structure of social networks that shapes influence… and the structure is changing

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New York Times today examines the interesting question of Why Some Twitter Posts Catch On, and Some Don’t, starting from the fact that frivolous hashtags such as #worstpickuplines get far more attention than commentary on current affairs such as ‘Mubarak’, and going on to look at a range of research on influence.

The article quotes research which implies what I and a handful of others have been saying for quite a years now.

The structure of a social network — for example, whether it is made up of close friends and colleagues or of like-minded strangers who follow Lady Gaga — can have more influence than the size of a group, researchers say.

My Influence Landscape from 2009 shows the key elements of influence, including a section on ‘Influence Networks’ showing the elements of social network structure that drive the dissemination of influence.

InfluenceLandscape_Betav1.jpg

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Finally I have an answer when people ask what I do! Visualization of our group’s business model

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[UPDATE May 2013] The original business model below has now been updated and separated into two visuals: New AHT Group Business Model and AHT Group Strategic Overview

For the last 15 years of my life post-employment I have struggled when people ask me what I do. More recently I have managed to crystallize a simple description of myself: Futurist and Entrepreneur. However that doesn’t explain the diversity of my companies’ activities, and how they fit together. In particular people are often confused by the relationship between our primary companies: Advanced Human Technologies, Future Exploration Network, and The Insight Exchange.

A few months ago I started designing a business model diagram to help me conceptualize the relationship between our brands and activities, our scalable and less scalable business models, and our current priorities. While it included a few personal aspirations, I ended up showing it a number of job applicants to help explain what we are doing. I soon realized I needed a public version of our business model. This is what we created.

AHT Group Business model (click on the image for full-size pdf)

Some comments on a few of the features of the business model:
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Full video of cloud computing keynote for Telstra Business – Tapping the forces of change

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A few months ago I did the opening keynote for a national roadshow run by Telstra Business on cloud computing. My big picture piece on Tapping the forces of change was followed by a more detailed presentation by Telstra’s CTO Hugh Bradlow.

It’s taken a little while to get up, but here is a complete video of my 25 minute keynote speech for those who are interested.

If you’d just like to read some of what I covered in the keynote, you can read an article on Six steps to success in a world driven by cloud computing which summarizes some of my messages.