Survey: Can Management Consulting Help Tiny Firms Grow?
Predict the results of two recent development studies, conducted by IPA, one of the world's leading poverty research organizations.
Blog
Afghanistan: Update from Sakena Yacoobi
Afghan Institute of Learning Founder Sakena Yacoobi helps women and children through teacher training and health education.
Foreign Assistance: Time for a Change
There is a disturbing American presumption that it can develop other societies through the export of Americans overseas.
Personal Democracy Forum Gets Religious
The Personal Democracy Forum revealed that 2011 is a watershed moment for work at the intersection of politics, government, and technology.
Qaddafi Son’s Thesis on Civil Society
The second son of the former Libyan president wrote a dissertation entitled “The Role of Civil Society in the Democratization of Global Governance Institutions: ..."
→ This form is for US/Canada subscribers. Are you an international subscriber?
Click here instead.
Subscribe Now!
Subscribers get premium online access (articles with a key) including 9-year archive, downloadable digital edition, quarterly print issues (optional).
Community Building in a Big Backyard
Last year I used the metaphor of "gardening vs landscaping" to outline some of the key attributes I believe make for successful community building, on or offline. The basic idea:
The Gardener creates an ecosystem open to change, available to new groups, and full of fresh opportunities to emerge naturally. The approach is focused on organic collaboration and growth for the entire community. The gardener is simply there to help, cultivate, and clear the weeds if/when they poke up.
The Landscaper creates an ecosystem that matches a preconceived design or pattern. The approach is focused on executing a preconceived environment... (continue reading this blog post)
Context Deficit Disorder
Worried that there might be too much information about you online? Microsoft researcher and social media expert Danah Boyd says it's better to worry that there may not be enough. "The material that is being put up online is searchable by anyone, and it is being constantly accessed—out of context and without any level of nuance," Boyd told attendees of last week’s Supernova Conference at The Wharton School in Philadelphia. "That kind of spotlight on people can be deeply devastating... (continue reading this blog post)
SocialSquared: Productive Gaming on Facebook
The first vertical to “go social,” is games. What that means is that the experience has been reoriented around people, and with Facebook’s social graph as a backbone for interaction.
The advent of “social gaming” has taken us by storm. Companies like Playfish and Playdom are being auctioned off to the highest bidders—Electronic Arts and Disney respectively—and Zynga’s valuation is somewhere north of a billion dollars. The scale of the Facebook platform has provided savvy developers... (continue reading this blop post)
Global Tools for Going Local
I truly believe that in all communications, information sharing, marketing and even community building there is a natural balancing between more-and-more-global and more-and-more-local. Social media may connect people around the world but it can also connect them locally. Just as our tools get more interesting and dynamic for global collaboration and impact, so do they for locally-focused work, campaigns, and communities.
According to the Pew Neighbors Online study recently released, 27 percent of American adult Internet users... (continue reading this blog post)
Game Theory
Water shortages? There's a game for that now. Ditto world famine, the global oil market, and the struggle for Middle East peace. In fact, over the last couple of years, there has been a surge in the number of video game developers who would rather design for social problem solving than entertainment (think Grand Theft Auto meets the electric car).
That's good news for the rest of us: video games have finally begun to shed their one-size-fits-all reputation for blood and bombast. Behavioral experts agree that so-called "games for good" can teach empathy to those who play them... (continue reading this blog post)
 |
 |
|
