CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-06-19 05:18:57 (3 comments, 3 reshares, 11 +1s)

Note to tech companies based in the United States: I realize the federal government has put you in a tough spot. But you helped create the problem. If you want more trust from your customers/users, you can win it back this way:

1) Stop collecting vast amounts of data on us. 2) Do end-to-end encryption wherever possible. 3) Encrypt our cloud data so even you can't read it.

I realize these are not always trivial to do, and may conflict with your current business models. But if you want my trust -- never mind the countless millions of users outside the US and the clued-in ones here -- it's the bottom line.

2013-06-18 00:16:31 (10 comments, 3 reshares, 24 +1s)

Today is my 30th birthday, so I'm writing this letter to Google

I'm going to put all the jokes about my youth coming to a close aside and talk about something that I usually don't ever speak of. The wave of technology in the past couple decades has been amazing. I used a lite brite as a kid. Now 3 year olds are using iPads. We've reached whole new levels but have somehow managed to ignore people with disabilities who could really benefit from these advancements. I know we all want to create things for recreation, but how about helping some people out along the way.

Hearing disabilities are rarely ever talked about and if you watched that deaf girl hear for the first time on youtube about a year ago, you'd think that deafness had been cured once and for all. Less than 1% of hearing impaired people in the U .S. could even benefit from the type of surgery she... more »

2013-06-17 15:50:25 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Interesting thinking about that emergence is the fundamental scientific explanation for how local changes can materialize as global systems of influence.

2013-06-17 14:58:10 (14 comments, 5 reshares, 29 +1s)

Google Plus has lost one of its most engaging, authentic, and passionate members this past week-end. 
I am not very articulate in these matters. I am of very heavy heart, and greatly saddened by J.C.'s sudden passing. For those that knew him, he has left a big hole in G+ and our lives. 

2013-06-17 14:26:44 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

#kathrynsgliacoffeebreak  
I used to think that diversity and inclusion were only about everyone having equal rights, but now I see that they are crucial to the thriving of a team or society. As we learn more from neuroscience about the incredible power of group emotions, we see reasons to adopt techniques beyond the ordinary.
#creativity   #emotions   #innovation   #neurobiology   #realization  

2013-06-17 14:14:52 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Nissan Builds a Car and Its Social Community

In 2012, Nissan tapped into their social community's passion for rebuilding classic cars by introducing Project 370Z, the first ever social media build of a classic car.

2013-06-16 12:14:47 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 10 +1s)

“When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty.” -Thomas Jefferson

2013-06-16 12:00:50 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 13 +1s)

Hey Geoples!
The West Coast Awakes
#sunrising

2013-06-16 00:18:08 (6 comments, 2 reshares, 8 +1s)

Interfluidity is actually fairly seldom-updated. But almost everything written there is worth quoting in its entirety. A long block quote follows:

"A useful way to understand the pickle we’re in, I think, is that we are suffering from the so-called “resource curse”. If you are unfamiliar with the phrase, “resource curse” refers to the regularity with which countries “blessed” with abundant natural resources end up as dystopian polities with dysfunctional economies. Nigeria has a lot of oil but no one wants to live there.

The resource curse is pretty easy to understand. It’s not associated with just any sort of natural resource. Switzerland has beautiful mountains and stuff that people would pay a lot of money for, but it is still well-governed. Accursed resources are of a very particular type. They are valuable tradable goods the extraction of which requires asmall numbers o... more »

2013-06-15 13:42:02 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Personal Angle
One Degree of Separation
#friends  

I work with a friend, Robert Dueck, whose kid was one of the team members of this project. Robbie, more interestingly, was also an unofficial part of the team, using his years of craftsman experience in building to help build the rotor blades. We were working together yesterday when his son texted him the good news!

Via +Pemo Theodore 

2013-06-15 13:11:31 (6 comments, 2 reshares, 13 +1s)

A very good video on why graphene rocks.

2013-06-13 22:00:07 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

It is a concern that so many decisions are influenced by low-intellect, low-information advocates and the unscrupulous politicians that depend on them.

I am not sure I gave much thought to nuclear power before 1979, when the accident at Three Mile Island made environmental apathy impossible—or, at least, detestable. But there are few more obvious signs that the world is moving in the wrong direction than an event that threatens to despoil the planet forever. To be for nuclear power after Three Mile Island (and, even worse, after the accident at Chernobyl, in 1986) was to be for corporations; for lying, callous governments; and for the inane notion that the benefits of new technologies always outweigh the risks. Nuclear power just wasn’t nature’s way, and who can be against nature?

That, to bend a phrase of Bill Clinton’s, depends on what the nature of nature is. If nature meanscontinu... more »

2013-06-13 18:36:18 (6 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Mary Meeker's misinformation has influence

2013-06-13 16:35:22 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

Gideon Rosenblatt's Top 100

These are the folks Google tells me are my most relevant people (slightly modified to remove people who are relevant, but not active here on Google+).

Looking through this list, I can tell you that these are great people full of interesting ideas and engagement. 

I'm not in the circle here, so I can objectively say that this group is a worthy addition to your circles. 

Enjoy this group of people - I know I do. They enrich my experience here. Without them, I probably wouldn't still be here today. 

P.S. - If you got a notification, that means you're in the circle. 

2013-06-13 15:01:18 (10 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

The Big Picture
Context
#transparency   

This is an outstanding piece via +Brad Esau  and +James Salsman .

Pardon my utopian extremism, but knowing what your government is doing really isn’t such a bad thing and it has to do with aiding the (American) public, not the enemy. Knowing what your government is doing is not some special privilege that the government generously bestows on us when we’re good and obedient citizens, it’s an obligation that goes to the heart of the matter in a free country. After all, it should be ordinary citizens like us who make the ultimate decision about whether war X is worth fighting or not, worth escalating or not, worth ending or not.

2013-06-13 14:52:08 (20 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Privacy advocates are sounding alarm bells over a new device that can record certain driving habits of Canadian motorists. But one of the auto insurance companies offering the product says those fears are misplaced. Read why critics are concerned: http://cbc.sh/C1yIn6Q

Would you be willing to get a car recording device in exchange for lower insurance rates?

(Aaron Harris/Canadian Press)

2013-06-13 14:11:23 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Weather
Light and Lines
#photography  

Sitting on the deck Tuesday night, watching nature put on a show. 

2013-06-13 13:20:33 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Engagement Counts
Return on Investment
#data  

This is pretty straight forward. 
Customers who engage with a company’s social media efforts spend more on its products, according to this paper, which confirms that online platforms not only strengthen the bond between consumers and firms, but can also help boost the bottom line. And the payoff is significant: In this study, customers who interacted with a wine retailer’s social media network visited stores 5.2 percent more often and contributed 5.6 percent more revenue than customers who had a similar shopping history at that retailer but no online involvement.

2013-06-13 13:14:26 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Nine Critical Questions
A Holistic Approach
#systemsthinking  

While this is pretty good, it still only gets part way there. Questions missed are:
--How social are we? (although it is touched upon in question two) 
_How engaged are we? 
--The risks and opportunities of bring your own devices. 
--Two way information flows using social technologies. (and critical to a learning strategy)

There is hints of integral thinking here, yet it is also too top tier centric (pyramid hierarchy) . The questions are about technology, but right there in question six is "technology alone delivers no value". That value lies in the social engagement. 
Asking these questions alone does not help organization solve deeper structural problems of culture and networks. 

2013-06-11 13:42:33 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Perspective
The Big Picture
#security   #bigdata  

To answer the question of the headline: probably not. But the opinion piece does raise the more subtle issues of what we will charitably call "data collection" by government agencies. 
Yes, there are always trade offs. But problems arise when you dissent from the governments preferred position. 

2013-06-11 12:22:32 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

On Leadership
Cooperation and Cocreation
#leadership  

I'll just add to this terrific blogpost by +Walter H Groth , that authority is not leadership. Having a title (manager, CEO, President, etc, etc) is not leadership. 

2013-06-10 13:38:41 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

Ah, here it is. Bruce Schneier on #NSAleaks  http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/06/government_secr.html

One of the links in his post is really interesting: http://unhandled.com/2013/06/07/a-taxonomy-of-prism-possibilities/ 

2013-06-09 03:52:32 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Stranglehold
Ted Nugent
#oldschool  

This was the shit, back in the day. I know he's gone a bit bat shit, but back then, this ruled. 

2013-06-07 20:13:24 (6 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

NSA surveillance revelations: Osama bin Laden would love this

Washington has handed Osama bin Laden his last and greatest triumph. The Prism files revealed in the Guardian indicate how far his bid to undermine western values has succeeded in the 12 years since 9/11. He has achieved state intrusion into the private lives and communications of every American citizen. He has shown the self-proclaimed home of individual freedom as so paranoid in the face of his "terror" as to infiltrate the entire internet, sucking up mobile phone calls, emails, texts and, we may assume, GPS movements.

The vast databases of Microsoft, Google, YouTube and Facebook are open to government. They may cry "your privacy is our priority", but they lie. Obedience to regulatory authority is their priority. And what does authority say? It says what authority always says: "We collect... more »

2013-06-07 13:14:04 (2 comments, 3 reshares, 10 +1s)

2013-06-05 13:55:11 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

2. Google+ and Twitter influencing search results

The experiment: When Google introduced the real time search results, it meant that suddenly, tweets were part of the results. That meant anything someone would tweet out was now visible in search results. But shortly after, the company deprecated that result. So do tweets still influence search results? This experiment centered around a single tweet linking to an unindexed URL.

What quickly became clear is that while Google appears to no longer have access to the Twitter fire hose, there are enough scrappers and aggregator sites that the tweet still makes it to the search results, albeit a bit slower. But Google+ saw a much faster transition from social to search, with these results showing up in minutes.

The result: There was no question from this experiment that both a tweet and a Google+ post would influence search... more »

2013-06-05 13:35:40 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

“The Next Phase of Social Business is the Collaborative Economy”

The “disintermediation” of businesses from customers, or, in other words, eliminating the middle man in many transactions, is leading to a shift of power from companies to customers. Since this shift will increasingly affect the bottom line of incumbents, companies must prepare themselves for this change.

2013-06-05 13:30:22 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Cable still not worried about cord cutters

But they're not ignoring, either...

2013-06-04 12:07:56 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Five Organisational Metaphors

In Fritjof Capra's The Hidden Connections, he describes the five main metaphors which people have used to understand organisations: 1) Machines, 2) Organisms, 3) Brains, 4) Cultures, 5) Systems of government.

He concludes that the fundamental debate is really whether we see our organisations as Machines (predictable) or Living System (unpredictable).

Capra, F. (2003). The hidden connections: A science for sustainable living. HarperPerennial.

2013-06-04 11:54:12 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

5 Ways to Cultivate an Active Google+
Thanks, +Chris Brogan, +Mark Smiciklas  

2013-06-04 11:42:20 (2 comments, 6 reshares, 13 +1s)

Social Business: Where It's Been. Where It's Going
The future: Connected. Adaptive. Intelligent.           by +David Armano 

1. Digital: The Interactive Revolution
2. Digital Media: Information Goes Online
3. Digital Business: The Transactional Era
4. Social: The Human Web
5. Social Media: Global, Local, Mobile Connectivity At Scale
6. Social Business: Connected, Adaptive & Intelligent (G+ Ripples?)

View the Ripples of this post > http://goo.gl/W1kKd
More > darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2012/05/social_biz.html
Video > Video: Social Business Q&A with David Armano

2013-06-03 13:57:37 (20 comments, 2 reshares, 10 +1s)

+Dave Pollard asks what the world would be like if our companies, government agencies and other organizations ran more like the Internet. Less hierarchy and more "wirearchy" (to borrow +Jon Husband's term). 

This is a longer piece, so grab a cup of joe and dive in. And here's something to ponder as you do: do you think there is a connection between what Dave is saying here and the research that Geoffrey West has done on the longevity of cities relative to organizations? 

➼ http://longnow.org/seminars/02011/jul/25/why-cities-keep-growing-corporations-always-die-and-life-gets-faster/

+Gregory Esau and +John Kellden I think this piece will get you going...

2013-06-03 02:43:48 (5 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

Everybody Hurts
Sachal Studio Orchestra
#coversunday  

Beautiful rendition of the old REM song. 
Via +Mark J Horowitz 

2013-06-02 20:13:40 (23 comments, 2 reshares, 24 +1s)

"The austerity agenda looks a lot like a simple expression of upper-class preferences, wrapped in a facade of academic rigor.  What the top one percent wants becomes what economic science says we must do." - Paul Krugman

2013-06-02 21:14:21 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 13 +1s)

Dining Experience
Take Two
#Vancouver  

From Friday evening, this one taken on the way out from the restaurant. 
I should note, all my recent pictures have been taken with the HTC One X. 

2013-06-02 19:50:25 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

2013-06-02 20:02:42 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

NEW POST: An Open Letter to Jamie Dimon #economics #change #innovation #prosperity #complexity #globalism #capitalism #emergence

https://designingliteracy.squarespace.com/literacyoftheimagination/2013/6/1/an-open-letter-to-jamie-dimon

2013-06-02 17:23:50 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Venture Capitalist: Canadian Entrepreneurs Have an Unrealistic Expectation of Values

2013-06-02 17:02:31 (8 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Probably Not
The Corrupted 'Science'
#economics  

There are many good economists that could pass for scientists. The field itself is hopelessly corrupted. And more than a bit dense. Equilibrium? Really? Shirly you jest. 
When so many so called experts on a system are so horrifically wrong, they are not going to admit and give up their gravy train. So the horror show will continue. 

_When the theoretical physicist Lee Smolin was asked to join a research group to work on economics his first response was "I don't know anything about economics." That's okay, said Mike Brown, the former CFO of Microsoft, "because nobody does and the whole system is about to collapse." _

That was 2007, and the rest is history. And yet, according to Smolin, he found that it is very easy for a physicist to understand economics&q... more »

2013-06-01 18:05:28 (5 comments, 6 reshares, 33 +1s)

Graphene Used to Make Camera Sensors 1000x More Sensitive

Technology Rocks!

#Technology  

2013-06-01 16:40:21 (1 comments, 8 reshares, 18 +1s)

2013-06-01 16:35:27 (14 comments, 2 reshares, 13 +1s)

Protests in Turkey entered their fifth day today, with demonstrators heading into the streets in cities across the country. The protests, which were initially aimed at protesting the demolition of Istanbul’s Gezi park, have transformed, because of police aggression, to include more general grievances with the Turkish government.

#occupygezi  

http://occupygezipics.tumblr.com/

http://muftah.org/protests-in-turkey-part-of-a-growing-cycle-of-discontent/

2013-06-01 16:29:49 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

THE KING OF SPINOFFS      :::::: INSPIRATION ::::::

Barry Diller, Chairman of the Board and senior executive for IAC and +Expedia, A.K.A. the “king of spinoffs”, talked about the importance in creating damage as the main driver for success in a business model. Declaring that the term of entrepreneur and networking scares him to death, he highlighted the importance of reputation and character as key components for creative destruction. On his approach on ventures, he emphasized the value of risk taking and instinct when it comes to doing business. 
About his future:
- “I would like to still be relevant in 2020. I want to be in the world of ideas and disruptions. The ones that work and the ones that don’t work.”
http://www.c2mtl.com/barry-diller/



#C2MTL   #Spinoffs    #CreativeDestruction   #Instinct   #RiskTaking  #Montreal  ... more »

2013-06-01 13:51:17 (7 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

Thanks +Rick Klau to have introduced me to such a brilliant man, +John Doerr, and to OKRs.

"Ever wondered how Google sets goals and measures the results? Believe it or not, the system used by Google today was introduced to the company by John Doerr 14 years ago.

This was our most popular Startup Lab workshop last year, and it was particularly gratifying to see several of our portfolio companies implement OKRs (objectives and key results) based on the model we've adopted at Google. I loved leading the workshop; very excited to make it publicly available now." - RK

Full blog post here:
http://startuplab.googleventures.com/public-workshops-2013-05-14

2013-06-01 00:42:21 (7 comments, 1 reshares, 14 +1s)

This is How We Roll
Dining Vancouver
#Vancouver

Sun, decks, dining and waterfront.

2013-05-31 13:42:37 (15 comments, 1 reshares, 10 +1s)

The Entrepreneurial Mindset     

More: odesk.com/info/spring2013onlineworksurvey

h/t +Sheena YapChan 

2013-05-31 02:00:57 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Understanding the Eco-system that Builds Positive Reputation Online

Online Reputation Management is the practice of understanding the sentiments for an individual, brand or business and then addressing contents which are damaging to it on the web. Most of reputation management strategies is focused on reducing the negativity about a brand online.

2013-05-30 22:19:48 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Unwrap our website on Saturday

We definitely have something special in store for you when we launch LittleBigFund.org on Saturday. All of the artwork we've been showing off will come together to tell the story of how your donations can make a world of difference. Jellyfish, goats, meteors - we've got it all. Designed by the epic +Alexander Parker and made functional by our developer +Paul Spoerry, our website is poised to surprise you. 

What does #LittleBigFund  do anyways? http://bit.ly/143L6rv

2013-05-30 13:43:06 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 17 +1s)

Internet Trends 2013 
slideshare.net/kleinerperkins/kpcb-internet-trends-2013

" Must read for anyone in business today." - +Chris O'Neill, Managing Director, Google Canada
 
From the blog www.stuckincustoms.com Copyright +Trey Ratcliff 

2013-05-30 13:26:40 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 6 +1s)

Network Theory
Weak Ties
#networktheory   #leadership   #diversity  

Network theory hit big back in the late 1990's, and I kind of geeked out on it at the time. In this piece, shared by +Jack C Crawford , the weak ties of your network is where the leverage lies. Diversity of knowledge and opinions is one key.

_This is not because they become linchpins or hubs or gateways to power and information, per se, but rather because managers who maintain contacts in a diverse range of departments are getting a very healthy and intellectually stimulating “exposure to diverse ideas and behaviors.” According to Burt, “the way networks have their effect is not by getting information from people, but rather by finding people who are interesting and who think differently from you,” adding that it isn’t being in the know, “but rather having to translate betweendifferent group... more »