You are what you curate: Why Pinterest is the hot tip in 2012 in Silicon Valley

The new hot social thing on the web these days is a Palo Alto, Calif.–based company started by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp. (I incorrectly described this group as ex-Facebookers. My apologies for the error.) It is called Pinterest and it is about the concept of curation — a much abused phrase in Silicon Valley. Essentially it allows you to create visual collections of things that you like and find on the web. It is especially popular with young women. Some smart folks such as serial entrepreneur Elad Gill have started talking about “social content curation” and point to the evolution of online content. They even have a graph to show it all. Gill writes on his blog:

Click to read more ...

The State of Uncertainty - Innovation Policy Through Experimentation - NESTA

An interesting new paper in the Provocation Series from NESTA UK entitled "The State of Uncertainty - Innovation Policy Through Experimentation" explores the notion of innovation policy and concludes rather naively in my view "the basic problem that constrains innovation, and the main resource that propels it, is uncertainty and its resolution. This should be the focus of innovation policy. Our proposal suggests both a more powerful strategy and potentially also a more cost effective one than the traditional approach. But it will require that innovation policy be introduced, and applied, in a scientific (learning-focused) rather than political (influence-based) frame of mind." Two problems with this conclusion.

Click to read more ...

Emphas.is - crowdfunded visual journalism

An interesting experiment in crowdfunded creativity on Emphas.is .Photojournalists pitch their projects directly to the public. You get to decide whether a story is worth doing.

By agreeing to back a story, for a minimum contribution of $10, you are making sure that the issues that you care about receive the in-depth coverage they deserve.

In return you are invited along on the journey. Photojournalists on Emphas.is agree to enter into a direct dialogue with their backers, sharing their experiences and insights as the creative process unfolds.

Worthwhile having a look at their web site.

Are online consumers killing online creativity? « Lee Simons, Bizmology

Perhaps the dark horse of this year’s SXSW Interactive conference: Andrew Keen stands apart among the droves of techies who, truth be told, are jockeying to consumerize their online wares. Entrepreneur, broadcaster, and writer of the 2007 tome Cult of the Amateur: How the Internet is killing our culture, Keen is not as stoked about the potential of online consumerism as everyone else here is.

Click to read more ...

How WikiLeaks Changes Things for Us All - Carne Ross - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

The massive disclosure of classified US diplomatic cables by Wikileaks is an event of historic, if not seismic, significance. So great is the number of cables, and so sensitive is much of the information they divulge, that the consequences will be profound, long-lasting, and manifold. No one — neither Wikileaks nor the U.S. government — can know whether the effects will be good or bad. They will undoubtedly be both. We can be sure only that they will be many and unpredictable. Governments are no doubt rushing to secure their data and hold it more tightly than ever, but the horse has bolted. If a government as professional, technically sophisticated, and well-protected as the U.S. can suffer a breach of this magnitude, no government is safe. Politicians can roar their demands for the prosecution of Julian Assange or — absurdly — that Wikileaks be designated as a terrorist organization, but the rage is in truth a tacit admission that government's monopoly on its own information is now a thing of the past.

Click to read more ...