Social Entrepreneurs, Networks, and Technology

I am revising a draft of a paper about social entrepreneurs to give at EGOS.
Here is the core idea:
Broadly, I am trying to connect what is known about the research into new forms of organizing with internet with innovation and networks studies
Some baseline assumptions:
1) Innovators and entrepreneurs of any flavor are in a brokerage position [...]

Long Tail Debates

Wish I had more time now to review this:
Long Tail Stops Wagging.
Matt Stoller over at Open Left argues that this means that technoutopian libertarian dreams are dead and there is a necessary role for government.
Maybe.  I have never read enough of the Long Tail arguments to have a Strong opinion, but I do want to [...]

Cell phone precautions

Text of email from my pa-in-law:

Surprising warning from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute:

<http://www.environmentaloncology.org/node/201>

Some reaction, as reported in the press:

<http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080723/D923R4DO1.html>

Social Networks gains another level of salience

While over at socnet, there is a discussion of how “social networks” has become totally co-opted and stolen by the rise of the social networking sites/services (MySpace, Facebook, Okrut, LinkedIn, etc), i stumbled on to the new HP TouchSmart computer marketing campaign.  By the way, the author of the post above, Guy Hagen, is totally [...]

The Grid is coming

The fine folks at CERN- the European physics research center where the WWW was born- seem to have a sense of humor.  They are calling their new super-duper network the grid.  Seems right out of cyberpunk imagination.  At least its not called the matrix.
Coming soon: superfast internet – Times Online
That network, in effect a parallel [...]

From the Cyborg Desk: Warning sounded over ‘flirting robots’

Warning sounded over ‘flirting robots’ | Beyond Binary – A blog by Ina Fried – CNET News.com
A program that can mimic online flirtation and then extract personal information from its unsuspecting conversation partners is making the rounds in Russian chat forums, according to security software firm PC Tools.
I hope there is a way to test [...]

These jokers run the world?

I found this article under the NYT’s most emailed (or blogged) articles.  I don’t follow the twists and turns of the software business very carefully, and it is easy to beat up on Microsoft.  like shooting a barnside.
The basics seems to be that Microsoft tried to weasel around the hardware/software incompatibility of its new Vista [...]

A gadget I need? (or, simply one more distraction)

Given how much I like to take fragments of text and use them as the basis of notes and then put them into things I write, I have been eying these scanner pens for awhile wondering if they would make life easier for me.
I initially saw them in an airline Skymall cataloge. That [...]

Toys of the Super Rich: Macbook Air Bling With Gold And Swarovski Crystal

I guess the super rich need something to do with their piles of money.
Macbook Air Bling With Gold And Swarovski Crystal – Born Rich
Macbook Air Bling With Gold And Swarovski Crystal

Living Web Social Innovation

Yesterday, I listened to most of Nick Yeo’s conversation over at the social innovation center’s conversations network.  He is the communications director for Taking ITGlobal, a youth- and development-oriented social networking pllatform.
One thing that stood out (and that I think Vishant might like) is that he discussed how they discovered that their users in places [...]