First off less than 2% of Congress totaling 535 members, have professional backgrounds in science, whereas there are 222 lawyers.

When in 1987 the Federal Communications Commission removed the fairness doctrine of how difficult or controversial news was reported it open the door to more extreme punditry, take a bow Rush Limbaugh. And we have witnessed an increasing line of anti-science perspectives from Rick Perry, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, with the whip held by Newt Gringrich.

And Otto argues right now science is under threat by anti-climate change organisations – between 2009 and June 2010 the energy industry spent half a billion dollars fighting climate change legislation. He writes that 96 of the 100 newly elected Republican members of Congress deny outright that climate change is real or are voting against it in one form or another.

That said Otto argues there are complex forces that are shaping the debate on public perceptions towards science, ‘the moral ambiguity createdafter the dropping of the Atom bomb and living in a nuclear MAD world’, or some of the terrible excesses of toxic pollution that killed and maimed ordinary people – coupled with the culpability of government, the effects of postmodernism on the one hand and the rise of fundamentalist religion on the other smashing into each other. A deep distrust arouse around government and science.

This is the volatile cocktail that combines – commerce, science, truth and politics and results says Otto on an assault on American science that is unprecedented. Though the Barack Obama administration does not get away with it scott free

President Obama’s not much better. Running strong on climate change in 2008, he has since totally de-prioritized it, apparently marginalizing his scientist appointees like Chu, Holdren and Lubchenco, all of them outspoken on climate change, and now appears to be moving ahead with offshore oil drilling, lower air pollution standards, poor carbon standards, and the Keystone XL oil pipeline. In a time when the science has only advanced further and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences says anthropogenic global warming should be “regarded as settled facts” — a time when China’s leapfrogging ahead on clean energy investments in the next economy, that’s not going to take America where we need to go.

Finally Otto refers to ScienceDebate2012 as he describes it, ‘a grassroots campaign for a presidential debate on science, technology, health, medicine and the environment’. Which was born out of Science Debate 2008 which was the largest political initiative in the history of American science.

We are on a journey from a linear world to a non-linear one (click here for more information) and we need good science to come with us. To attempt to shout down science, diminishes us all and limits the possibilities of our world.

For more information on Otto’s perspective read New Scientist October 27th 2011 (subscription required) or the Huffington Post- The un-American war on Science.

Shawn Otto has written book called Fool Me Twice: fighting thee assault on science in America

The whole spectrum of sciences, including vitally important areas such as cleantech, life sciences and biotech, and engineering, is facing extreme upheaval, particularly related to the funding of scientific research. In an overall difficult economic situation, cuts by governments in the area of blue-skies research and less funding available from corporates have created an environment in which the funding of science that is not immediately of commercial value is seen as unnecessary, imprudent, and wasteful.

At the same time, scientific advancement has been very rapid, and tremendous progress has been made in all areas of science. But this has come at a price, quite literally: scientific research is expensive, it takes place at a very high level of complexity, and some of it is speculative with often long and rarely direct routes from idea to commercialization.

A sustainable answer?

Finding a sustainable answer is important, Lucy points to the complexity of funding science, its long gestation, and the increasing desire by VC’s for short-term gain and a decreasing appetite for “risk” as they perceive it. Informed and prudent investment decisions thus require a new level of sophisticated scientific expertise, and most venture funds are not well equipped to do this. As a consequence, they seek the comfort and greater certainty of later-stage investment that comes with a proven idea and income stream on its side. The question arises then is the VC model broken, or broken enough to be rethought?

Innovation eco-systems and architectures

Lucy argues: If retaining their positions as world leaders in scientific exploration and its commercialization is vital to the G7 economies, what needs to be done and are we willing to do it? The gap that needs to be covered is between the origin of an idea and that stage in its development where its successful commercialization is more likely than not. Early-stage investment funds can play a vital role in bridging this gap: they pick up where notional research leaves off but well before the commercial value of a discovery has been completely verified. Early-stage investment funds thus provide the answer to the question of who decides what gets funded because they bring together scientific experts with venture capitalists — those who understand the complex science behind the idea right at the point of due diligence and those who have the business acumen to vet business plans, fund them, and guide their implementation.

And one cannot argue with that, so what to do? Those economies, argues Will Hutton prepared to stay open and create national innovation architectures that support a diversified landscape of vigorous firms, institutions and technologies will repeat the amazing feat of the British Industrial Revolution at the end of the 18th Century – But such innovation eco-systems will not be created spontaneously we need to develop an interconnected eco-system that can respond to these dilemma’s by designing answers that today do not exist. Something that the many people I met in Boston recently were at pains to point out to me. This eco-system is created out of networks or networks which are both local and global. These new models of entrepreneurship, argues John Seely Brown, are built upon also the human talents of deep listening, recipricocity and embedded trust in networked knowledge flows. The eco-system in Boston has a thriving situated community around Boston (academia, entrepreneurs, mentors that want to give back and angel + VC funding, and whole support infrastructure), they use mentoring extensively, in a recent conversation with Sherwin Greenblatt of the MIT Venture Mentoring Service, he explained to me how anyone at MIT (staff or students) can use the service, and that recently a great success was the sale of a drug delivery system innovated at MIT which had been in gestation for 8 years. In fact the eco-system for funding innovation and bringing that innovation to market is central to how science is funded. Equally the MIT Industry Liason program is very good at attracting inward investment into MIT. This is structured in such a way to be of huge incentive for academia to engage with the commercial world. And a case in point is a large company investing $70m over 5 years into a particular form of life sciences, and then hiring quite a few MIT grads consequently.

In a post I wrote on the challenges with big pharma, funding, accelerating innovation I quoted John Martin who was writing in New Scientist,

There is another way to fund the development of new treatments. Many innovative ideas that have changed society have arisen from the combination of curiosity and academic freedom found in universities. This is where small amounts of funding can produce big results. In recent years, university research has been exploited by industry to produce new drugs, such as blood clot-busting “tissue plasminogen activator”, courtesy of the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) in Belgium.

Now, while big pharma has so much money it doesn’t know what to do with it, universities are being starved of resources and research funding has decreased in real terms. At the same time, university research strategy is under-organised and there is ignorance of how to exploit intellectual property and utilise patents. Nevertheless, the potential of universities is enormous.

So the problem is not just VC’s – its the eco-system they exist in and the way in which innovation and scientific breakthroughs can be made – it is essentially a design problem. Gordon Brown, our recent PM visited MIT and consequently wanted to create something similar in the UK – but we have not been successful, and that has a great deal to do with culture.

Open Innovation

Another aspect which we should consider is the emergence of new platforms for venture funding, and new approaches to innovation. The answer is yes, and it comes from an unexpected and unrelated corner of the universe: open source software development, argues Karim R. Lakhani, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School. His research leads to these conclusions:

1. Practices in the open source software community offer a model for encouraging large-scale scientific problem solving.
2. Open up your problem to other people in a systematic way. A problem may reside in one domain of expertise and the solution may reside in another.
3. Find innovative licensing ways or legal regimes that allow people to share knowledge without risking the overall intellectual property of the firm.

TopCoder is one very good example: TopCoder is a company which administers contests in computer programming. TopCoder hosts fortnightly online  competitions — known as SRMs or “single round matches” — as well as weekly competitions algorithm in design and development. The work in design and development produces useful software which is licensed for profit by TopCoder. Competitors involved in the creation of these components are paid royalties based on these sales. The software resulting from algorithm competitions — and the less-frequent marathon matches — is not usually directly useful, but sponsor companies sometimes provide money to pay the victors. Statistics (including an overall “rating” for each developer) are tracked over time for competitors in each category.

Karim Lakhani believes,

Open source collaboration is a very different model for innovation and product development than most firms are used to. I began to wonder where we might see similar patterns occur outside the software domain. In open source communities we see a vast degree of openness in which everybody can participate, but also the practice of broadcasting your work to everybody else. People continually broadcast their problems, others broadcast solutions, and the person with the problem is not always the one with the solution. Oftentimes, somebody else can make sense of both what the problem has been and what people are proposing as solutions, and can come up with a better answer.

Something I explore in a summing up presentation I gave at the conference Competing to Innovate which was held at MIT/Sloan School of Management in Boston 12 January 2011.

5 Sites That Tap the Music in the Cloud

Fizy
This Turkish site compiles audio from around the Net into a database from which you can curate your own playlists. It’s fast as blazes (for now, anyway) and boasts a fat catalog.
Wired Simple profile pages facilitate playlist-sharing. Reports recently played songs to FriendFeed, RSS, or just your profile. Shuffle function.
Tired Bare-bones user profiles limit social utility.

Muziic
Developed by high schooler David Nelson with help from his dad, this upstart accesses the songs on YouTube via an iTunes-like interface.
Wired Makes the music on YouTube feel local. Sharing feature helps you add your own MP3s to the cloud.
Tired Requires Windows XP or Vista. Seizure-inducing design. Catalog limited to what’s on YouTube. Special software installation necessary.

Songza
Songza wraps the music of imeem and YouTube in a sweet, simple Web interface, the work of Scott Robbin and Aza Raskin—whose father, Jef Raskin, sired the Apple Macintosh.
Wired With a click, Play, Share, Rate, and Add to Playlist tools unfold like a clover. Can use services other than imeem and YouTube. Playlist appears on profile page and RSS feed.
Tired Only one playlist per user.

Spotify
A P2P streaming architecture lets users in supported countries create collections from a massive in-house music archive.
Wired Fast, free playback through an efficient interface that rivals iTunes. Smooth, robust streaming. Live tech support. $14 per month removes ads.
Tired Currently restricted to Europe (a US rollout is being negotiated). Requires software installation.

Twones
Prefer to use iTunes or other downloadable software for your local playback? Twones has you covered. It also tracks your activity on multiple online services and offline players through a single Web interface.
Wired Small-fry sites can sign up to be included in the search, theoretically giving you access to a wider variety of tracks.
Tired Limited playback on the site itself.

And I picked up the FT this morning to find an editorial about the incident too. The FT also points to the fact that Daschle had unpaid taxes and that was the cause of the problem.

However, Rosen and Greenwald point to the fact that what makes this a bigger story is indeed the fact that Daschle had been peddling his contacts and influence to organisations and companies, in exchange for large amounts of cash, to enable them to get through Congress legislation that would directly benefit them, which not necessarily be in the public good. This in their view is the bigger story, but because the practice is institutionalised within Washington, it is not regarded as ‘the story’.

Funny that, and of course we had the whole ‘cash for questions’ issue in the UK, and then recently four Lords again using their influence, so it is claimed, to change legislation to the benefit of companies in exchange for large amounts of cash.

Again, we see symptoms of perhaps a bigger malaise… which is in fact not being reported on in the mainstream media.

In Audience Atomization Overcome Rosen writes

In the age of mass media, the press was able to define the sphere of legitimate debate with relative ease because the people on the receiving end were atomized  connected “up” to Big Media but not across to each other. And now that authority is eroding.

This ability to connect, to go round, over, under and through what were for years barriers to information are the means by which we challenge the authority of mainstream media.

In a long conversation with a friend of mine yesterday, we talked about trust. In a networked society, the ability to reach out and search for information in a  non-linear fashion destroys the information fuedalism we have lived in for so long. As modern day serfs to the feudal lords of mass media, and mass consumption, we have discovered our sense of civic pride, because we can once again re-engage with the world in a way that creates meaning for us.

This is a problem for mainstream media, because that is not part of their DNA. The problem then is that trust erodes and over time that equates to the erosion of revenues. The big media boys then do the obvious, they cut staff, they slash budgets – just look at the Johnston Press in the UK. And as they begin to bleed cash on a quarterly basis, they continue to do more of the same.

Not realising that they are approaching this in the wrong way. And how could they? How could they be able to look upon the world with fresh eyes?

In the meantime, individuals when connected, reconnected, superconnected, begin to see that re-engaging in the public sphere might be a good thing and so the reinvent the world a new. Citizen journalism being but one aspect of that. So we see the rise of Pro-publica, Globalpost and the Huffingtonpost, as just 3 examples

My view is that, as a consequence of this shift in authority, companies have to ask themselves about the role of their organisation in public life. How do they do good? How do they bring perceived value? And how on earth do they build trust?

Arianna Huffington predicts the slow demise of traditional news reporting. Part of the Guardian’s Future of Journalism series

Hurricane Arianna and some thoughts on the future of news media

The New York Times once epitomised all that was great about American newspapers; now it symbolises its industry?s deep malaise. The Grey Lady?s circulation is tumbling, down another 3.9% in the latest data from America?s Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). Its advertising revenues are down, too (12.5% lower in March than a year earlier), as is the share price of its owner, the New York Times Company, up from its January low but still over 20% below what it was last July. On Tuesday April 29th Standard & Poor?s cut the firm?s debt rating to one notch above junk.

writes the Economist

Bill Gates believes

that the advertising business model for traditional media those venues where advertisers still channel most of their spending will fall apart faster in the coming five years as the kind of interactive, targeted advertising that is defining the Web comes to the fore. And we did ask Has Hollywood Gone with the Wind? And Tomi discussed in a great post Eyeballs vs Co-creating Consumers: Measuring Blyk

The ABC reported that for the 530 biggest dailies, average circulation in the past six months was 3.6% lower than in the same period a year earlier; for Sunday papers, it was 4.6% lower. Ad revenues are plunging across the board: by 22.3% at Media General, for example. In 2007 total newspaper revenues fell to $42.2 billion, not to be sniffed at, certainly, but a lot less than the peak of $48.7 billion in 2000.

And

Mr Murdoch?s enthusiasm is a reminder that not all newspapers are suffering. He bought the Wall Street Journal last year, and is investing in a vigorous expansion of its political coverage and international news. This foray on to the traditional turf of the Times seems to be working: the Journal?s circulation is rising. Another flourishing outlet is the web-only Huffington Post which is fast evolving beyond a series of political blogs into a fully fledged online newspaper with liberal sensibilities close to those of the New York Times.

Not all is lost, however. Plenty of innovation is taking place, particularly at local papers, as the latest Newspaper Next report from the American Press Institute. It quotes 24 examples of newspapers becoming ?information and connection utilities?, through such offerings as local internet forums.

The idea that newspapers must broaden their vision to become local information and connection utilities, with products and services to touch every consumer and serve every business in a market

The concept of the whole market, a universe of consumers and businesses that reaches well beyond readers and advertisers, and that newspaper companies should be striving to reach and touch

Mega-jobs — important “jobs to be done” that a wide cross-section of any market will want and need, and therefore the first that newspaper companies should seek to address.

Writes the report -

Also the report asks: What will the 21st Century Consumer want and expect in the 21st century? the answer

people will want ? and will get from somewhere ? exactly the information, solution, contact or connection they seek, for whatever circumstance arises in their lives, whenever they want it, wherever they happen to be. Because their lives are local, much of it will be local. And they will use any convenient channel to get it.

Some of it will be news, but the vast bulk of it will be on topics more directly pertinent to their own lives, work, interests, circumstances, families, communities.

Businesses large and small will want ? and will get from somewhere ? the ability to reach precisely and measurably the kind of people they seek in local markets, with messages that will engage them, delivered in the most effective formats and channels, at prices that fit all levels of ability to pay.

Communities will want ? and will get from somewhere ? ways to interact, share knowledge and experiences, ask questions, give answers, debate issues, form networks and stay in touch. These will be not just geographic communities, but communities of shared interests.

So Newspapers need to adapt and harness those insights – as the report comments

It?s not difficult to predict these wants and needs, because they aren?t new; they?re as old as civilization. What changes over time are the technologies available to fulfill them and the forms, functions and business models of the solutions created.

But it does challenge who is the audience? Hyper local or super global? What is the business model and how do we create vlaue

And that’s we say about the insights in CDB -

So for example Gannett to Crowdsource News – Why communities dominate brands!

The change wrought by the networked information environment is structural ?challenging how democracies and markets have co-evolved over the last 150 years. Manuel Castells emphasizes the role of technology in the process of human transformation, particularly when we consider the central technology of our time, communication technology, which relates to the heart of the specificity of the human species: conscious, meaningful communication – It needs a new logic, common sense and language. This is the world of Flow data and the harnessing and application of data flows will also be transformational for news and media platforms.

The New York Times once epitomised all that was great about American newspapers; now it symbolises its industry?s deep malaise. The Grey Lady?s circulation is tumbling, down another 3.9% in the latest data from America?s Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). Its advertising revenues are down, too (12.5% lower in March than a year earlier), as is the share price of its owner, the New York Times Company, up from its January low but still over 20% below what it was last July. On Tuesday April 29th Standard & Poor?s cut the firm?s debt rating to one notch above junk.

writes the Economist

Bill Gates believes

that the advertising business model for traditional media those venues where advertisers still channel most of their spending will fall apart faster in the coming five years as the kind of interactive, targeted advertising that is defining the Web comes to the fore. And we did ask Has Hollywood Gone with the Wind? And Tomi discussed in a great post Eyeballs vs Co-creating Consumers: Measuring Blyk

The ABC reported that for the 530 biggest dailies, average circulation in the past six months was 3.6% lower than in the same period a year earlier; for Sunday papers, it was 4.6% lower. Ad revenues are plunging across the board: by 22.3% at Media General, for example. In 2007 total newspaper revenues fell to $42.2 billion, not to be sniffed at, certainly, but a lot less than the peak of $48.7 billion in 2000.

And

Mr Murdoch?s enthusiasm is a reminder that not all newspapers are suffering. He bought the Wall Street Journal last year, and is investing in a vigorous expansion of its political coverage and international news. This foray on to the traditional turf of the Times seems to be working: the Journal?s circulation is rising. Another flourishing outlet is the web-only Huffington Post which is fast evolving beyond a series of political blogs into a fully fledged online newspaper with liberal sensibilities close to those of the New York Times.

Not all is lost, however. Plenty of innovation is taking place, particularly at local papers, as the latest Newspaper Next report from the American Press Institute. It quotes 24 examples of newspapers becoming ?information and connection utilities?, through such offerings as local internet forums.

The idea that newspapers must broaden their vision to become local information and connection utilities, with products and services to touch every consumer and serve every business in a market

The concept of the whole market, a universe of consumers and businesses that reaches well beyond readers and advertisers, and that newspaper companies should be striving to reach and touch

Mega-jobs — important “jobs to be done” that a wide cross-section of any market will want and need, and therefore the first that newspaper companies should seek to address.

Writes the report -

Also the report asks: What will the 21st Century Consumer want and expect in the 21st century? the answer

people will want ? and will get from somewhere ? exactly the information, solution, contact or connection they seek, for whatever circumstance arises in their lives, whenever they want it, wherever they happen to be. Because their lives are local, much of it will be local. And they will use any convenient channel to get it.

Some of it will be news, but the vast bulk of it will be on topics more directly pertinent to their own lives, work, interests, circumstances, families, communities.

Businesses large and small will want ? and will get from somewhere ? the ability to reach precisely and measurably the kind of people they seek in local markets, with messages that will engage them, delivered in the most effective formats and channels, at prices that fit all levels of ability to pay.

Communities will want ? and will get from somewhere ? ways to interact, share knowledge and experiences, ask questions, give answers, debate issues, form networks and stay in touch. These will be not just geographic communities, but communities of shared interests.

So Newspapers need to adapt and harness those insights – as the report comments

It?s not difficult to predict these wants and needs, because they aren?t new; they?re as old as civilization. What changes over time are the technologies available to fulfill them and the forms, functions and business models of the solutions created.

But it does challenge who is the audience? Hyper local or super global? What is the business model and how do we create vlaue

And that’s we say about the insights in CDB -

So for example Gannett to Crowdsource News – Why communities dominate brands!

The change wrought by the networked information environment is structural ?challenging how democracies and markets have co-evolved over the last 150 years. Manuel Castells emphasizes the role of technology in the process of human transformation, particularly when we consider the central technology of our time, communication technology, which relates to the heart of the specificity of the human species: conscious, meaningful communication – It needs a new logic, common sense and language. This is the world of Flow data and the harnessing and application of data flows will also be transformational for news and media platforms.

The New York Times once epitomised all that was great about American newspapers; now it symbolises its industry?s deep malaise. The Grey Lady?s circulation is tumbling, down another 3.9% in the latest data from America?s Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). Its advertising revenues are down, too (12.5% lower in March than a year earlier), as is the share price of its owner, the New York Times Company, up from its January low but still over 20% below what it was last July. On Tuesday April 29th Standard & Poor?s cut the firm?s debt rating to one notch above junk.

writes the Economist

Bill Gates believes

that the advertising business model for traditional media those venues where advertisers still channel most of their spending will fall apart faster in the coming five years as the kind of interactive, targeted advertising that is defining the Web comes to the fore. And we did ask Has Hollywood Gone with the Wind? And Tomi discussed in a great post Eyeballs vs Co-creating Consumers: Measuring Blyk

The ABC reported that for the 530 biggest dailies, average circulation in the past six months was 3.6% lower than in the same period a year earlier; for Sunday papers, it was 4.6% lower. Ad revenues are plunging across the board: by 22.3% at Media General, for example. In 2007 total newspaper revenues fell to $42.2 billion, not to be sniffed at, certainly, but a lot less than the peak of $48.7 billion in 2000.

And

Mr Murdoch?s enthusiasm is a reminder that not all newspapers are suffering. He bought the Wall Street Journal last year, and is investing in a vigorous expansion of its political coverage and international news. This foray on to the traditional turf of the Times seems to be working: the Journal?s circulation is rising. Another flourishing outlet is the web-only Huffington Post which is fast evolving beyond a series of political blogs into a fully fledged online newspaper with liberal sensibilities close to those of the New York Times.

Not all is lost, however. Plenty of innovation is taking place, particularly at local papers, as the latest Newspaper Next report from the American Press Institute. It quotes 24 examples of newspapers becoming ?information and connection utilities?, through such offerings as local internet forums.

The idea that newspapers must broaden their vision to become local information and connection utilities, with products and services to touch every consumer and serve every business in a market

The concept of the whole market, a universe of consumers and businesses that reaches well beyond readers and advertisers, and that newspaper companies should be striving to reach and touch

Mega-jobs — important “jobs to be done” that a wide cross-section of any market will want and need, and therefore the first that newspaper companies should seek to address.

Writes the report -

Also the report asks: What will the 21st Century Consumer want and expect in the 21st century? the answer

people will want ? and will get from somewhere ? exactly the information, solution, contact or connection they seek, for whatever circumstance arises in their lives, whenever they want it, wherever they happen to be. Because their lives are local, much of it will be local. And they will use any convenient channel to get it.

Some of it will be news, but the vast bulk of it will be on topics more directly pertinent to their own lives, work, interests, circumstances, families, communities.

Businesses large and small will want ? and will get from somewhere ? the ability to reach precisely and measurably the kind of people they seek in local markets, with messages that will engage them, delivered in the most effective formats and channels, at prices that fit all levels of ability to pay.

Communities will want ? and will get from somewhere ? ways to interact, share knowledge and experiences, ask questions, give answers, debate issues, form networks and stay in touch. These will be not just geographic communities, but communities of shared interests.

So Newspapers need to adapt and harness those insights – as the report comments

It?s not difficult to predict these wants and needs, because they aren?t new; they?re as old as civilization. What changes over time are the technologies available to fulfill them and the forms, functions and business models of the solutions created.

But it does challenge who is the audience? Hyper local or super global? What is the business model and how do we create vlaue

And that’s we say about the insights in CDB -

So for example Gannett to Crowdsource News – Why communities dominate brands!

The change wrought by the networked information environment is structural ?challenging how democracies and markets have co-evolved over the last 150 years. Manuel Castells emphasizes the role of technology in the process of human transformation, particularly when we consider the central technology of our time, communication technology, which relates to the heart of the specificity of the human species: conscious, meaningful communication – It needs a new logic, common sense and language. This is the world of Flow data and the harnessing and application of data flows will also be transformational for news and media platforms.

Its a fad like hot pants and Bellbottoms

So I thought I would take my comment and post it because there seems perhaps to be some misunderstanding.

Dear Steve,

Thanks for dropping by. But its not a fad for some very critical reasons. We are a We Species. Human beings have an innate need to connect and communicate. So whilst many of you get excited about the monetising of the technology, its not the technology that is driving these interactions. So in fact its not web 2.0 blah blah, its a “We Media” for a “We Species.” Further, in our advanced economic age, our identities that were once formed by external forces; where we were born, the immediate geography, social customs, religion, and industries related to that area, no longer is the reality. In a post modern world people can have many selves… this is called Psychological Self Determination , the ability to exert control of the things that mean the most to me. These people Gen “C” the Community Generation, demand a high degree of influence and participation over the things that mean the most to them. And in fact people are happier communing with each other Thats is why we witness the rise of festivals. Glastonbury sold out in 90 minutes.

Its the end of the read only culture and the end to information fuedalism. It is in fact been described as an evolving historic act of liberation.

Gen “C” go on a quest for identity, otherwise they become very noisy ghosts in the machine. As a consequence through our super connected world, people are connecting to the thnigs that resonate with them, they seek out the things that mean the most to them.

If your focus is Myspace and Facebook et al, then maybe you might win a few points, however on this blog you will find deep insights into why our world today is about engagement, participation, co-creation, Prosumersim, shared knowledge production . Yochai Benkler calls it the Wealth of Networks. This the world of Linux of Open Gardens vs. Walled Gardens. This is about shared and aggregated knowledge/culture vs. proprietary knowledge and DRM.

We see the “Social networking” benefitng science (SIPHS) Leveraging the Knowledge of Our Peers: Online Communities Hold the Promise to Enhance Scientific Research

We see the “ wikinomics ” of the developement of the Boeing 737, we see the BBC opening its API’s at BBC backstage where people are co-creating exciting mashups, we see Team buying in China.

On an otherwise quiet Friday afternoon in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, 500 shoppers gather outside a Gome electrical superstore in the downtown district. They arrive en masse at the designated time?June 16th at 4pm?that they had previously agreed online. Several hours later, they emerge clutching boxes, having secured 10-30% discounts on cameras, DVD players and flat-screen televisions. ?It was great,? says Fairy Zhang. ?We just bought an apartment and this way we can afford nice things for it.? The previous weekend, over 100 locals visited Meizhu Central, a well known furniture outlet, to haggle over the prices of kitchen cabinets and dining-room furniture. Tuangou, or team buying, aims to drive unprecedented bargains by combining the reach of the internet with the power of the mob. It is spreading through China like wildfire. The practice originated in online chat-rooms but has quickly inspired several specialist websites, such as 51tuangou.com and teambuy.com Zhang Wei, who helped to set up teambuy less than six months ago, says the site has 10,000 registered members. The company plans to expand into Beijing and Shanghai.

We see the migration of retail politics to networked politics.

In fact Benkler argues

The economics of networked information production and the social practices of networked conversations fundamentally change the role that individuals can play in cultural and knowledge production and dissemination. The change wrought by the networked information environment is structural. It goes to the very foundations of how liberal markets and liberal democracies have coevolved for almost two centuries.

Peer to peer flows of communication are up to 10 times greater than all other web traffic depending on the time of day.

What did Jonathan Schwartz say about his 1000 bloggers at Sun Microsystems? That his 1000 bloggers have done more his company than a $1bn Ad campaign. He talks about transparency and trust, that via his 1000 bloggers there is a window into Sun through which people can observe a culture of honesty and tenacity. Microsoft has some 2500 bloggers are they not part of this “FAD”?

Is the Huffington Post or Current TV or OhMyNews all part of the Wealth of Networks? You can download the book for free Steve.

Oh and before I forgot 95% of all Korean teenagers belong to Cyworld and 40% of the entire Korean population belong to Cyworld. 50 Million people playing World of Warcraft and we know that education could be so incredibly improved by turning teaching into a more social/networked experience. Blogs, Podcasts, RSS feeds, open Api’s, shared knowledge and aggregated information. Then there are companies like Threadless, Spreadshirt, MyNuMo all buiilt on co-creation. You see people embrace what they create.

The founder of Spreadshirt said we did not build Spreadshirt the comunity built Spreadshirt.

So its not the technology its the Community Stupid

If you would like to get together to exchange views I am more than happy to do that. Or read our blog or buy our book.

But thanks for dropping by

Kind regards

Alan Moore

PS. Nobody is as clever as everybody