In one part of Ethiopia, communities are putting the world’s governments and many aid agencies to shame.

You can read the full blog post here

#camerjam #mobileculture

Here is the presentation that I gave.

As many of you know the No Straight Lines project is picking up apace (sxsw keynote) (Do Lecture) (Latin America tour – to come). As a consequence of the work I have been doing with a small team, we have identified that the connected and networked world presents a design challenge to existing companies but also to entrepreneurs – how business and entrepreneurship is taught and how it can be accelerated. The rise of networked platforms like GrowVC which are designed to unleash innovation via crowdfunding is but one example. Another is Local Motors, or indeed mobile developer communities which are bringing a different type of rocket fuel to the party. (also see dotOpen)

On 17th November I will give a keynote on No Straight Lines at Incubate 2.0 on business creation and organization – as what is clear to me, that the networked world must be addressed not through social media per se, but a much deeper and broader understanding of the networked and its implications. For example, how does one leverage open social systems, global connectivity, open innovation and its implications from a skills, tools, process and legal frameworks, and, lightweight (green) business practices to create companies in the future? We need to design and build smart organisations, and understand mutuality as a business model.

The benefits of designing the smart organisation, coupled with the smart business model – purpose built for the needs of 21st Century culture and commerce gets us to ask these types of questions:

1. How does a company decrease the cost to build a car 100 fold whilst also halving the time in development?
2. How does a company perfectly match supply and demand?
3. How does a company use its employees to achieve business and commercial success greater than a $billion ad campaign?
4. How does a fashion retailer make €83m from mobile phone sales?
5. How does a company achieve a 29%+ response rate to its marketing with the subsequent uplift in sales?
6. How does a company spend $60,000 and get a $45m return?
7. How does a hybrid business model of [1] Freemium [2] Subscription [3] micropayment work to generate significant revenues?

From an incubation perspective – incubation has been done traditionally within a space and mostly as a real estate play or an economic development play. Now there are virtual groups allowing and enabling rapid flows of information to be created and shared – networking simultaneously with the creation of multinational micro-corporation, with funding provided by crowds. I argue, the way to start a business today is by being networked, and the way to run these businesses is networked (which is more efficiently done when it was conceived in a networked environment than when you have to transition from a straight line business).

A substantial number of people exhibit social preferences, which means they are not solely motivated by material self-interest but also care positively or negatively for the material payoffs of relevant reference agents. We show empirically that economists can fail to understand fundamental economic questions when they disregard social preferences, in particular, that without taking social preferences into account, it is not possible to understand adequately (i) effects of competition on market outcomes, (ii) laws governing cooperation and collective action, (iii) effects and the determinants of material incentives, (iv) which contracts and property rights arrangements are optimal, and (v) important forces shaping social norms and market failures.

Kate Pickett writing a review of of Will Hutton’s new book Them and Us: Changing Britain – Why We Need a Fairer Society, writes

What Hutton offers beyond a detailed description of the rise to and fall from grace of the financial sector is an examination of the role of fairness in the creation of prosperity and the good life. We’re taken on a gallop through the history of western philosophical thought on fairness, proportionality and luck, from Plato to Adam Smith to Marx, with side trips into behavioural economics and psychology.

What emerges is the centrality of fairness to human instinct, morality and social relationships. When society is fair – and, just as importantly, seen to be fair – in its procedures as well as in its systems of reward, all works well. Fairness fosters trust and democracy in virtuous circles, and these in turn foster the openness and reciprocity within society, institutions and markets that create successful capitalism. Fairness is therefore, says Hutton, “in the vanguard of the march of civilisation and the evolution of prosperity”.

Kate Pickett is co-author, with Richard Wilkinson, of The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better.

We are today, as social philosopher Richard Sennett argues; seeking too recover something of the spirit of the Enlightenment on terms appropriate to our time.  Indeed, Stephen Heppell considers the 21st century to herald the ‘learning age’. In the 20th century, he argues, we built big things (railways, universities) but the focus for the 21st century is ‘helping people to help each other’. In his view, “The old stuff won’t do any more”. And Larry Elliot, economics editor of the Guardian remarks that though Osborne uses the word fairness – his “fiscal orthodoxy is considered dangerous” by Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz – both Nobel prize winners for economics. Which leads to the question are we creating a fairer society through the Big Society.

But of course we face a significant conflict – enough of society is in flux for it to be melded into something more substantial that can serve us more humanely – without it becoming wimpy pimpy – yet there is and will continue to be a great deal of resistance to change.

Pickett again

The final third of Hutton’s book sets out a wide-ranging menu of proposals and reforms, aimed at unlocking innovation and enhancing the capabilities of all citizens, including financial regulation, strong support for universities, devolved authority to local government, school reform, and so on. There is a huge smorgasbord of good ideas in there to chew on, worthy of serious discussion and debate. But what we really need for change, Hutton says, is “intellectual conviction, social support and political chutzpah”. He ends by hoping that Britain has turned a corner.

I wonder whether that is true – though I see in my own region (East Anglia) a grassroots engine beginning to warm up which is not waiting for the ideology of any political party to put us on the right path. What we make is up to us. Carlota Perez in her book Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital – says that there comes a point in time when;  old institutions are found wanting, and the old frameworks of society insufficient to respond to the needs and demands of society.
At this moment we seek a new language, a new common sense that allows us to remake the world afresh.

A quote by the Austrian artist – Hundretwasser

No matter if you are running a local incubator, building an angel network or you are in charge of an government agency for SMBs, you primary question is: How do I get my entrepreneurs to succeed? Incubate 2.0 will bring you the answers.

Over the last decade visionary entrepreneurs have not only created successfully business but applied their understanding of technology, vision of the future and passion for growth to help fellow entrepreneurs: global mentoring programs, angel funds, massive networking events and virtual incubators to name a few.

Incubate 2.0 will show case the most cutting-edge programs that help you to “start-up start-ups”. Join us on November 17 &18th for this first of a kind event to gain insight into what works and what does not, meet the creators of the programs as well as leaders that have made turned them into a global success.

Time and Place: Wednesday, November 17 at 8:30am – November 18 at 6:30pm – HP Executive Briefing Center 19091 Pruneridge Ave Cupertino, CA

Brought to you by StartUp Cause.

Most government agencies are missing out on a core ingredient with their contests. Sunlight had a not-so-secret sauce in its contest strategy that ought to be shared

For us at Sunlight, the not-so-big secret was that it was never about the apps. While it worked out great that there were apps like Filibusted and Know-Thy-Congressman, the production of the apps were never our desired end results. A win for us wasn’t the awesomeness that is GovPulse.us, a great app built for Apps for America 2. It wasn’t even getting exposure to the technology community through the talks I got to give at places like Web2 Expo, and OSCon.

A win for our contest program was Jim Gilliam. Jim participated in our first apps contest with “Hello, Congress” that is now GuvLuv.org. Jim entered that contest, became an avid member of the Sunlight Labs Google Group got inspired, and built act.ly not out of any apps incentive, but because he was inspired. Jim’s now building a business around that work.

See— the purpose of our contests weren’t to generate apps, but to build community. It’s to create a sustainable community of support and connection for the people who are eager to help out. The contests were an incentive model to build a long-term community of developers.

Via Clay Johnson quoted from his blog and frequently tweeted @ #gov20

Enabling and empowering, not service deliverology with targets! It’s embedded sociability not social media. Its a bit like the Bill Bailey principle, Bill the comedian is asked how he comes up with his jokes – “I start with a laugh and work backwards, what do I need to do to create that amunt of laughter?” Exactamondo. This also got me thinking about the Dewey Winburne Awards – where people everyday people go the extra mile to help others via technology – I went to the awards and was deeply moved whilst I was in Austin Texas. If we expand on that, for me enabling is giving people the tools to do things they are passionate about. The idea that we have, and we have, professionalised all the services a community needs, but removes the community from, if they want to, engage, help, advise etc., as now all services are run by professional administrators – perhaps inevitable in complex mobile societies – but we have lost something along the way and we need to claim it back. When we remove people from creating everyday things we also remove context, when we remove context, we remove meaning, without meaning we are unable to engage. Its why so much modern politics leaves us cold and disinterested. But that said, as Richard Sennett wrote in his book The Craftsman, we want to re-engage with the spirit of the Enlightenment but on the terms that are relevant to our age. Thank you Dominic Campbell of FutureGov for giving me the heads up on this #gov20 event – fascinating

They being: Howard Rheingold, Douglas Rushkoff, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Gerd Leonhard, Timo Arnall, Carlo Longino, Katrin Verclas, Atau Tanaka, Alan Moore, Marek Pawloski, Ajit Jaokar, Nicolas Nova, Inma Martinez, Tony Fish, Jonathan MacDonald, Willem Boijens, Carlos Domingo, Russ McGuire, Raimo van der Klein, Michael Breidenbruecker, Robert Rice, Steve O’Hear, Ted Morgan, Martin Duval, Andreas Constantinou, Fabien Girardin, Matthäus Krzykowski, Rich Wong, Andy Abramson, Ilja Laurs, David Wood, Stefan Constantinescu, Henri Moissinac, Kevin C. Tofel, Enrique C. Ortiz, Felix Petersen, Tom Hume.

So I would also like to share it with you. Thank you Rudy for inviting me. If you are interested in taking a deeper dive into mobile go here Mobile: my remote control for life