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I was invited to do a 4 hour seminar with brand executives from P&G at the company´s own ‘creative workshop‘ - an ex brewery in the slums of Cincinnatti: very creative class. The topic was the ethical economy, and they loved it. They all agreed with the message and I didn’t have to convince them of anything. People in big corporations sense that the tide is turning and they want to prepare for the next phase.
And, yes, there were also the primaries…
More and more people are arguing that 2008 will be remembered as the year in which the business community really discovered sustainability. We read about these news every day, Apple begins to tackle its bad sustainability record, even WalMart pronounces sustainability to be a major concern.
A recent paper sponsored by BT and Sisco: ‘A new mindset for corporate sustainability’ (and available here) points at three major aspects of this shift in business mindsets.
* Boardroom commitment to sustainability helps build a framework for robust corporate governance.
* Investors are becoming increasingly receptive to sustainability.
* Sustainability offers a proven and legitimate framework for exploiting new avenues for innovation.
(via EthicalCorporation)
What will come out of this? Will the US recession trigger a new New Deal organized around sustainability and Green Capitalism? Will this be a way for the west to maintain its position vis-a-vis energy-intensive China? It’s a possibility.
Hurrah- Actics is exploding in China! According to Google Analytics, we’re attracting tens of thousands of visitors a month from all corners of the People’s Republic and are rapidly moving towards six-digit figures. Great news, isn’t it?
Well, not exactly. As our in-house Sherlock Holmes Henrik realized, something didn’t make sense. How could it be that Actics had so much Chinese traffic but not a single Chinese user? When you have tens of thousands of visitors you would expect at least one of them to sign up, wouldn’t you? It seemed like an insoluble mystery, but Henrik put on his deerstalker, had a quick last puff of opium, and then went out and discovered the answer:
Actics has been copied! A Chinese site by the name of exnb has stolen our design- and as a result their traffic is now popping up in our Google Analytics reports.
Maybe we should be upset about such blatant theft. But then again: we’re not exactly alone. As I discovered in an article in the Economist, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube all have hordes of Chinese copycats. And on a funnier note, even Harry Potter hasn’t been spared. If you want to find out more about such contemporary classics as:
then check out this hilarious piece in the NY Times.
Next move form the evil empire. Microsoft has patented extensions software that will monitor the physical state and levels of concentration of employees, through wireless sensors connected to their PCs, laptops and even mobile phones. (As if Vista wasn’t enough…)Measuring heartbeats, body temperature, movements, blood pressure and facial expressions, employers can get continuous info on the physical state and affective attitudes of their employees, even when they’re out of the office. Getting angry at the computer or even not showing the appropriate expression of enthusiasm while reading the company values, or seeing the logo will now be noticed and recorded. Microsoft’s vice president of intellectual property, Horacio Gutierrez writes off the Orweillian potential of this project by claiming that its uses lie in alerting medical personnel to impending heart-attacks. ‘Privacy is an important priority for Microsoft’ he concludes. Yeah, and war is peace too .
here for full story
What do you do when you’re sitting around in Dubai and have a couple of minutes to spare? Exactly- you log in to Actics!
That’s what our intrepid reporter Neils Peter from experience design lab did. Or rather: he tried to, but then he got hit by the following message:
That’s right: Actics has been banned in the United Arab Emirates!
But why? What is it about us that is “inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates”? Eager to find some answers, I checked out the OpenNet Initiative, which is a great site on internet filtering and surveillance, and had a look at their country profile of the UAE.
As it turns out, the UAE are extremely active on the internet filtering front. To give a few examples: they block all sites in the top-level domain “.il” (no prizes for guessing what country that belongs to). They pervasively filter pornography, gambling, and sites promoting alcohol and drug use. And they also selectively filter sites that “express alternative political or religious views”. So is that what they found so objectionable about Actics: the fact that we “facilitate ideas” that are potentially “in breach of the general order”?
Whatever the case, the whole affair certainly adds a nice dose of glamour to Actics. YouTube is blocked in Iran and the BBC in Myanmar- and now we have made it into the big league, too! I’m tempted to say that it calls for a drink- but since that might get us banned by another 7 countries I should probably keep quiet.
Do women and men live by different ethical values? I suppose the stereotypical view would be that women care more about ’soft’ values like Gentleness and Empathy, while men are more concerned with ‘hard’ values like Honour and Perseverance. So is this picture supported by the data from the Actics Community?
Not exactly… Or to be more precise: not remotely. Here are the five most popular values, arranged in alphabetical order, of one of the sexes:
And here are the five most popular values, again in alphabetical order, of the other sex:
It’s not exactly what you’d call wildly divergent, is it? One tiny difference- that is all the Actics data turns up. And now for a little quiz for anyone who’s interested: which way round do you think it is? Is it women who live by Strength of Character and men who live by Openness, or vice versa?
In any case, the conclusion we can draw from all of the above is clear:
Men Are from Somewhere Between Mars and Venus- and So Are Women
But I guess that’s not exactly the sort of catchy long-live-stereotypes title (besides, the capitalization gets a bit tricky) that will catapult a book to the top of the bestseller lists.
What is the most popular ethical value these days? I have to confess that when the Actics Community started, I expected to see a neck-and-neck race between about a half dozen values. And if I’d had to put my money on any single one of them, I would probably have gone for Integrity.
That much for my instincts… True: Integrity doesn’t score badly in the Actics Community, but it doesn’t get close to the winning value. This winning value in fact leaves all other values standing and sweeps the field in every category you can think of:
So is the situation any different when we look at countries? Not really. Right now most community members are from Denmark, the UK and the US- and only in Denmark does the winning value get something of a run for its money:
So what is this all-conquering value I’ve been talking about? Well: I’d like to think that I’ve kept you on the edge of your seat until now, but you’ve probably already guessed: it’s Environmentalism.
And I wonder: is this just an Actics Community phenomenon or has Environmentalism truly become the dominant value of our times?
We are looking for an enthusiastic Web Development Manager who can take charge of our next generation product offerings.
Check out the postings here.
Hu Jintao, in his speech at the 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party stresses the importance of Culture, both for national cohesion and as a development tool.He emphasies committment to spreading internet access, promoting Chinese Creative Industries and realizing a Chinese Experience Economy!
some quotes
“Culture has become a more and more important source of national
cohesion and creativity and a factor of growing significance in the
competition in overall national strength,”
“…to vigorously develop the cultural industry, launch major
projects to lead the industry as a whole, speed up the development of
cultural industry bases and clusters of cultural industries with
regional features, nurture key enterprises and strategic investors,
create a thriving cultural market and enhance the industry’s
international competitiveness”
“…to establish a national system of honors for outstanding cultural
workers”
It’s now official that google will purchase the finnish microblogging service Jaiku. This is great news for our firend Henriette Weber, or Toothless Tiger who’s been part of the small development team. Congratulations !
The ultra-cool XO laptop from the ‘One Laptop per Child’ project will be commercially available from Nobvember 12th. It works like this, you buy two laptops, one is donated to a child and the other is shipped to you. Price about $ 380 for both of them. Given the ridiculously cheap dollar this is a really good deal (apart form being ethically sound). The thing is a design marvel, with ultrasensitive wifi antenna (detecting a network where you ordinary pc is blind) and a screen that’s perfect for reading e-books in the sun.
get it here
I’ve been away from this blog for quite some time, first in Italy getting married, then in Shanghai for a month researching Chinese creative industries and teaching students about Web 2.0. Quite another planet. The chinese government are very keen to build creative industry parks and zone old abandoned factories as new latte havens. (And where there aren’t enough old abandoned factories, they build new old abandoned factories…)
Fresh from the press. One of our Actics members - Morten Østergaard the vice-chairman of the Danish Social Liberal Party - was interviewed by a Danish newspaper on his use of Actics for political purposes. A well known Danish academic offered a critique of such ‘spin’ use a couple of days later here. Judge for yourself whether the critique is fair and relevant.
Imposters posing as ExxonMobil and National Petroleum Council (NPC)
representatives delivered an outrageous keynote speech to 300 oilmen
at GO-EXPO, Canada’s largest oil conference, held at Stampede Park in
Calgary, Alberta, today.
The speech was billed beforehand by the GO-EXPO organizers as the
major highlight of this year’s conference, which had 20,000
attendees. In it, the “NPC rep” was expected to deliver the long-awaited
conclusions of a study commissioned by US Energy Secretary
Samuel Bodman. The NPC is headed by former ExxonMobil CEO Lee
Raymond, who is also the chair of the study.
In the actual speech, the “NPC rep” announced that current U.S. and
Canadian energy policies (notably the massive, carbon-intensive
exploitation of Alberta’s oil sands, and the development of liquid
coal) are increasing the chances of huge global calamities. But he
reassured the audience that in the worst case scenario, the oil
industry could “keep fuel flowing” by transforming the billions of
people who die into oil.
“We need something like whales, but infinitely more abundant,” said
“NPC rep” “Shepard Wolff” (actually Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men),
before describing the technology used to render human flesh into a
new Exxon oil product called Vivoleum. 3-D animations of the process
brought it to life.
“Vivoleum works in perfect synergy with the continued expansion of
fossil fuel production,” noted “Exxon rep” “Florian Osenberg” (Yes
Man Mike Bonanno). “With more fossil fuels comes a greater chance of
disaster, but that means more feedstock for Vivoleum. Fuel will
continue to flow for those of us left.”
The oilmen listened to the lecture with attention, and then lit
“commemorative candles” supposedly made of Vivoleum obtained from the
flesh of an “Exxon janitor” who died as a result of cleaning up a
toxic spill. The audience only reacted when the janitor, in a video
tribute, announced that he wished to be transformed into candles
after his death, and all became crystal-clear.
At that point, Simon Mellor, Commercial & Business Development
Director for the company putting on the event, strode up and
physically forced the Yes Men from the stage. As Mellor escorted
Bonanno out the door, a dozen journalists surrounded Bichlbaum, who,
still in character as “Shepard Wolff,” explained to them the
rationale for Vivoleum.
“We’ve got to get ready. After all, fossil fuel development like that
of my company is increasing the chances of catastrophic climate
change, which could lead to massive calamities, causing migration and
conflicts that would likely disable the pipelines and oil wells.
Without oil we could no longer produce or transport food, and most of
humanity would starve. That would be a tragedy, but at least all
those bodies could be turned into fuel for the rest of us.”
“We’re not talking about killing anyone,” added the “NPC rep.” “We’re
talking about using them after nature has done the hard work. After
all, 150,000 people already die from climate-change related effects
every year. That’s only going to go up - maybe way, way up. Will it
all go to waste? That would be cruel.”
Security guards then dragged Bichlbaum away from the reporters, and
he and Bonanno were detained until Calgary Police Service officers
could arrive. The policemen, determining that no major infractions
had been committed, permitted the Yes Men to leave.
Canada’s oil sands, along with “liquid coal,” are keystones of Bush’s
Energy Security plan. Mining the oil sands is one of the dirtiest
forms of oil production and has turned Canada into one of the world’s
worst carbon emitters. The production of “liquid coal” has twice the
carbon footprint as that of ordinary gasoline. Such technologies
increase the likelihood of massive climate catastrophes that will
condemn to death untold millions of people, mainly poor.
Text of speech, photos, video: [www.vivoleum.com]
GO-EXPO statement: [newswire.ca]
Press conference before this event, Friday, Calgary: [arusha.org]
Nicolai and Mai on their way to the next client meeting….
We’re happy to have Michel Bauwens with us once again, this time it is free and everybody’s wellcome
PEER TO PEER AND USER-LED SOCIAL INNOVATION.
Gå hjem møde- After work seminar
with
Michel Bauwens, founder of the Foundation for Peer to Peer Alternatives (www.p2pfoundation.net)
Friday June 8th, 15.30-17.00
Nye KUA, bygning 23 – University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Humanities, building 23
room: 23.0.49
Njalsgade
(for queries and info. contact Adam Arvidsson, arvidsson@hum.ku.dk, 26174875)
‘Information and communication technologies have unleashed the creativity of users, consumers and other members of the public. The cost of designing, producing and distributing creative products is rapidly diminishing. So far this has had a revolutionizing impact on the creative industries, on innovation and product development and on knowledge production in general. But do these new relations of production have the potential to move beyond today’s social order? What kind of political thought and what sort of social institutions can come out of such diffused production systems? ‘
Michel Bauwens is one of the world’s leading experts on such peer-to-peer systems. He has published widely on the political economy of peer production ( [www.ctheory.net] )and runs the foundation for peer to peer alternatives (www.p2pfoundation.net), the worlds leading information resource on the economic, social and political implications of peer-to-peer production
Percy Barnevik, ‘Europe’s hottest business executive of the 1990s’ has set up his own micro finance organization hand in hand, building on trend to foster development by encouraging grass root entrepreneurship.
Hand in Hand follows a broadly similar agenda to other microcredit initiatives that attempt to alleviate poverty through female entrepreneurship and education, its strategy is based on
Mobilising the poorest women, who are largely illiterate, into self-help groups led by full-time business consultants.
Put child labourers in schools.
Equip “citizen centres” with books, computers and internet connections.
Provide access ot medical treatment.
Improve the local environment.