2009 GDP Growth Rates

GDP growth adjusted for inflation based on the June updates from the CIA World Factbook.

BBC News – Kenya prepares the way for a technology-based future

File under emerging markets of the 21st century: video of an incubator in Kenya encouraging African entrepreneurs to “think galactical for crying out loud”.

CeaseFire Chicago: Upending Twisted Norms of Urban Violence – NYTimes.com

I donated to CeaseFire Chicago last night, because while I am lucky to be able to live and work in relative peace and safety, just a few miles away from me are areas of violence where innocent children have been killed on a nightly basis.

I am committed to the idea that regardless of the extent of our technology and the always new and interesting new ways it can be used to make money, we will not be a truly advanced culture until we have created a society where senseless violence has no place. As the article below clearly establishes, creating such a world means breaking into deeply ingrained systems of understanding and meaning-making that drive cycles of violence. » Read more…

The Measurement Final Four: Barcelona

The fourth Barcelona principle is a topic that has a great deal of good thought dedicated to it already; there’s nothing I could add to the principle that “social media can and should be measured” that Brian Solis doesn’t have well covered in his books and on his blog (here’s a recent example). Anyone who still wonders whether social media can or should be measured is simply perpetuating their own disadvantage. The question in 2010 is no longer whether social media should be measured, but how it is best measured.

It is this question that leads me to group the final four Barcelona Principles together for analysis; they all revolve around the same intent. » Read more…

Making Social Networking Social Again « Performance, punctuated.

In the authors words, “Social networking has become the modern arcade game…” “…with 479 people in my combined social networks (with some overlaps) I need to spend over 70 hours per month just to have 10 minutes of interaction with each contact. Multiply this number by a factor of 5 or 10, and you can see why having a massive contact network is tantamount to having no network at all.”

Brilliant! » Read more…