Social media channels – like global media generally – have a tendency to be dominated by the US – due almost exclusively to their sheer volume of users. In the world of social and environmental enterprise – where global participants are located in some of the world’s poorest countries – i suspect the disparity is even more obvious. It’s not … Read More
As #occupy, #socent and the #socmed savvy socialists sharpen their pitchforks and coil up the rope, I rest secure in the knowledge that here, in a friend’s house on the coast north of Byron Bay, it’s too windy for the blazing fires of indignation to stay alight for long. After all wasn’t this missive: – delivered via the net – … Read More
I’m fortunate to have been working with changemakers for more than 15 years. It’s inspiring, humbling and frequently frustrating work. Frustrating because I’ve watched great ideas succeed – for a time – before failing and watched others never get past the drawing board. Frustrating because every venture that fails takes time, money and energy away from others – and in … Read More
Some lessons are hard learned … and despite everything I know about running a sucessful consultancy, I’ve been stung several times over the years as a consequence of not sticking to an effective framework. The experiences have cost me time, a great deal of money and, if I’m going to be brutally honest, some small measure of professional integrity. I’m … Read More
I certainly wasn’t an early adopter of Facebook – not in a global sense, definitely, although, perhaps, amongst my peers, I was one of the first to stare into the abyss of the world’s most highly monetized relationship database (I’m from Australia, in case you forgot, where some things take a little longer to catch on …. like Vegemite with … Read More
note: this is a long one – and a genuine request for assistance – so make yourself a cup of tea, put on some krishna das and put your feet up – you might be here for a while …. Building a game-changing sustainable enterprise requires much more than yet another ‘good’ idea. It requires a combination of genius, pragmatism, … Read More
So it turns out that gaia.com is shutting down. While this doesn’t really surprise those of us who’ve been around for a while – after all, there’s a trail of media acquisitions behind Gaiam that didn’t really go the way many hoped they would (for those who don’t know, gaia.com was originally zaadz.com – one of the most interesting online … Read More
Close to two years ago, on January 8, 2008, I posted the below rant on a facebook discussion board for The Greens – an Australian political party with typically strong social and environmental sustainablity policies. The idea on the table at the time – from which there has been a significant departure, was that the end user could opt out … Read More
In Australia there are, at times, some remarkably good ideas. Despite the fact that the rest of the world hasn’t yet figured out Vegemite, the platypus or that thongs are things you wear on your feet, we are a country as known for its oddness as its innovation. For some time now, our federal government – under the (dis)able(d) direction … Read More
Religion’s getting a bad rap these days – and with good reason. Between the Jihadi’s, the Israelis and the fundies on their compounds, the world is increasingly looking like something out of Dante’s inferno (and yes, I did just have a crack at Israel – and no that doesn’t make me anti-semitic; just as criticising the USA doesn’t make one … Read More
