Economic theory still provides a useful template for shaping our society, but we have to begin with a more accurate notion of human nature and range of motivations: curiosity, trust, and social pressure. Using game theory to mathematically examine the properties of human societies suggests that the first step is to focus on the flow of ideas rather than on the flow of wealth.
If kids can’t socialize, who should parents blame? Simple: They should blame themselves. Teenagers would love to socialize face-to-face with their friends. But adult society won’t let them.
When cloud formations take physical shape, neither their scale nor duration has an upper bound: We may begin to see cloud towns, then cloud cities, and ultimately cloud countries. At first this sounds rather implausible. Perhaps the internet will spur a wave of internal migrations as online communities begin gathering in person — but could this process really lead to a new city, or country?
We spend nearly half our waking hours at work, and much of that time is not even spent doing our actual job: It’s all work about work. Email is broken, and what works on social networks like Facebook just doesn’t work for enterprises.
Fans of Will Ferrell’s Ron Burgundy character may recall his pronouncement in Anchorman that “60 percent of the time, it works every time.” And while many business professionals will read Burgundy’s “memoir,” Let Me Off At the Top! when it comes out next month, it’s unlikely that they will be mining it for business advice. […]
Whether looking for a job or an apartment or interestingness, it turns out our friends have ‘informational deficit’ — which is why weak ties are better than social friendships.
We write the equivalent of 520 million books every day on social media and email. The fact that so many of us are writing — sharing our ideas, good and bad — has changed the way we think. Just as we now live in public, so do we think in public.
Brands want their ads on social networks, which is great news for Twitter. But if that demand means more ads in your stream, that’s bad news for everyone else.
Twitter has announced, via Twitter, that it has filed the paperwork for its long-anticipated initial public offering.
A year into its grand experiment, App.net may finally be ready to change the world. But first it has a lot to overcome — not the least of which are the many misconceptions about what the hell it is exactly.
