Category Socio-cultural change
Nike, Google kick off social-networking site [Business Week]
African mobile phone subscribers hit 100 million mark [Mobile Africa]
The number of mobile telephone subscribers in Africa has risen from 8 million, five years ago, to 100 million, Kenya`s information and communication minister Mutahi Kagwe said Tuesday. He said one in every nine Africans subscribes today to a mobile…
“The next big thing is us” or Time Magazine’s take on what’s next
Business Innovation Insider reports on the cover story in this week’s TIME Magazine which looks at cutting-edge developments in nearly every sphere of human endeavor, including politics, technology, sports, medicine and fashion: There’s one unifying theme here: “We are on…
Design for social justice
What do European businesses and citizens think of widespread RFID use?
Wi-fi set to re-wire social rules [BBC]
Once the net becomes ubiquitous like power and water, it had the potential to be “transformative”. The divide that separates people from their online lives will utterly disappear. Instead of leaving behind all those net-based friends and activities when you…
Britain turns off and logs on [The Guardian]
More time is now spent on the internet than on watching TV, according to Google survey Television addiction has been Britain’s national pastime for years, but experts agree that viewers around the country are increasingly switching on their computer screens…
You can’t understand the future without demographics
Futurist Andrew Zolli, founder of Z + Partners, reflects in a Fast Company feature on the future demographics of society. The composition of a society–whether its citizens are old or young, prosperous or declining, rural or urban–shapes every aspect of…
Digital media ’empowering users’ [BBC]
As more media become increasingly available in digital formats, and traditional models of media packaging and distribution start to unravel, “the customer is king” is fast becoming the industry’s new catchphrase. During a session at the Financial Times Digital Media…
Half of American children obese by 2010, 38% of European ones [AP]
Associated Press reports that according to a study published in the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity, rates of childhood obesity are expected to skyrocket in the coming years, with half of the children in North and South America obese by…
Media Lab director on confronting social problems and user-driven innovation [Christian Science Monitor]
A long article in the Christian Science Monitor reflects on the new directions for the MIT Media Lab, including how it will relate with its sponsors. Director Frank Moss also speaks about confronting social problems and user-driven innovation. Moss wants…
E-revolution forces Danes online [BBC]
Denmark was the first country in the world to make public services available online and is now going a step further – forcing its citizens online. Since the beginning of February, for instance, companies dealing with state institutions must submit…
Advertising 2.0
What everybody in advertising, marketing and media should know about the technologies that are reshaping their business. What’s the effect of an advertising campaign, in a world where every consumer has instant access to all hard data about any given…
Designing the experience of Islam
Bob Jacobson is starting a new trend on his blog Total Experience. Rather than looking at precise commercial or institutional issues, he analyses broad social phenomena from the point of view of experience design, and hints at the possibility that…
Are you experienced? [Times2]
How we spend our money is changing. In the new ‘experience economy’ we pay to do things, not have things. Melanie Howard, sociologist and co-founder of the Future Foundation, a consumer think-tank, believes that, as a society, we are hauling…
Tourists replacing guidebooks with information on mobile devices [Reuters]
Travelers are starting to leave behind heavy, dog-eared guidebooks and instead are cramming their much lighter mobile devices with all the necessary tips they’ll need to discover new parts of the world. Airlines, tour operators, entrepreneurs and even old-fashioned travel…
Growing numbers surf the web just for fun
More than ever, people are getting on the Internet to hang out or just blow off some time, a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project said Wednesday. Some 40 million Americans said they go online just for…
Fins launch European network of Living Labs
The Finnish EU Presidency will launch a European Network of Living Labs – Co-creation of innovation in public, private and civic partnership on November 21, 2006. This is the first step towards a New European Innovation System (EIS). A European…
IDEO on design processes in healthcare management
The Winter 2006 issue of the magazine of the Rotman School of Management is devoted to healthcare and features a four page article by IDEO’s Peter Coughlin and Ilya Prokopoff. The article, entitled “Managing Change, By Design”, discusses three design…