IdeaEconomy.Net

I love the idea of co-working type environments where freelancers and smaller businesses can minimize some of the costs of having an office, yet still get the benefits of a shared work space. There is a buzz and energy when you work around other creative entrepreneurs that is near impossible to duplicate when in cafes or at home. These benefits can be amplified if you take time to find a company that you might work together with or for. ShareYourOffice is a fantastic idea that I hope is really successful.

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“Technology is threatening to dominate our lives and make us less human. Under the illusion of allowing us to communicate better, it is actually isolating us from real human interactions in a cyber-reality that is a poor imitation of the real world.”

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In this video, Dave Gray shares some of the ideas and techniques of his latest book Gamestorming (combines games with brainstorming). Gray explains that most corporations are designed like factories with a focus on efficiency rather than creativity. He suggests that we need to move from “factories to collaboratories or environments for collaboration.”

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The population of our planet will reach 7 billion people this year. National Geographic created this fantastic video outlining some key facts about what 7 billion people mean to the world.

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Despite the wide spread use of social media and collaboration tools like Google Docs, I still see many people working with email processes. Email works, but for most work, online collaboration is much more effective. Here is a very simple comparison of two ways to work together on the creation of a single document. Real collaborative efforts unleash creativity that is difficult to realize with linear processes like emailing back and forth.

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We no longer live in a world of scarce resources, this is a time of great abundance. Our economic constraints are being completely flipped around. It is not a dog eat dog world where everyone is fighting for their share of the pie. There is enough to go around and the more we collaborate and share, the more there is. Author Cory Doctorow writes about his struggles with abundance in self-publishing his books.

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Big Ideas: Virtual Pop Star is touring Japan to sold out concerts.
How long will it be before computer generated talent starts to dominant the music and movie industries?
Celebrities will lose some of their status in the future.

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Facebook’s meteoric rise is reminiscent of AOL in the past. Facebook is currently managing and standardizing social interaction, just like AOL did for the web. The future will have social actions built in to the operating systems of all the devices we use. Perhaps there will be standardized ‘Social IP” addresses for every connection we make. Corporations or applications will not control these interactions like they do now.

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Traditional notions of a profession are giving way to multiple jobs. We are spending our time trying to find meaning and purpose with our lives. Many of the projects we work on are not jobs at all.
We are in an age of abundance where people are finding that more work and more consumption are not satisfying. Many of us are choosing to work less.

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Companies are flocking to social media and crowdsourcing platforms in the hopes of finding cheaper or more effective ways to market their wares. This is understandable for we all need to make a living, however, I think the real promise of social media is bigger than just a financial transaction. People give their time and money for reasons above and beyond financial gain.

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