Communications

Can one describe a society that is focuses on innovation in terms of ecology? Ecology by definition is a branch of biology that studies species within the larger context of the environment, how the species interact with each other and their surroundings. A branch of ecology called hum

Last week I finished reading Al Gore’s latest tome, a follow up to his well publicized “An Inconvenient Truth,” probably his most significant contribution to the global climate change debate, although I would think “debate” is an over statement at this st

Every year the MIT Technology Review picks the ten technologies that represent significant breakthroughs.  Past years have included crowdfunding in 2012, gestural interfaces to computers in 2011, engineered stem cells in 2010 and low cost DNA sequencing in 2009, just to name a few. Wh

This week the people of Kenya are waiting to find out who they have elected to lead them for the next few years. But real leadership is coming from a new generation of young people with access to cellular phones and the Internet. Today 26 million of Kenya’s 41 million citizens h

The MIT Technology Review has put together its list of 50 candidates representing innovative companies that will have a telling affect on the world this year and in years to come. Each company on the list has been chosen because it has either created a new market or challenged leaders

Continuing to look at what our political processes and institutions will look like in the year 2100, I raise the issue of how the Internet and mobile smart phones are altering engagement. Bill Gates has described the Internet as “the town square for the global village of tomorro

Young Sohn, President of Samsung, the South Korean electronics giant, announced yesterday a $100 million catalyst fund aimed at start ups to inspire them to develop new technologies and devices for 21st century consumers. Unlike other investments the company has made to support its bu

Nectar Mobile Power has created a butane-powered fuel cell, the first truly portable power device designed to provide up to a month of recharges per Power Pod, each pod a hot-swappable plug-in high-energy recyclable fuel source about the size of a small cell phone battery. Marketed as

As I put down my eBook reader to write this blog it has become apparent that we are seeing a dramatic change in the way we publicly share knowledge. I download eBooks from my library as well as from online eBook stores. But I don’t take out an eBook reader and return it after tw