David Lidsky's Blog, page 4895

Food Miles Debunked

This blog is part of our Inspired Ethonomics series. Patti Prairie is the CEO of Brighter Planet, a startup whose purpose is to help manage our environmental footprint, you can follow via their blog

Few movements have captured the liberal imagination like the local food movement. "Food miles" is becoming a household term, and a Google search for "locavore" returns nearly half a million results. But at a time when our nation and our planet are grappling with the prospect of devastating...

Jeffrey Hollender: Seventh Generation, Triple Bottom Line Entrepreneur

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Jeffrey Hollender is practically boiling. "Twenty-five percent of the trading on the New York Stock Exchange are people who are buying and selling stocks in a matter of seconds!" booms the compact 54-year-old, pacing in front of a room of fleeced and flannelled University of Vermont business students, his turquoise specs perched on his nest of brown hair. "I think we have to totally disincentivize people to make short term investments and charge no taxes on someone who invests for 25 years...

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's...an Infographic?

South African airline Kulula launches a new fleet of conveniently labeled jets.

Ah, the power of branding. While Boeing plays around with carbon fiber, South African airline Kulula--unknown to me before this--slaps a new decal on its fleet and becomes the talk of the blogosphere.

With the help of local branding agency Atmosphere, Kulula launched this new look, called Flying 101. It's more proof of the ubiquitous cool of infographics, I guess--everyone loves a good labeled diagram. And what...

Futures Thinking: Mapping the Possibilities (Part 1)

Turning what you see around you into stories about what's to come.

In Futures Thinking: The Basics, I offered up an overview of how to engage in a foresight exercise. In Futures Thinking: Asking the Question, I explored in more detail the process of setting up a futures exercise, and how to figure out what you're trying to figure out. In Futures Thinking: Scanning the World, I took a look at gathering useful data. This time, we dive into the heart of the process: creating alternative...

Jefferey Hollender: Seventh Generation, Triple Bottom Line Entrepreneur

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Jeffrey Hollender is practically boiling. "Twenty-five percent of the trading on the New York Stock Exchange are people who are buying and selling stocks in a matter of seconds!" booms the compact 54-year-old, pacing in front of a room of fleeced and flannelled University of Vermont business students, his turquoise specs perched on his nest of brown hair. "I think we have to totally disincentivize people to make short term investments and charge no taxes on someone who invests for 25 years...

U.K. vs. U.S. Government Data Web Sites: The Old World Wins

Governments are getting the hang of Web 2.0 a few years after the rest of us, and both the U.S. and U.K. authorities have just launched their own Data.gov Web sites in an effort to increase transparency. But in a studied comparison of the two efforts, the U.K.'s wins.

Over at Flowing Data they've taken a deep look at the two different efforts from the Old World and the New: Data.gov and Data.gov.uk. Both sites perform roughly the same purpose, which is to share several hundred datasets...

RecycleBank and eBay Use Carrot Instead of Stick to Encourage Recycling

In most cases, we use threats to force people to recycle--witness San Francisco's controversial new mandatory composting law that slaps a fine on anyone who fails to comply. But what if it was possible to get people to recycle by offering incentives instead? It is--and RecycleBank has been doing it for 18 months by offering residents of participating cities points that can be redeemed at stores--all for recycling regular trash. Up until now, only residents of cities partnered with...

7 Ways Amazon Could Make the Next Kindle Awesome

Does Amazon have an exciting plan for Kindle 3? It's been keeping totally quiet about the next-gen e-reader, but rumors and leaks have started sprouting that suggest good things are on the way. But how could Kindle 3 be made awesome?

This time last year we were talking about Amazon's Kindle 2--a refreshed version of its original small-format electronic ink e-reader. We looked at it, and pronounced that Amazon had done an okay job--but it should do a better one with the next-gen machine...

Pew Survey: Teens Love Facebook, Hate Blogging, Are Always Online, and Don't Use Twitter

Everybody goes online, everybody has a cell phone, and kids hate blogging and Twitter, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.

The findings show that the Internet isn't just prevalent in our lives, it is our lives. Ninety-three percent of teens ages 12 to 17 go online, 75% of them own a cell phone, and 66% say they text. In fact, 58% of 12-year-olds now have mobiles, compared to 18% just five years ago. Sixty-two percent use the Internet...

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week

After 17 years, Bryant Park hosts its last New York Fashion Week.
Come September, all those models will parade down runways at Lincoln
Center, that bastion of high culture. If you think this is an attempt
by the fashion biz to be seen less as a craft and more as an art, well,
you'd be right. The move has some designers fretting -- many Garment
District studios are so close to Bryant Park that they can walk their
collections over -- but Steven Kolb, executive director of the Council
of...