Thank you for your casual reading in 2006.
I wish you a wonderful 2007 filled with abundance, joy, and treasured moments.
2007 will be a year full of change and new experiences for me and my family.
December, 2006
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Happy New Year
Sunday, December 31st, 2006Blogroll 01: Business Model Design
Saturday, December 30th, 2006Alex Osterwalder writes about Business Model Design and Innovation Management in his blog “Business Model Design and Innovation”. Why do I like his blog? Alex provides firsthand material (e.g. podcasts, illustrations) to outline the topics which are a matter of particular importance to him.
It’s your climate
Wednesday, December 27th, 2006“Sunshines replaces snow in Alps” headlines the English edition of the ‘Neue Zürcher Zeitung’ newspaper today. Climate change was one of the most important topics in 2006 (it received more than 88 millions hits with Google during the last year; that’s 6 millions more hits than “information management”, 15 millions more hits than “George W. Bush”, 38 millions more hits than “knowledge management”, and 41 millions more hits than “stock exchange” – based on searches with www.google.de).
What can an ordinary man like me do to mitigate the “inconvenient truth”? One way is to offset the environmental impact of emissions from air travel by purchasing a ‘myclimate’ ticket. ‘Myclimate‘ is a spin-off from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich which invests its funds in carbon offset projects that lead to a direct reduction of greenhouse gases; e.g. electricity from biomass in India. I bought one ticket to offset my family and my collective 12.528 km of air travel in 2006. When will you buy your own ‘myclimate’ ticket?
IT and Ecosystem – a new metaphor
Saturday, December 16th, 2006I studied Environmental Sciences some 15 years ago. I was educated in interdisciplinary sciences (e.g. biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, economy, psychology, communication) and in the management of complex systems. It was at that time that the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology reacted to environmental catastrophes like Chernobyl or Schweizerhalle by establishing the interdisciplinary study of Environmental Sciences. The study itself was an innovation in the academic landscape and the students were co-designers of the study course.
In the last couple of years a trend seems to have developed towards the use of metaphors related to the environment. I want to introduce just four of these that I’ve encountered during the last few weeks.
KMWorld & Intranets 2006 Conference
Saturday, December 16th, 2006Some of the presentations at the KMWorld & Intranets 2006 Conference (the focus is on KM practicioners in USA and Canada) are available to download.
Couleur 3, Mali and Us
Tuesday, December 12th, 2006Couleur 3 always reminds me of my younger days in Switzerland. Those were the days when a third state-run radio programme was the innovation in media. I still listen to this radio station nowadays, especially for the live broadcasts of the Swiss national football team’s matches. From the 11th to the 17th of December Couleur 3 will be broadcasting from Bamako in Mali. Mali always reminds me of the most eventful consulting assignments during my first professional career as an International Environmental Management Consultant. This year we started a “godparent” programme (Plan Mali) with a family in the Boulouli region in order to try and become a bit more closely connected to the wonderful people of Mali.
An interesting way to share “how-to”s
Monday, December 4th, 2006A nice discovery by Shawn (author of one of my favorite blogs: Anecdote) – Instructables (“share what you make and how others can make it”). An interesting way to share “how to”s.
TED presentations available online
Sunday, December 3rd, 2006Jim McGee pointed it out to me, as a reader of his blog, that the presentations of the TED conference are now available to download (audio / video podcasts) under the new category “TEDTalks”. This is an excellent opportunity for those who weren’t able to attend the event itself. The speakers include Kevin Kelly, Burt Rutan, Iqubal Quadir, Steven Levitt, Mena Trott, Al Gore, Hans Rosling, and others.
