The Breakthrough Prize for Life Sciences was awarded this week to eleven scientists “who think big, take risks and have made a significant impact on our lives.” The size of the gift is intended to drive leading research, but also to advance the public presence of people who are changing the world through life sciences. …
Privacy in a world of indiscriminate tracking
How do we understand privacy in a world full of tracking? This week Julia Angwin spoke at the Shorenstein Center (recap here), and offered a high level overview of some of the privacy concerns specific to the data-rich world we inhabit today. These ranged from the specter of government surveillance drones over U.S. cities tracking your every movement …
Facebook intent by age cohort
Many commented on a recent Pew report finding that 61% of all Facebook users admitted to taking a break from the popular and addictive social networking site at some time in the past. Reasons included everything from avoiding too much drama and gossip to fasting or observing Lent. The chart below from the same report caught my …
Social media strategy for leadership
Today large organizations face a pervasive gap in social media competency among their ranks. A recent Stanford GSB report highlights that executives are aware of social media opportunities and risks, but that few have put into place the kind of systemic practices that advance an organization. As a result, there’s a lack of understanding of and …
Crowdfunding models in media
Small business lending statistics take no account of Kickstarter and crowdfunding; Andrew Sullivan’s experiment with The Dish has so startled traditional media that people are only beginning to understand how potent, powerful and perfect a model it might be – that is, when people pay something for content they value because they understand that everything …
Share of watch as new share of wallet
The term “attention economy” has been bandied around just about as long as the commercial internet — I found this Wired piece referring to attention as the new currency dating back to 1996. Last week, three separate events illustrated ways that products are trying not only to compete with each other for existing time, but also …
Social sector must embrace risk
For social impact organizations to scale in the same way entrepreneurial tech companies do, investors need to increase their tolerance for non-moral failure. They need to foster a culture of innovation and risk-taking. … Most importantly we have to stop pumping support into struggling ventures because we are afraid to see them fail and be …
How to visualize interconnections
MOMA has a terrific visualization as part of a show on Inventing Abstraction that opened back in December 2012. Visualization projects that map interconnections become complex quickly in a number of ways: Content for each subject: How much should you display? This seems like the right amount, although there’s something hilarious about seeing Picasso’s interests …
Highlights from #hackharvard
The third annual #hackharvard brought together 17 teams collaborating over 10 days, attending 21 seminars, meeting with 24 mentors, and consuming an undisclosed and no doubt enormous amount of Red Bull and candy. Today’s demo day was the culmination, with a terrific keynote from Hugo Van Vuuren (serial Harvard alum and Experiment Fund partner) and deft …
The inevitability of big data hacks
Geeks often talk about “layer 8.” When an IT operator sighs resignedly that it’s a layer 8 problem, she means it’s a human’s fault. It’s where humanity’s rubber meets technology’s road. And big data is interesting precisely because it’s the layer 8 protocol. It’s got great power, demands great responsibility, and portends great risk unless we do …