Updated look and feel

I've updated the design of the blog to match my personal site.

It's still a work in progress (the blogger template stuff is a bit messy) but I'm starting to get a consistent look and feel across my whole web-presence.

/ Jonathan

Some interesting innovation and sustainability links

I thought I'd share some of my browsing history for the last few hours. Just a selection of very inspiring content that's out there.

Business

This blog is a guide written by Alvin Hall about socially good business practices in Africa. I highly recommend watching the Partners in Health video, though it's absolutely heart-wrenching at times.

http://www.socialedge.org/blogs/alvins-guide-to-good-business

Partners in Health: http://www.socialedge.org/blogs/alvins-guide-to-good-business/archive/2010/03/12/partners-in-health

Communication

An interesting discussion about communication between climate scientists and the public. It touches on the problem of impartiality, maintaining the separation of political will and hard science.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/climate-scientists-talk-cliamte-change.php

Empathy

I really liked this page about the importance of empathy. It really is one of the most fundamental life skills a human can have, it affects everything we do. People may feel as if they can live in a bubble, an island unto themselves but it isn't true.

Gaming and the Internet, despite some negative press, are helping create more connections with more people. A side effect of this can be a loss of personal, physical empathy and perhaps cultivating a larger but shallower network. With a little thought people can remember what's really important.

http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/the-world/article/ghandis-neurons-the-practice-of-empathy-bruna-martinuzzi

Tweeting

So many companies get viral marketing wrong, they just don't understand social networking. On the other hand there are plenty out there that get it right. I really liked this article; it gives some basic advice for getting it right.

http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/the-world/article/top-5-ways-not-to-be-annoying-on-twitter-amber-macarthur

Urgent Evoke

This is an amazing social gaming experiment, attempting to utilise the reward and goal structures present in games to motivate and direct people to innovate and solve real world problems. I've started playing.

http://www.urgentevoke.com/

This is the game designer Jane McGonigal's TED talk about this idea of constructive gaming.

Humanity and Inspiration

Some time ago I watched a TED video that really inspired me. I mean this video completely tugged at my heartstrings. Prompted by one of the challenges in the game above I've decided to actively follow Ryan Lobo's work. If you haven't seen any of this you really should check it out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanlobo/

/ Jonathan

Internet Filter protest

Today Australian's will engage in a national day of protest against internet censorship:
http://www.itwire.com/your-it-news/home-it/30369-internet-filter-national-day-of-protest-on-march-6th

If I was there I'd be joining in.

/ Jonathan

Chalmers in winter

This is the path I took to University today. Last night it was foggy with glowing lights - very much Narnia ^_^

20100219 - Chalmers in Winter

Back in my day we had to walk kilometres through snow to get to school....

/ J

CIRC Cortège design meeting

Tonight CIRC had a meeting with all of the student's who signed up to be a part of the Chalmers Cortège to decide on a theme and begin designing the actual float to be built.

The attempted topics so far have included Michael Jackson, The Copenhagen Summit, 2012 End of the World and International Diversity.

20100219 - CIRC Cortège Design Meeting

/ Jonathan