From Beyond Bridges
Jan
26
Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2012/01/hello/
Jan
25
Focus on the User …
There is a lot of traffic (excitement) out there about the bias creeping in to Google Searches around the Social Landscape. This site : Focus on the User clearly demonstrates that there is – AND offers a work around with a handy dandy bookmarklet that you can install through a simple drag and drop.
When you search for “cooking” today, Google decides that renowned chef Jamie Oliver is a relevant social result. That makes sense. But rather than linking to Jamie’s Twitter profile, which is updated daily, Google links to his Google+ profile, which was last updated nearly two months ago. Is Google’s relevance algorithm simply misguided?
No. If you search Google for Jamie Oliver directly, his Twitter profile is the first social result that appears. His abandoned Google+ profile doesn’t even appear on the first page of results. When Google’s engineers are allowed to focus purely on relevancy, they get it right.
So that’s what our “bookmarklet” does. It looks at the three places where Google only shows Google+ results and then automatically googles Google to see if Google finds a result more relevant than Google+.
Watch the video.
Install the bookmark.
Done
…. or just move over to Bing – who knows what they are up to 
Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2012/01/focus-on-the-user/
Jan
24
Searing Attack On The MPAA’s CEO
If you are a member organisation of the MPAA and this is your public representative who’s making you look like a corrupt, Congress-buying organisation in front of the general public, you are not being an effective lobbyist and you are not solving the problems that the MPAA hired you to solve.
The words of Jimmy Wales in a recent interview.
Read More From Jimmy Wales -and why Christoper Dodds should be fired – and more.
Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2012/01/searing-attack-on-the-mpaas-ceo/
Jan
16
Ten Things Everyone Should Try
This is mainly a business blog – but the boundaries of pay, purpose and play are falling. This post caught my eye this morning – and in particular – number 8.
Be a friend to someone that really needs it. We all know people that seem to be going through life alone. While some people do this by choice, most don’t and have been alone for so long they just don’t know how to go about it anymore or lack the confidence. Give it a try and you just may meet someone that can help you reach your dreams while you fulfill one of theirs in the process just because you took the time to get to know them.
‘borrowed’ from ‘Ten things everyone should try’ follow the link for the full piece – you really should.
via Mind Candy.
Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2012/01/ten-things-everyone-should-try/
Jan
16
Anonymous targets media execs
When I read that
The people in power seem a little perplexed about the guerilla tactics. ““Why can’t they just hire a lobbyist like everyone else?” a Congressional aide for the House Judiciary Committee asked the NY Times.
I am wondering how long these guys will have a job …. how about you ?
via VentureBeat
Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2012/01/anonymous-targets-media-execs/
Jan
14
Battling Entitlement – The Innovation Killer
if from a very young age, we solve our children’s problems for them, we are cutting off our supply of creative problem solvers, future innovators and entrepreneurs. People do occasionally choose to disrupt themselves, but more frequently, disruption comes because we hunger for a better life. It’s no wonder then that the emerging markets are a seedbed of innovation. Or that 52% of Silicon Valley’s start-ups during 1995–2005 were founded by immigrants. When we are satiated with stuff, we lose the imperative to innovate and disrupt.
via Battling Entitlement, the Innovation-Killer – Whitney Johnson – Harvard Business Review …. and thanks to my good friend and colleague Daniel Szuc – great article.
Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2012/01/battling-entitlement-the-innovation-killer/
Jan
13
How To Train Your Newspaper To Survive The Digital Age
Hot Off The Twitter Bot: How To Train Your Newspaper To Survive The Digital Age
The New York Times recently reported a quarterly profit of $15.7 million driven, in part, by its success at drawing paying subscribers to its website. The news put some much-needed wind in the sails of an industry navigating the choppiest of waters. But to see a newspaper that may be innovating even faster and more creatively than the Times, and which may point the way toward a brighter future for old-school media outlets, one must gaze across the Atlantic at the London-based Guardian.
Ironically, the Guardian is taking the opposite approach: It’s making the open, pay-wall free approach work by being leaps ahead of everyone else in the digital space. And it’s paying off: Readership on Guardian.co.uk is up by over 40% year over the past two years.
Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2012/01/how-to-train-your-newspaper-to-survive-the-digital-age/
Jan
10
Skype – Killing Long Distance – Once Minute At A Time.
It doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know – but nice to see the graphic supporting it.
iMessage and BBMessenger will both be cutting into the texting world.
Reduced number of home phones anyway – since we are all on mobile.
And the costs of mobile in US in comparison are ASTRONOMIC.
I just had a £10 pay as you go in the UK for a better service – and more than enough minutes. texts – possible not data – but for one tenth of my US contract.
Things are breaking apart – and at times – not so slowly.
Skype is killing long distance, one minute at a time — Broadband News and Analysis.
Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2012/01/skype-killing-long-distance-once-minute-at-a-time/
Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2012/01/5-dimwitted-leadership-strategies-2/
Jan
09
E8, Edwin Abbott, Garrett Lisi, Maui, Theoretical Physics, Unified Field Theory
So I was going to post this to Facebook directly – and found that it was too long – and then I remembered – wait – I have half a dozen blogs – surely one of them could serve as the platfrom for a post – so Webservations it is >>>
When I was much (much) younger and actually understood the Maths I was studying, I read a wonderful little book called Flatland by Edwin Abbott. At one level it was a commentary on social hierarchy and at another an examination of the resistance of humans to recognizing – much less understanding – the concept of multiple dimensions. The book was written in 1884 BTW.
Just been watching a wonderful Ted Talk on ‘E8′ (or as it is affectionately known – Garrett Lisi’s Theory of Everything ) two years after it was recorded.
In the past 125 years, we seem to have developed a little – and now routinely talk of (that is different to understand) multi-dimensional space. In Garrett’s case (he is focussed on a theoretical model with 8 dimensions, dubbed E8 – that he ‘hopes’ IS the unified field theory we have been searching for around a century now (maybe longer) – I use hope loosley – he seems to be working with something more than hope
At the end of the talk, Garrett was asked to explain E8 a little further by the host and when he did, I couldn’t help but think of Edwin’s book as he talked of how different aspects of the 8 dimensions spin in and out of focus as the model spins around.
OK – this is hard to explain – happy to report that I am truly excited to be listening to Garrett talk first hand – very soon. YOWZA. More on that later.
(BTW fellow followers – Garrett is a Maui Resident – we truly have an eclectic, stunning, and extraordinary collection of residents on this island of ours.)
Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2012/01/e8-et-al/
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