LEADING-EDGE BUSINESS IDEAS

A few interesting articles on innovation, knowledge and the future of business – worth a read:

Distributed Social Software, by Eric Gradman via Seb Paquet at Many 2 Many: A grad student surveys the current generation of social software and agrees with me that it needs to be simpler, less centralized and more personal.

Life in 2010 – Home and Work, by Patrick Dixon: A futurist who sees that new technologies are going to be smaller, more portable, more specialized, easier-to-use and more personal. Some excellent thinking here.

Weblogs and Journalism (jump to pg 59 of this pdf), features 18 articles by bloggers and journalists, that I’ve mentioned before, but are worth a second read because of their broader implications for the use of weblogs and other personal content management and personal publishing apps in business.

WL Gore & Associates, per this case study by Cyndy Payne of the Foundation for Enterprise Development, is not only one of the world’s most innovative companies (they invented waterproof, breathable, Gore-Tex fabric and a whole bunch of high-tech materials you’ve probably never heard of), but also are a prime example of a true partnership of equals (what they call a Non-Hierarchical Corporation and what I’ve called a New Collaborative Enterprise).