The Filter Bubble: How the Web Gives Us What We Want, and That's Not a Good Thing by Maria Popova How the web gives us what we want to see, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. Most of us are aware that our web experience is somewhat customized by our browsing history, social graph and other factors. But this sort of information-tailoring takes place on a much more sophisticated, deeper and far-reaching level than we dare suspect. I met Eli in March at TED, where he introduced the concepts from the book in one of this year’s best TED talks. The primary purpose of an editor [is] to extend the horizon of what people are interested in and what people know. What, exactly, is “the filter bubble”? EP: Your filter bubble is the personal universe of information that you live in online — unique and constructed just for you by the array of personalized filters that now power the web. How did you first get the idea of investigating this? EP: I came across a Google blog post declaring that search was personalized for everyone, and it blew my mind. Donating = Loving
100 Websites You Should Know and Use In the spring of 2007, Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH, gave a legendary TED University talk: an ultra-fast-moving ride through the “100 websites you should know and use.” Six years later, it remains one of the most viewed TED blog posts ever. Time for an update? We think so. To see the original list, click here. And now, the original list from 2007, created by Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH. In the spring of 2007, Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH, gave a legendary TED University talk: an ultra-fast-moving ride through the “100 websites you should know and use.” To see the original list, click here. And now, the original list from 2007, created by Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH.
Automated argument assistance As part of the ITeR project I have been working in, I have developed several experimental systems for automated argument-assistance. Argument-assistance systems are aids to draft and generate arguments, e.g., by administering and supervising the argument process, keeping track of the issues that are raised and the assumptions that are made, keeping track of the reasons adduced, the conclusions drawn, and the counterarguments that have been adduced, evaluating the justification status of the statements made, and checking whether the users of the system obey the pertaining rules of argument. Argument-assistance systems should be distinguished from the more common automated reasoning systems. Currently the following experimental systems can be downloaded: Argue!
Amazon is doing its real job: Squeezing retail chains One of the dramas in tech right now is the story around Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet and its potential to mess up Apple’s iPad business. I don’t think the Kindle Fire (an okay-but-not-great media tablet) is a real, long-term threat to the iPad (the personal computer of the future, and potentially many more things). But that will take a while to sort out. The real story right now is that Amazon — both through its Kindle business and its broader e-commerce business — is driving retail chains crazy. This is by design, of course: Recall that e-commerce is still less than 5% of U.S. retail sales. So driving brick-and-mortar competitors into the ground and directing more spending toward Amazon is absolutely what Amazon should be putting most of its effort into. A brief rundown of recent cries for help from the retail chain world: Meanwhile, Wall Street expects Amazon to report 40% year-over-year sales growth for last quarter, and a profit.
Brain Pickings Privnote - Send notes that will self-destruct after being read Open-Source Argument Mapping The latest version of Argunet features new tools that make it easier to organize the debates and to search through debates located on the Argunet-server or on your computer. To help you organize your work you can label the debates using private and non private tags and search for existing debates using a search-engine. The label-feature [...] The latest version of Argunet fastens Client-Server communication. The Argunet Server is up again. The Argunet Server at the FU Berlin is temporarily down for maintenance and updates. After more than a year of work, we proudly present you Argunet 1.0.0!
Peacetime CEO/Wartime CEO You’re lucky that I ain't the presidentCause I'll push the f*#king button and get it over withF&$k all that waiting and procrastinatingAnd all that goddamn negotiating—Bushwick Bill, Fuck a War TOM HAGEN Mike, why am I out?MICHAEL CORLEONE You're not a wartime consigliere. Things may get tough with the move we're trying. Recently, Eric Schmidt stepped down as CEO of Google and founder Larry Page took over. Definitions and Examples Peacetime in business means those times when a company has a large advantage vs. the competition in its core market, and its market is growing. In wartime, a company is fending off an imminent existential threat. A classic peacetime mission is Google’s effort to make the Internet faster. In my personal experience, I was a peacetime CEO for about 9 months, then a wartime CEO for the next 7 years. In peacetime, leaders must maximize and broaden the current opportunity. Peacetime CEO/Wartime CEO Peacetime CEO knows that proper protocol leads to winning.
Content Curation: definition and generation. | I Love SEO A lot has been already talked about Content Curation, meant as the capacity of filtering and adding value to the content we receive and are exposed to everyday from all the online sources (Search and Social). Content Curation is certainly more necessary than ever, a critical task in the business environment, not only in Marketing, Communications or Advertising, but it is especially so in areas such as Product, Innovation, Customer Service or Human Resources. Its impact goes far beyond the content we may generate. Really it is a state of mind affecting the monitoring, research, investigation and the way we listen to people and are able to discern what affects us what not. But what could be a definition of Content Curator? A content curator is a critical knowledge broker who seeks, collects and shares on a continuous base the most relevant content in her area of expertise. Initially, the term is attributed to Rohit Bhargava, who developed a Content Curation Manifesto in which he states:
Editor - Argunet Argunet Editor is a free argument map editor for analyzing and visualizing complex debates. You can use it offline and save your debates on your hard-disk. Or you can use it as a client-server application. This allows you to share your debates and collaborate with others on the Argunet server. Fast sketching mode: You can use Argunet to quickly outline the macro-structure of a debate. If this all sounds like gibberish to you, don’t worry. Installation In order to run Argunet, a Java Runtime Environment 6.0 or higher has to be installed on your Computer. Please select the download files for your operations system below and follow the install instructions. After you installed your version of Argunet we highly recommend that you install the two plugins we currently provide: the yFiles Layouter and yFiles Exporter. To install the Argunet layout and export plugins open the ‘Help’ Menu in Argunet and select ‘Install Argunet plugins’. Download Microsoft Windows Mac OS X Linux Other operating systems
Il dilemma del ricco e del re…e di come zuckerberg l’ha ignorato! Image via Wikipedia Qualche anno fa la Harvard Business Review pubblicò un interessante articolo nel quale si sosteneva la tesi che ogni imprenditore prima o poi si trovava davanti ad un bivio: Diventare ricco (facendo crescere la sua azienda più in fretta grazie a capitali esterni cedendo però quote significative della società)Essere Re (ovvero rimanere alle redini della propria azienda ma facendola crescere molto più lentamente e ottenendo risultati molto più in là nel tempo). In un recente articolo di Techcrunch l’autore mostra come il CEO di Facebook sia riuscito ad ottenere condizioni contrattuali che lo porteranno a controllare più del 50% delle azioni con diritto di voto della società e a poter nominare tutti i membri del consiglio di amministrazione anche dopo l’imminente quotazione in borsa, che sarà ovviamente stellare. [via Techcrunch]