April 2013
1 post
4 tags
Start Failing... or Get Out Of The Way
The plenary session this morning at the Nonprofit Technology Conference (#13NTC) was all about failure – how you define it, what to learn from it, why it’s important, and the critical need for the nonprofit/social good/philanthropy community to do a better job embracing it. I was privileged to sit on stage with Allyson Burns from the Case Foundation (@allieb37), Erin Shy from Sage Nonprofit...
March 2013
3 posts
6 tags
Why isn't anyone using the f-word anymore?
One of my favorite activities when attending the South-by-Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin (SXSW) is to eavesdrop on people’s conversations. Don’t look at me like that… I am not trying to invade anyone’s privacy or commit an act of corporate espionage. Rather, I am curious to learn what people are talking about, and how they talk. You can learn a lot about what is...
6 tags
What the f--k are we waiting for?
This post is about the missed opportunity of SXSW.
This is the ninth consecutive year that I have attended the South-by-Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin. And the more it changes… the more it stays the same.
SXSW is a unique gathering of people who work in/around technology, design, media, film, music… and an increasing number of people associated with the worlds of...
4 tags
Responsibility and Opportunity
Leslie Dach, executive vice president of corporate affairs for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., was quoted in Politico’s Playbook this morning talking about how corporations’ view of D.C. has changed. He said:
“People have lost kind of faith in the ability of government to provide solutions for their daily concerns. That’s provided both a responsibility and opportunity for...
January 2013
1 post
2 tags
War? What is it good for...
In a column for the Washington Post, Bob Woodward quotes Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, saying:
“We are at a time where there is a new world order. We don’t control it. You must question everything, every assumption, everything they’ — the military and diplomats — ‘tell you. Any assumption 10 years old is out of date. You need to question our role....
October 2012
1 post
11 tags
Crisis and Media Discussion (Revisited)
Life is beginning to return to ‘normal’ here in New York City. I realize that is somewhat easier for me to say given that I live on the Upper West Side (vs. downtown for example). We never lost power, cable or internet access. Damage in our neighborhood was limited to a few downed trees and the like. The subway is still closed and my office downtown in inaccessible - both of which...
September 2012
5 posts
5 tags
Talking About Online Organizing With Jeremy...
Jeremy Heimans is in the business of creating 21st Century Movements. As he explained it during his talk at #BIF8 “We organize people around major global issues and try to deploy their collective power using technology in really smart ways.”
Consider that, you would think that Jeremy’s work, which uses technology to help build and mobilize individuals and communities on a global scale, puts him...
4 tags
My Conversation with Sherry Turkle
While Sherry Turkle, an MIT researcher and the author of Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other, was on stage presenting at #BIF8, I sat huddled behind the screen of my laptop. That seems fitting given that she was talking about how technology is undermining our ability as human beings to connect and engage with each other. Here plea to those of us in the...
4 tags
Draw Something... Or Maybe Don't
You will be hard pressed to find a marketing conference, corporate summit, or innovation-oriented gathering these days that doesn’t include an artist, toiling away behind an oversized canvas, trying to translate the thoughts and ideas being presented on stage into an illustration or makeshift infographic. The idea behind creating these visual summaries is that the core concepts will be more easily...
9 tags
Don't Stop Thinking About... The Issues
Bill Clinton put on a master class in political persuasion last night at the Democratic Convention. His 48-minute opus – half prepared, half-improvised – effectively made the case for President Obama’s re-election to undecided and moderate voters, dismantled many of the key arguments being promoted by the GOP, and re-energized the Democratic base in anticipation of the final push towards election...
6 tags
Convention Thoughts
This is the first year since 1992 that I haven’t attended the Democratic Convention — and the first time since 2000 that I haven’t attended both the Democratic and Republican Conventions. I have watched hours of live coverage, read pages and pages of commentary and analysis. I even hosted a radio show discussing the role of digital and social media in this year’s...
June 2012
1 post
5 tags
Deja Vu All Over Again: PDF Edition
Earlier this week, while attending the Personal Democracy Forum conference, I heard the head digital strategist for the Romney Campaign, Zac Moffatt, talk about his job. The most striking thing he said was that he was still working to make sure that digital strategy was considered a key part of the campaign’s overall plan, that the digital team had a pro-active budget to work with, and that...
May 2012
6 posts
7 tags
Tonya Hall Show: Friday, May 11, 2012
I have the honor and privilege of guest-hosting the Tonya Hall Show again today. The show is all about embracing the power of social media, everything happening on the world wide web and how the internet is changing our lives.
On today’s show we’ll be talking about three topics: 1) the 2012 election… and how this cycle is shaping up to be different (beyond just the tools that people are...
10 tags
Tonya Hall Show: Thursday, May 10, 2012
[Updated]
I had the honor and privilege of guest-hosting the Tonya Hall Show today. The show is all about embracing the power of social media, everything happening on the world wide web and how the internet is changing our lives.
On today’s show we talked about two topics: 1) sports and society — and what digital and social media are doing to help extend the impact that sports is...
10 tags
Still more notes from #ActivateNYC12
I spent yesterday at the Guardian Active Summit. Here is my last round of observations/thoughts from the afternoon sessions:
Questions. Om Malik, the founder and editor in Chief, GigaOM Network, talked about how important it is to be constantly learning. He explained: “If I start the day with five questions and I end the day with five questions I have failed. If I start the day with five...
8 tags
Still more notes from #ActivateNYC12
I am spending the day at the Guardian Active Summit.
Here are a few observations/thoughts from the afternoon sessions:
Relentlessness. Arianna Huffington said one of the best things that the digital age invites, and that HuffPo is focused on, is the ability to bring ‘relentlessness’ to the coverage of issues. Gone are the days when media covered a story and then moved on to something...
5 tags
More Notes from #ActivateNYC12
I am spending the day at the Guardian Active Summit.
Here are a few more observations/thoughts from the morning sessions:
Back to Basics. Adam Sharp, the senior manager for government, news and social innovation at Twitter outlined three trends in a Twitter-powered political world: 1) the democratization of access, 2) the impact of everything being real-time, and… most interestingly, 3) a...
7 tags
Notes from #ActivateNYC12
I am spending the day at the Guardian Activate Summit.
Here are a few observations/thoughts from the morning sessions:
Publicness. There are lots of different to describe the idea of being open and connected. Jeff Jarvis uses the word publicness, by which he means you operate in public, for the public, and with the public. Jarvis suggested that the internet is our greatest tool for encouraging...
April 2012
4 posts
2 tags
Think before you give
The New York Times cites a study that challenges the business model of some nonprofit organizations. Here is a blurb from the article:
Giving used eyeglasses to poor countries may please the donors, but it is not worth the high delivery costs, a new study has concluded, and a $10 donation would do more good.
The study, led by Australian scientists and published in March in Optometry and Vision...
3 tags
Lessons from a Pitch (It) Competition
[Cross-posted at WeMedia]
I didn’t win the big prize at the We Media PitchIt! competition, but I walked away with something potentially more valuable: honest and constructive feedback that will help to shape the future trajectory of my project. Here is a quick recap and some lessons learned:
Eight minutes is awkward
Each of the eight finalists was given eight minutes to present their project,...
6 tags
Chief Asshole
Earlier today, as a part of a plenary discussion at the 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference, I was appointed ‘Chief Asshole’ as part of the effort to drive innovation in the social impact space. It is an honor to hold this title.
How exactly did it happen?
We were talking about the need for innovation in the nonprofit/social impact sector — both in terms of changing the way...
Why I Donate
Earlier this week I received an email from a nonprofit leader with the subject line ‘Supporting Non-Profits.” The email read as follows:
Brian -
Just read your post on Fast Company from 3 years ago (sorry for being late to the party). “The Cone list is littered with groups that I supported in the past, but no longer give time or money to today. I haven’t stopped...
March 2012
2 posts
Kony 2012: Mistakes Were Made (Part 1)
I have lots of thoughts about the Kony 2012 campaign from Invisible Children - what was smart (a lot), what was not as smart (a lot) and what it all means. Let me start with this:
Jason Russell, who narrated the Kony 2012 video in addition to directing it, told Reuters on Friday that he didn’t expect the incredibly detailed story of Joseph Kony and child militias in Africa to be answered in a...
Shift & Reset Podcast at SXSW
I will be hosting a podcast at SXSW today that looks at some of the big themes trends and topics that everyone will be discussing all week in Austin – or should be discussing — and how those ideas can be used to change business, media, and maybe even the world.
I have three very smart people joining me for this conversation:
Melinda Wittstock, the Founder and CEO of NewsiT
Gemma Craven, the...
January 2012
4 posts
Change This Manifesto
ChangeThis has published my ‘Shift & Reset Manifesto.’ Read it now.
Here is the summary:
“I am angry. There are real problems facing the world, and we, as a society, are not doing enough to address them in the right ways, not the ways we know are possible. The old way isn’t working, and we know it.
We continue to reward the same behaviors we have rewarded in the past while...
12 Big Ideas for 2012
Each one of us has the ability to transform the way the world thinks about critically important issues. But making a lasting change in behavior is rarely a simple process. Inspired by the concepts outlined in my new book, Shift & Reset: Strategies for Addressing Serious Issues In A Connected Society, these twelve big ideas are designed to make you think. Differently. I am sharing these...
Recent Attention for Shift & Reset
I’m proud and honored to share that Shift & Reset has recently received some special attention from some pretty cool folks:
I had a great conversation with Dr. Moira Gunn of NPR’s Tech Nation about what works well (and what doesn’t) when companies and nonprofits try to communicate their message.
Guidestar just published a version of my 12 Big Ideas for 2012 on their Trust...
Shift & Reset is Hiring!
I’m hiring a part-time assistant to help promote Shift & Reset. Check it out: http://www.scribd.com/doc/77543281/Book-Promotion-Assistant
October 2011
2 posts
Forbes.com: Shift & Reset, entrepreneurs!
Please check out the great write-up of Shift & Reset that Martin Zwilling did on Forbes.com, called, It’s Time for Entrepreneurs to Shift & Reset. The beginning of his article is posted below. Please go directly to Forbes.com to read the rest! Thank you, Mr. Zwilling.
It’s time for more entrepreneurs to reset their focus, and shift their thinking to completely different ways of...
September 2011
4 posts
10 tags
End Malaria could have been so much more...
I bought a copy of End Malaria this week. You should too. It is, as promised, a great book. And it does, in fact, benefit a great cause.
Still, as I poured over the 60+ essays submitted by leading business thinkers and innovators, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the biggest opportunity of all was simply missed. End Malaria could have been a true game changer. Instead its just a great...
5 tags
Revolutionary Transformation?
Technology has changed the way we get and share information. In the context of education — in this case I am referring to the education system, the whole going to school thing — the established methods for teaching and learning are being disrupted. In some cases technology is providing new and better opportunities for people, of all ages, to make sense of complex subjects and learn...
4 tags
Digital Diplomacy For All
I want to see a commitment to digital diplomacy in the context of all the serious issues and challenges that exist in our society today.
What am I talking about? Alec Ross would know what I am talking about. Ross is senior adviser for innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the subject of a brief profile in the September 12, 2011 issue of Time Magazine (the one with the ‘What...
1 tag
More than 'Just Salad'
The web is littered with stories about brands/organizations who have fallen short of customer expectations (I write about some of these in my new book, Shift & Reset). Often the complaints are isolated to a single cockroach in a hotel room that went unaddressed or a one-star take down of a cheaply made product. The complaint is available to anyone who goes looking on Yelp or Amazon but...
July 2011
4 posts
3 tags
Brain Bugs
I would be way over-simplifying things to suggest that the internet works like the human brain — with lots of nodes and networks connected to each other, linking and relating information in constantly changing, ever-evolving ways. I am neither an expert in the development of the web nor a brain scientist, so I won’t event try to explain either concept in greater detail.
What I do...
3 tags
Challenging Arts Organizations To Shift & Reset
My friends at the National Arts Marketing Partnership (a program of Americans for the Arts) invited me to share some thoughts about Shift & Reset and how arts organizations can better adapt to the challenges of the digital age. My post appeared earlier this month.
Here is an excerpt:
Given that the public is more engaged than ever before, more capable of collecting and sharing information...
1 tag
The Future of Service: Idea Throwdown Results
On June 6 at the Points of Light Institute’s National Conference on Volunteering and Service, Scott Henderson and I hosted an Idea Throwdown focused on the future of service.
We brought together a diverse group of 40 leaders to create a new framework for how organizations who are focused on supporting service – companies, media, nonprofits, government – can better address the challenges that...
Kindle Version of Shift & Reset Available for...
The Kindle version of Shift & Reset: Strategies for Addressing Serious Issues in a Connected Society is now available for pre-order on Amazon. And, in case you missed it, the hard copy is available for pre-order as well. The REAL book should hit bookstores on August 15! I can’t wait! Can you?
June 2011
2 posts
I got Mark Burnett to sit still... and endorse...
Bill Carter profiles super-producer Mark Burnett in today’s New York Times, describing him as the person “who more or less created the reality programming business in American television…” The headline across the front of the business section reads: “For the Producer of ‘Survivor’ and ‘The Voice,’ There’s No Sitting Still.”
Well, I got Mark Burnett to sit...
Pre-order Shift & Reset on Amazon.com
My new book, Shift & Reset: Strategies for Addressing Serious Issues in a Connected Society, due out on July 25, is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com. Order your copy and copies for all your friends and family today! Order several copies for your organization and contact me to come speak to you all about it!
About Shift & Reset In these challenging economic times, it is more...
