Charles Leadbeater: The Era of Open Innovation

Alain de Botton: A Kinder, Gentler Philosophy of Success

Compare Alain de Botton's view of success with the ideas you have read about in Outliers.

Malcolm Gladwell: The Strange Tale of the Norden Bombshell

Will Facebook Own You?

Check out this article about Facebook's new strategy to embed all of your "intrawebs" on Facebook rather than just including links that send you elsewhere?

The article concludes with this statement:
This is the true risk of entrusting your entire online (and by association, offline) persona with a single entity — and yes, you should be worried that, as it stands, there is nothing in the way of either Google or Facebook becoming a cyberpunkish Megacorporation.

Are you worried?

Listening: Refusing Facebook Has Social Cost

  Right click the picture and to open the link in a new window and then click on the Audio file to listen to the discussion between Nora Young and Alice Marwick (or read the summarized article  if there is not enough time to listen to the entire interview)

1. What is "technology refusal"? What is your experience?
2. What are the costs of opting out of technology?
3. Explain the business model of "free" social-networking sites.
4. How does the speed of new technology affect the decision to opt out?
5. What role does age seem to play in opting out of technology?
6. Where is most social-networking technology created and how does this affect people in other parts of the world?

More articles to reflect on regarding the internet and social media:

 Nick Harding's anthropological insight on the Science of the Social Network

Michael Agger talks about Nicholas Carr's book The Shallows  and how the internet is changing the way we think and process information in this article: The Internet Diet

Mitch Joel writes about What You Always Need to Remember About the Internet

Cynthia Reynolds' article in Macleans Magazine on Why Your Teenager Can't Use a Hammer

Derek Sivers and Sir Ken Robinson

Derek Silvers: Weird, or Just Different?

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Questions:
1. Briefly summarize the difference between identifying the location of a house in Japan and North America.
2. How are doctors paid in China? Could this work in Canada? Could a similar system work for other professions such as dentists or mechanics?
3. Why is the map shown in the video also correct?
4. Can you think of other examples where opposite interpretations are both true?

For the next video, please begin at 15:00 and watch it to the end


Questions:
1. What characteristics did Gillian Lynne exhibit as a child in the 1930's and what did her school tell her parents?
2. What does Robinson suggest her diagnosis would have probably been if she were a student today?
3. What is Robinson's recommendation for education?

Maxwell Smart's Wearable Technology

You think wearable technology is a new idea? Take a look at this comedy-secret agent TV show from the 1960's: