Monday, March 17, 2003

OneWorld.net

open business :: community :: sustainability


These guys are very interesting - they have a more general approach to what the OBF is trying to do for business. It might be a really good idea to become partners with this organization. Here are some excerpts:


our vision

OneWorld has a vision of equitable and sustainable distribution of
wealth amongst the world's population, underpinned by global attainment
and protection of human rights and by governance structures which
permit local communities control over their own affairs.



our mission

OneWorld is dedicated to harnessing the democratic potential of the
internet to promote human rights and sustainable development



OneWorld.net values:

* human rights for all as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

* sharing the world's natural and economic resources fairly

* simple and sustainable ways of life

* the right of every individual to inform and be informed, with access for all to the benefits of new technology

* participation and transparency in decision-making

* social, cultural and linguistic diversity

OneWorld seeks to respect these values in its operations and governance and to:

* work in a spirit of partnership with organisations with overlapping aims
* follow principles of not-for-profit organisations with structures of ownership which are non-beneficial
* recognise that rights of access to internet technology should be balanced by responsibilities in its application
* avoid any source of finance derived from activities which indisputably conflict with our vision and values

More good info:

our aims

OneWorld aims to be the online media gateway that most effectively
informs a global audience about human rights and sustainable development



OneWorld aims to bring together a global community working for
sustainable development through interactive online partnerships of
organisations and individuals sharing our vision



OneWorld aims to transcend geographic and linguistic barriers in our
work; in particular to give a voice to those typically overlooked by
mainstream media and policy-makers



To inquire about becoming partners: partnership@oneworld.net



Wednesday, March 12, 2003

Network Architectures in Business

technology :: business


No, I don't mean Foundry, Cisco, cat5, or lattency - I mean
people. I mean corporate structure... NEW corporate structure. Rohit
Anand (a friend of mine who from Techspan who is consulting for PBS
right now) and I were jamming about business, project management,
application development, and people management the other day. It was a
really great brainstorm. In my mind, the pivotal part of the
conversation was when we started talking about networks of motivated
people doing business.



The idea was that the corporate structure of today tends to crush
many motivated, highly skilled, high-energy individuals. Yet, at the
same time, many of these individuals don't really want to own a company
and all the headaches that come with this. So, what about changing the
corporate hierarchy? What about moving from the bifurcations we see on
org charts to clusters of management like you see in a neural net?



Certainly bears thinking about...



On a semi-side note, this brings be to my favorite business topic:
biology. One of my favorite things to do is look at business situations
and imagine a biological/ecological analog. It is my firm beliefe that
in the world of business, we are multi-cellular, though invertibrate
organisms. We have not developed to the point where we are thinking in
wholistic, systems terms. We don't think in terms of economies, we
think in terms of CEOs. We still think of the one cell, not all the
cells, the organism.


Internet Super Heros

Allen Lerner and I were hanging out the other day, jamming about AdytumSolutions and E-Secure Systems... he was talking about working out, and feeling better about himself - more confident, more
comfortable. As he was describing his self image and the introspection that had led him to want to redefine himself, I got the coolest visual image...

I saw something akin to the super hero transformation that occurs in the time of need: from work-a-day cloths, to flying-out-of-phone-booth tights and cape. Not that I saw Allen in tights, or anything... ;-)

But as that image soaked into my brain, it struck me how well it fit what we do - especially what E-Secure Systems does. We are the techno super-heros; all of us that work in this industry; we're like the Hall of Justice, where uptimes, network security, and customer satisfaction are the law that we support. We really started getting into this, too!

Allen called me later that night, and just went off. I was laughing my ass off. He did this whole improve on internet superheros that was just hysterical - and true.

It was just fantastic :-)


Blue Sky Factory

technology :: business


Allen Lerner of E-Secure Systems and I met with Greg Cangialosi
of Blue Sky Factory the other day. These guys are very cool and
friendly. They do internet marketing for companies in all areas of
industry.



It's nice getting to know Baltimore better; I look forward to future
visits and growing friendships there. We are talking with Greg now
about the potential of his contributing some of his knowledge and
experience to the OBF and the OBMN (Open Business Materials Network).



We shall see...


Sunday, March 02, 2003

Content Contributor - Brad DeLong

open :: business :: economics


We've just heard back from Brad DeLong, the economist of UC
Berkeley fame. He has most generously agreed to let the OBF re-publish
hist works (copyrights his).



This is simply fantastic - his writings and interests are very
broad; his views are well-thought out and innovatitve; and he is
well-respected by his peers not only in the field of economics, but in
diverse other fields.



Thank you for this contribution, Dr. DeLong!



We will begin putting some of his previous articles up on the
website of the OBF once we move the site further down the beta
process...