Steve Jobs was unique for combining high aspirations and a love of beautiful design with an acute business brain. It's marvellous, and surprisingly rare, to see an innovator honoured and mourned. But like any truly great changemaker Steve was contradictory.
I can't remember the death of a business leader ever having quite the impact as that of Steve Jobs. Part of the reason is that he saw business as a means and not an end.
As the Eurozone drifts towards a reprise of the crisis of 2008 and export-led growth looks increasingly difficult, we're seeing renewed debate over the merits of an economic "Plan B".
Last week I was in Krakow in Poland chairing the plenaries at the European intersectoral summet on research and innovation. The event was organised by Atomium, an organisation I've been involved in setting up, which brings together 25 of the top universities across Europe and 25 top media organisations.
A while ago I decided to pin my colours to the collaborative mast, and stop drawing a salary from Crashpadder.com. It was a pretty easy decision at the time; I have faith in the business model, and I wanted to demonstrate that one could make ends meet purely by hosting through the site. In addition, I am at a stage in my life where my costs are pretty low, so there was little excuse not to. What I didn't anticipate, however, was how great an impact this immersion in the collaborative economy
Attempts to subjugate Austria to Germany generally turn out badly. There’s a surprising lesson here for politicians who talk about innovation.
When Oslo's transport authorities wanted to design and implement a new transport system for Ruter, they knew that providing useful, legible information would be as critical as the lines themselves.
The last week has been all about ideas, a welcome antidote to the darkening economic outlook.
Collaborative consumption in public services depends on creating new kinds of relationships with, and between, citizens with a particular emphasis on trust between strangers acting as the glue that holds the system together. Our event earlier this year explored this notion in more detail. It's worth visiting these presentations, as they contain lots of useful ideas and thinking from across public sector and the entrepreneurial community.
The high walls, clanging bars, key chains, security tags, air locked doors, rows of barbed wire, and yet more security checks, are not the usual start when you head out for lunch on a Tuesday. But then the Clink Prison Restaurant is far from ordinary.
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