InfoCompanions » Social http://www.infocompanions.com Brain spasms of an enthusiast who loves to live at the intersection of business, innovation, process and technology Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:41:36 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Julian Assange: Why The World Needs WikiLeaks http://www.infocompanions.com/julian-assange-why-the-world-needs-wikileaks/ http://www.infocompanions.com/julian-assange-why-the-world-needs-wikileaks/#comments Sat, 14 Aug 2010 15:45:12 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.com/?p=588 The controversial website WikiLeaks collects and posts highly classified documents and video. Founder Julian Assange, who’s reportedly being sought for questioning by US authorities, talks to TED’s Chris Anderson about how the site operates, what it has accomplished — and what drives him. The interview includes graphic footage of a recent US airstrike in Baghdad.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts

]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/julian-assange-why-the-world-needs-wikileaks/feed/ 0 Laurie Santos: How monkeys mirror human irrationality http://www.infocompanions.com/laurie-santos-how-monkeys-mirror-human-irrationality/ http://www.infocompanions.com/laurie-santos-how-monkeys-mirror-human-irrationality/#comments Sat, 07 Aug 2010 15:34:23 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.com/?p=577 Why do we make irrational decisions so predictably? Laurie Santos looks for the roots of human irrationality by watching the way our primate relatives make decisions. A clever series of experiments in “monkeynomics” shows that some of the silly choices we make, monkeys make too.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts

  • No related posts.
]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/laurie-santos-how-monkeys-mirror-human-irrationality/feed/ 0 Legos for grownups http://www.infocompanions.com/legos-for-grownups/ http://www.infocompanions.com/legos-for-grownups/#comments Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:51:52 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.com/?p=568 Lego blocks: playtime mainstay for industrious kids, obsession for many (ahem!) mature adults. Hillel Cooperman takes us on a trip through the beloved bricks’ colorful, sometimes oddball grownup subculture, featuring CAD, open-source robotics and a little adult behavior.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts

  • No related posts.
]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/legos-for-grownups/feed/ 0 The politics of fiction http://www.infocompanions.com/the-politics-of-fiction/ http://www.infocompanions.com/the-politics-of-fiction/#comments Sat, 17 Jul 2010 14:49:37 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.com/?p=566 Listening to stories widens the imagination; telling them lets us leap over cultural walls, embrace different experiences, feel what others feel. Elif Shafak builds on this simple idea to argue that fiction can overcome identity politics.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts

]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/the-politics-of-fiction/feed/ 0 The Art of Choosing http://www.infocompanions.com/the-art-of-choosing/ http://www.infocompanions.com/the-art-of-choosing/#comments Sat, 10 Jul 2010 14:47:36 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.com/?p=563 Sheena Iyengar studies how we make choices — and how we feel about the choices we make. At TEDGlobal, she talks about both trivial choices (Coke v. Pepsi) and profound ones, and shares her groundbreaking research that has uncovered some surprising attitudes about our decisions.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts

  • No related posts.
]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/the-art-of-choosing/feed/ 0 Java 4-Ever Trailer – Nerds Know Humor! http://www.infocompanions.com/java-4-ever-trailer-nerds-know-humor/ http://www.infocompanions.com/java-4-ever-trailer-nerds-know-humor/#comments Sat, 26 Jun 2010 21:59:55 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.com/?p=558 Ha! Check out this incredibly funny video called “Java 4-ever”. The age old saga of the battle between Java and .NET… with musical references that remind you of American Beauty and Requiem for a Dream. A must watch. Who said nerds ain’t funny!!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts

]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/java-4-ever-trailer-nerds-know-humor/feed/ 0 Hitler Ain’t Happy With iPhone 4. Are You? http://www.infocompanions.com/hitler-aint-happy-with-iphone-4-are-you/ http://www.infocompanions.com/hitler-aint-happy-with-iphone-4-are-you/#comments Sat, 26 Jun 2010 21:13:04 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.com/?p=555 Did you stand in line for 6 hours under the blistering sun just to get the new iPhone, only to get stuck with the antenna issue? You need to do 2 things – (1) follow Steve Job’s recommended fix by avoiding “holding it that way” and (2) think of creative ways to vent. Michael Ingram Jr. followed advice #2, and made a hilarious video. See below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts

]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/hitler-aint-happy-with-iphone-4-are-you/feed/ 0 Friends of Friends – Thread.com http://www.infocompanions.com/friends-of-friends-thread-com/ http://www.infocompanions.com/friends-of-friends-thread-com/#comments Thu, 20 May 2010 15:03:30 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.com/?p=548 Great, so now you have a Facebook profile. And even one step further and made a few “friends”. What now? Expand your network even further by connecting with friends of friends? It opens up a whole new set of questions about the “What” and “Why”… but at least, the ability is here. Check out the video below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts

]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/friends-of-friends-thread-com/feed/ 0 Elizabeth Pisani: Sex, drugs and HIV – let’s get rational http://www.infocompanions.com/elizabeth-pisani-sex-drugs-and-hiv-lets-get-rational/ http://www.infocompanions.com/elizabeth-pisani-sex-drugs-and-hiv-lets-get-rational/#comments Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:49:12 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.com/?p=538 Armed with bracing logic, wit and her “public-health nerd” glasses, Elizabeth Pisani reveals the myriad of inconsistencies in today’s political systems that prevent our dollars from effectively fighting the spread of HIV. Her research with at-risk populations — from junkies in prison to sex workers on the street in Cambodia — demonstrates the sometimes counter-intuitive measures that could stall the spread of this devastating disease.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts

]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/elizabeth-pisani-sex-drugs-and-hiv-lets-get-rational/feed/ 0 Ian Goldin: Navigating our global future http://www.infocompanions.com/ian-goldin-navigating-our-global-future/ http://www.infocompanions.com/ian-goldin-navigating-our-global-future/#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:06:05 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.com/?p=510 As globalization and technological advances bring us hurtling towards a new integrated future, Ian Goldin warns that not all people may benefit equally. But, he says, if we can recognize this danger, we might yet realize the possibility of improved life for everyone.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts

]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/ian-goldin-navigating-our-global-future/feed/ 0 Stefana Broadbent: How the Internet enables intimacy http://www.infocompanions.com/stefana-broadbent-how-the-internet-enables-intimacy/ http://www.infocompanions.com/stefana-broadbent-how-the-internet-enables-intimacy/#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:01:56 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.com/?p=506 We worry that IM, texting, Facebook are spoiling human intimacy, but Stefana Broadbent’s research shows how communication tech is capable of cultivating deeper relationships, bringing love across barriers like distance and workplace rules.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts

]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/stefana-broadbent-how-the-internet-enables-intimacy/feed/ 0 Malcolm Gladwell: Human potential http://www.infocompanions.com/malcolm-gladwell-human-potential/ http://www.infocompanions.com/malcolm-gladwell-human-potential/#comments Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:51:59 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.com/?p=502 Pop sociologist and best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell has honed in on a profound new question: what separates extraordinary and average people? Discussing findings from his much-anticipated book “Outliers,” Gladwell details how we’re squandering human potential everywhere from the football field to the classroom – and what we can do to change it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts

]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/malcolm-gladwell-human-potential/feed/ 0 Clay Shirky: How social media can make history http://www.infocompanions.com/clay-shirky-how-social-media-can-make-history/ http://www.infocompanions.com/clay-shirky-how-social-media-can-make-history/#comments Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:27:36 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.com/?p=430 Twitter, Facebook and other forms of Social Media are continuing to change our world in ways we never imagined. Who imagined that Twitter and TXT messaging can facilitate the early waves of democracy in one of the world’s most authoritarian regime, Iran? And who imagined that in May 2008, BBC would first come to know about the devastating earthquake in China through Twitter (last time the quake happened, it took China 3 months just to admit that an earthquake had hit China!)

In this impressive talk, Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts

]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/clay-shirky-how-social-media-can-make-history/feed/ 0 Kwame Anthony Appiah and Golden Nugget Theory http://www.infocompanions.com/kwame-anthony-appiah-and-golden-nugget-theory/ http://www.infocompanions.com/kwame-anthony-appiah-and-golden-nugget-theory/#comments Sun, 22 Mar 2009 20:58:20 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.com/?p=387 Kwame Anthony Appiah was born in London, raised in Kumasi, Ghana, and educated at Bryanston School and Clare College, Cambridge, where he earned a Ph.D. in philosophy. A world traveler immersed in everything from ethics to racial identity, he has written often about Africans and African-Americans and has set his fiction in England and Italy.

In this video, takes to task the myths of Western culture and civilization, explaining the “Golden Nugget” theory and its five major errors. Get ready for his deconstruction of a monolith.

Also check out his article in “The Washington Post” titles, “If You Think Your Taxes Are Unjust, Just Think Again”. Chris Navin has a cool review from one of his NY Times articles… check it out at “Kwame Anthony Appiah In The NY Times: The New New Philosophy”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts

]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/kwame-anthony-appiah-and-golden-nugget-theory/feed/ 0 Social Intelligence – Daniel Goleman http://www.infocompanions.com/social-intelligence-daniel-goleman/ http://www.infocompanions.com/social-intelligence-daniel-goleman/#comments Sat, 29 Nov 2008 02:03:06 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.com/?p=314 I have always been a great fan of Daniel Goleman’s work. His bestseller book, “Emotional Intelligence and working with Emotional Intelligence”, caught the business world by storm. In the book Daniel argued that the secret of success is not IQ, a business school degree, technical know or even years of expertise. Instead, in most cases, it’s Emotional Intelligence that plays the key role.

This weekend I got the chance to catch up with his follow-up work, “Social Intelligence – The new science of Human Relationships”. Daniel describes as the interpersonal part of Emotional Intelligence. He argues that human beings are “wired to connect” with brains of other individuals. Our brain is “Social”, meaning that our interactions with others, verbal or visual, have a far-reaching biological impact, sending out cascades of hormones that regulate everything from our hearts to our immune systems, making good relationships act like vitamins–and bad relationships like poisons. Daniel points out those emotions are “contagious” – we can “catch” other people’s emotions the way we catch a cold. The “Social Brain” has something called “Mirror Neurons”, which sense both the move another person is about to make and their feelings, and instantaneously prepares us to imitate that movement and feel with them. This is extremely important when you consider implications on the business world, when negotiating with the opposite party, and especially in Leadership. Followers are naturally attuned to mirror the emotions of the leaders.

Hmmmm… does this make it all the more important for leaders to manage emotions? Sometimes I think of a true leader as a symphony conductor – aware and being one with the surroundings, attuned to each and every musician in his group, expert in communication both verbally, by movements of the hand, gestures, facial expressions… all in order to create a state of the art experience for the audience – the final product. Agree/Disagree?

The book points to experiments, like a British study of health care workers who had supervisors on alternate days, once they dreaded and one they liked. One the days the dreadful boss worked, their average blood pressure jumped 13 points for the systolic and 6 for diastolic. Wow. I guess now those law suites we hear of… where employees claim heath issues from workplace harassement, may hold some truth. 

Too often, when leaders deliver a message, the content takes the first seat and the “HOW” is ignored. Daniel points out to a study where when a manager delivered a piece of bad news (disappointment that an employer had failed to reach performance goals) with a warm demeanor, people neverthless rated the interaction positively. When good news (pleasure that the goals had been met) was delivered with sullen expression, the interaction paradoxically left people feeling bad. This points to the fact that leader’s emotional tone has a surprising power over the organization.

Interestingly, Daniel points out that today’s technological advances which have given birth to the concept of “global communities” and “online virtual worlds” might have a sinister down-side. He discusses the concept of social corrosion resulting from “technocreep”:

“… There are unknowns in the ways humans around the words are connecting – and disconnecting –as technology offers more varieties of nominal communication in actual isolation. These trends signal the slow vanishing of opportunities for people to connect. This inexplorable technocreep is so insidious that no one has yet calculated its social and emotional costs.”

“The one-person shell created by headphones intensifies social insulation. Even when the wearer has a one-on-one face-to-face encounter, the sealed ears offer a ready excuse to treat the people as an object, something to navigate around rather than someone to acknowledge, or, at the very least, notice.”

Daniel argues, “to the extent that technology absorbs people in a virtual reality, it deadens them to those who are actually nearby. The resulting social autism adds to the ongoing list of unintended consequences of the continuing invasion of technology into our daily lives”

Daniel makes a powerful point… which I hate to admit, I have noticed myself. Looking back, I can see how I switched from the good old paperback edition of books to MP3 versions. The convenience and ease is just undeniably one of those things that attracted me to audio books in the first place. Plugin that iPod and take it wherever you go… the long drive, the gym, the walk from the parking lot to work… however, I realize that I DID get in a “bubble” when listening to those books… sometimes so much so that a 10 hour cross-state drive seemed like something I looked forward to!! Yeah – that’s sick for sure. And lemme not forget my huge twitter list who I believe NEED to know everything and anything I do. And my virtual social network, on those gazillion websites out there, where I HAVE to drop in to “show some luv”. Have you paused and wondered if a comment on “My Wall” is really something that “connects” me to my ”virtual” peep sitting in Russia? Do we really understand Social Networking?

“In 1970s two-thirds of Americans belonged to organizational with regular meetings that they attended. That number has dropped to about one-third by the 1990s… New organizations keep people at a distance. Membership comes via e-mails or mass-mailings, and the main activity boils down to sending money, not getting together.”

I agree with Daniel that this new “communication culture” is still too new. There are unknowns in the ways humans around the world are connecting – and man disconnecting – as technology offers more varieties. Are we losing that “personal touch”? Am still looking for that “right answer” – What do you think?

The book has a vast multitude of stories and references to research materials which makes it a very interesting read. Usually I take at least a week to finish off a book, mostly reading an hour or so in the night… but this one got me reading all through thanksgiving ;-)

Check out the “introductory” video by Daniel Goleman below… and also 2 related posts – Daniel points out the connection between Social Intelligence and Leadership, and the inspiring Ted presentation on Compassion and Empathy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts

]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/social-intelligence-daniel-goleman/feed/ 0 The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Cause Change http://www.infocompanions.com/the-power-of-unreasonable-people-how-social-entrepreneurs-cause-change/ http://www.infocompanions.com/the-power-of-unreasonable-people-how-social-entrepreneurs-cause-change/#comments Sun, 17 Aug 2008 06:00:00 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.net/?p=105 Renowned playwright George Bernard Shaw once said “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” By this definition, some of today’s entrepreneurs are decidedly unreasonable–and have even been dubbed crazy. Yet as and Pamela Hartigan argue in The Power of Unreasonable People, our very future may hinge on their work. talks about how the most successful social entrepreneurs are unreasonable, but their emotional, highly ambitious nature drives them to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.

Click here to view the embedded video.

About :
Co-founder of SustainAbility in 1987 (Chair from 1995 -2005), and Founding Partner & Director of Volans Ventures, is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. In 2004, BusinessWeek described him as “a dean of the corporate responsibility movement for three decades.” Established in 1987, SustainAbility advises clients on the risks and opportunities associated with corporate responsibility and sustainable development. Working at the interface between market forces and societal expectations, SustainAbility seeks solutions to social and environmental challenges that deliver long term value. With offices in London, Zurich, New York and Washington, DC and team members representing more than ten nationalities, SustainAbility works with leading companies, NGOs and influencers around the world. Clients include ABN Amro, BP, Coca-Cola, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé, Nike, Norwich Union, Shell, Swiss Re, Unilever and Wal-Mart. A global network of experts and partners helps SustainAbility to track emerging agendas, evaluate the market implications and engage business and its main stakeholders worldwide.

Read more about John Elkington

Related posts

]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/the-power-of-unreasonable-people-how-social-entrepreneurs-cause-change/feed/ 0 How to be a social provocateur http://www.infocompanions.com/how-to-be-a-social-provocateur/ http://www.infocompanions.com/how-to-be-a-social-provocateur/#comments Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:00:00 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.net/?p=98 As per Josh Bernoff, “Companies are like organisms with immune systems. If you’re a change agent, you’re the antigen. Your company wants to reject you, and it’s got lots of systems to block that – accounting systems, legal systems, management hierarchies, policies and procedures. Social applications and their champions run afoul of this all the time. Why? Because the people in your social applications – your customers and prospects – are out of control. Who knows what they might say or do?” Josh gives some great tips on “How to be a social provocateur and still succeed within a company.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

About Josh Bernoff:
Josh Bernoff, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, has risen in thirteen years to become one of America’s most frequently quoted research analysts. Josh’s analysis, which aims at a deeper understanding of people and how they use technology, has been cited by sources from The Wall St. Journal to “60 Minutes.”

Related posts

]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/how-to-be-a-social-provocateur/feed/ 0