at the intersection of technology, business, and society
When you look at the detailed results of a couple of recent elections or referenda, you’ll find clear symptoms for a serious divide between voters in cities and voters in rural areas. Just take the following three examples, which all occurred over the last twelve months: the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom in June […]
It’s always useful to look back what happened, to analyse the past and try to learn something from it. But the real fun comes when you unleash your imagination, apply some of the learning and think about what could likely happen in the future. And that is actually my plan for this summer break: to think […]
There’s a lot of talk about the Digital Revolution and the effects it had, has, might have. Let’s take a step back to put things into perspective: Could it be that this revolution is a lot larger than we usually think? Are we currently experiencing the beginnings of a major transformation not only of our technological base, but of the very […]
In their quest for the commonalities and differences between cities and companies, Geoffrey West and his team came across the crucial interplay between those two social structures. And from those findings, we can see that the role of cities in innovation is a lot stronger than we usually realise. A grand idea The heart of the matter is […]
The work of Geoffrey West and his team is truly fascinating. In their cross-disciplinary research on complex adaptive systems, they looked for common underlying principles that could be applicable to biological systems and social systems alike. Of course I’m particularly interested in West’s observations on social systems like cities and companies; and the different roles they play in innovation. Today, […]
understanding innovation 