Print just about anything, including organs

When you can print organs, the sky really is the limit. Just imagine...

The thinning line between marketing and customer service

Is Rory Sutherland talking about marketing and perception, or adding value through a closer, more honest relationship with customers?

It's a lot to take in and discuss, but the basic tenet is summed up in this Harvard Business Journal entry on ethical capital:

Economists define many different kinds of capital "stocks." They're different kinds of assets, that shape what business models and strategies are possible in the first place. Today's capital stocks aren't enough to power the shift from mere business to betterness, from pushing mass-made "product" to mattering in human terms. You can think of ethical capital as the stock of techniques, tools, and practices not just for creating value, but for defining and refining values, that an economy possesses.

In other words, the 21st century economy is powered by innovative people, not machines churning out mass-produced goods. And when those people come to the fore, closer dialogue with customers is inevitable.

The future belongs to public speakers

Apart from the "wow" factor of a 12-year-old making a presentation at TED, the series of events where a variety of boffins from various disciplines (and Gordon Brown) have 15 minutes to change the world, it is interesting that the public speaker, from Steve Jobs to Bill Clinton is now such a cult that extends far beyond the worlds of academia and business. And although Adora Svitak says little any kid doesn't know - and crucially, she talks down at her audience of adults - the clip neatly illustrates that in the YouTube age, just about anyone can be a public speaker. And there are a lot of people making a lot of money from public speaking these days.

Cheers @jo_vanna

TED Talks and the social media "revolution"

The phenomenon of the TED Talk is a sign in itself, but this one on the role of social media in history is particularly relevant - to all of us.

Although after Twitter's involvement in the Iran election, the revolution has moved up a gear.

Web inventor tasked with opening up government data

There is always inertia in government when it comes to opening up data, so it is really good news that Gordon Brown has been talking to Sir Tim Berners-Lee about making government data more accessible. That's because the man who "invented" the World-Wide Web remains a genuine visionary. As he told TED:

What you find if you deal with people in government departments is that they hug their database, hold it really close, so that they can build a beautiful website to present it. I would like to suggest: sure, make a beautiful website, but first, give us – all of us – the unadulterated data. We have to ask for raw data now.

With projects such as Wolfram Alpha gaining currency and all the mash-ups (interconnected data streams) and social media sites around today, this could blow open a lot of doors.