FlowingData and dotSub

This is probably the last post for a few months:

1- dotSub, videosite with captions in many languages, users can also add new translations.

www.dotsub.com

2- FLowing data: making sense of data through vizualization.

Grand Challenges for Engineering

The Major Challenges facing humanity and awaiting an engineering solution. An effort by the National Academy of Engineering. "The focus was not to find what could be invented, but what needed to be invented"



The List:

• Make solar energy economical
• Provide energy from fusion
• Develop carbon sequestration methods
• Manage the nitrogen cycle
• Provide access to clean water
• Restore and improve urban infrastructure
• Advance health informatics
• Engineer better medicines
• Reverse-engineer the brain
• Prevent nuclear terror
• Secure cyberspace
• Enhance virtual reality
• Advance personalized learning
• Engineer the tools of scientific discovery

Maplecroft maps

Maps covering topics ranging from disease (turberculosis, malaria, influenza) to military expenditure, civil liberities, minority rights, climate change, competitiveness, corporate governance and many others...

Maplecroft Maps

Education: 21st century skills

MISSION STATEMENT Serve as a catalyst to position 21st century skills at the center of US K-12 education by building collaborative partnerships among education, business, community and government leaders
Also check the resources section: route 21

World Bank: Rapid Response

Mission:

• To promote financial and private sector reform, resulting in better business environments.
• Ultimately to spur business, entrepreneurial, and employment opportunities for the poor in developing countries.

Note the toolkits and the doing business map with background information.

Social entrepreneurship jobs: Commongood careers

Mission

To support social entrepreneurs with their recruitment and hiring needs at every organizational level, to provide resources for socially driven jobseekers, and to address talent related issues throughout the sector.

Think Tanks: The Peter G Peterson Institute for International Economics

"...Its agenda emphasizes global macroeconomic topics, international money and finance, trade and related social issues, energy and the environment, investment, and domestic adjustment measures. Current priority is attached to China, globalization (including its financial aspects) and the backlash against it, global trade imbalances and currency misalignments, the competitiveness of the United States and other major countries, reform of the international financial architecture, and new trade negotiations at the multilateral, regional, and bilateral levels...."

United Nations Industrial Development Organization

Mission: The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) helps developing countries and countries with economies in transition in their fight against marginalization in today's globalized world. It mobilizes knowledge, skills, information and technology to promote productive employment, a competitive economy and a sound environment.

Portfolio Magazine: Blogs

Portfolio Magazine, a refreshing recent addition to the business section compiled the following list of blogs:

(Click on graphic or Title to visit link)

Max Planck Institute for Human Development:

In their words:
The Max Planck Institute for Human Development is a multidisciplinary research establishment dedicated to the study of human development and education. Its inquiries are broadly defined, but concentrate on the evolutionary, social, historical, and institutional contexts of human development, as well as examining it from life-span and life-course perspectives.

(Click on Graphic to visit site)

Gerd Gigerenzer author of Calculated Risks and Simple Heuristics (two excellent books) is co-director of the institute.

Gapminder: Global development visualized

Hans Rosling's talk at TED talk in 2006 was a rare example of charts being both informative and fun.

Gapminder World is a powerful learning and presentation tool.

(Click on image to visit site)

Big Think: The new conversation

Big hat-tip to the New York Times, today for this:

(click on photo to visit link)

Still under construction, hopefully it will keep growing and become economically viable.

Pangea day

Jehane Noujaim's TED wish last year was "to bring the world together for one day a year through the power of film."
Pangea Day is the result.

www.pangeaday.org

Poptech: The impact of technology on people.

Downloadable talks from the PopTech conference.

Journals: 2 from MIT

Two really good Journals from MIT Press:

1- Innovations: Technology|Governance|Globalization
"Innovations is about creativity addressing societal concerns. It is about social entrepreneurs, inventors, public leaders—all whose innovations meet local needs and address global challenges. It is less about what needs to be done, and more about what people are doing."








(Click image to go to page, and click here to go to see the different issues including FREE ones)

2- Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks:
"Our mission is to provide practitioners in online education with knowledge about the very best research in online learning."

(I have to admit I have mainly read abstracts from JALN, but they are still insightful)

Other Journals from MIT can be found here.

Remember that your local library might offer online access to most of these journals/articles through it's website.

Crowdsourcing: Innocentive

One of the companies working on harvesting the energy of the masses to solve complex challenges.

Founded in 2001, InnoCentive connects companies, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations, all hungry for breakthrough innovation, with a global network of more than 125,000 of the world's brightest minds on the world's first Open Innovation Marketplace™.

5 Must-See YouTube Channels

Here are 5 YouTube channel to watch when there's nothing fun on C-Span (Or B-Span):

1- World Economic Forum

2- Geography Matters by Harm de Blij

3- Ashoka DVD

4- Clinton Foundation

5- National Geographic

Sustainability: World Changing

Also Checkout: Alex Steffen's's TED presentation.

Sustainable Development Portal on Wikipedia

Impressive collection of articles on Wikipedia about most facets of sustainable development.

PS: I had been traveling, on vacation, then moving in the last few months, should be posting more often in the future!

L

Recently read and recommended

The book is at times as enjoyable to read as a Malcolm Gladwell book, slows down a few chapters in but is nonetheless quite interesting.

You can also read the original article that spawned the book here:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html