As promised I finished reading Jeffrey Sachs – “The Price of Civilization” – Economics and Ethics After the Fall. The book was an easy read but at the end of it left me feeling somewhat underwhelmed. Rebooting the US economic and political system is a tough dream to even think about.

Yes it confirms what we suspect about US politics – that it is monumentally dominated by big money and completely broken in a systemic way. The book argues for more government and better government in the economy which has also been hamstrung by the idea of low Federal taxation over many decades.

We already know that Obama’s administration has not been able to break away from the finance sector who helped cause enormous economic mayhem on the US and global economies. Sachs argues in favour of a new 3rd party. Or better a new movement (the millennial generation?) who will clean up politics. On page 249 Sachs tells this story

“The bad old joke complains about the lousy restaurant where the food is terrible – and the portions are small. Arguing for a larger role of government feels about the same. Yes, the federal government is incompetent and corrupt – but we need more, not less, of it.”

Fundamental generational change might be the answer but  actual voting behaviour in Western style democracies appears to be down rather than up. In New Zealand we had an election less than 3 months ago and only about 74% of registered voters (down from 79.4%) bothered to even vote. This was down on previous elections for a range of reasons including a very pointed lack of faith in the system.

I’d suspect that saying the US political system is “incompetent and corrupt” doesn’t get voters excited to vote for more of the same. The paradox is many politicians and citizens alike share this view and yet remain optimistic about the future of our economies. We want to be optimistic, that is part of human nature – but how to transition towards a more positive future when the mainstream news is still high on doom and gloom.

Sachs thinks we can do it – I hope he is right and that Presidential elections in the US produce some real systemic change but I suspect that view is too rose tinted and too much of a long shot to believe in.

This is despite a Paul Krugman OpEd in NY Time Today

“That said, our economy remains deeply depressed. As the Economic Policy Institute points out, we started 2012 with fewer workers employed than in January 2001 — zero growth after 11 years, even as the population, and therefore the number of jobs we needed, grew steadily. The institute estimates that even at January’s pace of job creation it would take us until 2019 to return to full employment.

And we should never forget that the persistence of high unemployment inflicts enormous, continuing damage on our economy and our society, even if the unemployment rate is gradually declining. Bear in mind, in particular, the fact that long-term unemployment — the percentage of workers who have been out of work for six months or more — remains at levels not seen since the Great Depression”.

Who knew the US was in such dire economic straits? Clearly whatever the US government is doing now the policy settings have no significant effect on the top line job numbers.

Let’s say for arguments sake that there are a group of new emerging leaders who might organise and promote change where would these people be found? The green movement in NZ often gets criticised for having economic ideas and policies, but perhaps other green movements around the world might be the place to look for new leaders.

After finishing this book I wanted to learn more about Sach’s past history as an economic adviser.  It seems like he has glossed over some really terrible work in Bolivia, Poland and the Russia* where he was part of grand experiment in radical shock therapy style economics that had more in common with Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics than his current views.

*Sachs was in Russia in 1992 and appears to have been genuinely caught out by cold war thinking by the U.S who largely happy about Russia’s economic collapse. That failure seems to have been a turning point for Sachs. Naomi Klein (on page 250 of The Shock Doctrine) describes Jeffrey as sounding

“like a boy scout who has stumbled into an episode of The Sopranos“

Clearly in The Price of Civilization Sachs has a much more Keynesian view of the world that values mixed economies and sees a place for governments to mediate against free market failures of which there have been many.

On page 186 of the book are 8 goals and targets covering 2010-2020. Why the goals themselves look eminently sensible and specific e.g – Raise employment and quality of life, reduce poverty, improve governance and so on I doubt that any 2 politicians or economists would agree on how to do any of them. Therein lies the real problem for the rest of us.

I’ve been reading Paul Ormerod for years ( waiting 2 years for his next book Positive Linking: How Networks and Incentives Can Revolutionise the World) conflicting reports on what has happened to Iceland – Jon Danielsson says that the IMF programmes in Iceland were not successful or sustainable.

To top it off we are constantly told Japan is an economic failure which doesnot seem true at all The Myth of Japan’s Failure. At least part of the problem seems to be the different ways that GDP is measured and some cultural spin.

Luckily I also got Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking Fast and Slow which so far seems to offer a more insightful view of behavioural economics than anything  else I’ve read. More on that and Naomi Klein next time.

As many readers know there has been a internet blackout on a number of very large websites like wikipedia and WordPress.com and .org on 18th of Jan.

As Clay Shirky sees it – SOPA & PIPA are designed to “raise the cost of copyright compliance” for amateurs by changing the burden of proof so that pretty much all content not owned by “Big Media” is blocked.

The method – use the domain name system to block access – even though technically this is unlikely to work at all. Unfortunately there are other issues better explained elsewhere where the sides-effects and consequences will cause much confusion and collateral damage.

We are used to producing as well as consuming and digital technology allows us to do this when we share content that we originate, that we find and sometime what we change on the way through. (Creative commons licensing is an intelligent attempt to manage content rights.)

My summary – whatever the merits of copyright protection (and clearly that system is very broken) SOPA is not the way to fix it.

Also once a piece of legislation like this is passed it becomes much easier to foist it on smaller countries like NZ especially with the present government (via ACTA).  Remember the debate over the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act 2011. Sadly many of the politicians in NZ had no real clues at the time but these issues need much smarter thinking as they are part of a much wider agenda.

John C. Dvorak on SOPA: Don’t Get Suckered by What Comes Next
John says SOPA is a sideshow for another bill

“This is so that the real bill, Senate S.968. The Patrick Leahy “Protect IP Act of 2011? will pass — while all the nuts argue about and then celebrate victory over SOPA.

The House will quickly agree and rubber-stamp the Senate bill which, according to those fighting these bills, is about 96 percent as terrible.

This is a disaster waiting to happen.

Nobody is focusing attention on this parallel bill. Watch this scam get executed like clockwork.”

One of the most fascinating chapters in Daniel Levitin’s book “This is Your Brain on Music” is about how musical tastes are often set early in life and become quite hard to change later on.

It has been a while since I read the book but Levitin goes into much more detail on why we like what we like. The question I was looking to answer though was “Is there a Way to flip people back into music Explorer mode?

It turns out that short answer is “no- not really”. The music that we like is very much connected to our own culture and identity and often from a particular time like our teenage years. I’m over simplifying here but we develop our own schemas which are like a musical map or filter that becomes part of our music processing brain.

Levitin also has this idea that we might be able to tune our music systems like tuning to a new radio station. In real life though many people go with what they are comfortable with and this extends to our expectations about new music from our favourite bands.

I’d say that Elvis Costello fans will be on the high adventure end of the scale since Elvis is clearly an explorer and new styles, sounds, ideas and reinvention is part of his brief.

OTH many bands almost get trapped into a particular “sound signature” where new songs often reference their earlier work. The art is to make new music but take your listeners with you on that journey.

I was struck by this when local faves ELEMNO P released a new song “Slow Down” which sounds very much like an old song (not a bad thing at all), much more like their 1st and second albums than their 3rd album. Listen for yourself as you can download it for a tweet from http://weareelemenop.tumblr.com/ But I digress

In the same chapter about musical likes Daniel muses about the possibility of an

“adventuresomeness knob …that will control the mix of old and new etc.”

In this time of sharing and socialising our likes and activities it is no surprise that Spotify is launching in NZ soonish. Spotify socialises the sharing of musical playlists with your friends. It is very closely tied to facebook as there are some common shareholders.

For more background read – Spotify’s Daniel Ek: The Most Important Man In Music – Forbes

For a alternative service check out LetsListen and their site is http://letslisten.com/

However I tend to think that most people know someone in their extended group who is a tastemaker of sorts and for those who like to explore new music there are many that are very well established now.

The Hype Machine is one of the better ones and as the PBS video below shows there are many other great “tastemaker” sites out there. Maybe this is the real “adventuresome” music button?

Off Book: The Evolution of Music Online from PBS Arts on Vimeo.

As in many countries, New Zealand has had several prime city locations occupied in recent weeks as part of the Occupy Wall St OWS movement.

OWS is an ongoing movement which aims to reset the economic agendas and local debates about equality of citizens and to try and re-balance some of the competing corporate and government agendas towards more balanced outcomes.

As in many protest movements there are other opportunists who seek to tilt the activities in a certain way but on the whole OWS is a consciousness raising exercise that everyone (especially corporates and government) would do well to take note of.

Like many I have been intrigued as to what this is all about in the local context and what (if any) connections there are to the Arab Spring protests and other consciousness raising movements around the world.

In my view there are definite connections between these movements and the rise of the NGO sector globally. Since the anti-globalisation protests in 1999 at the Seattle WTO conference there has been growing disquiet at the very far reaching implications of economic and political change around the world being driven by small elites at the expence of local and humanitarian interests.

The Canadian documentary The Corporation from 2003 captures some of the debate from many perspectives. Apparently there were 33 hours of video made and so the main documentary is a relative snapshot of expert views.

I was most impressed by CEO  Ray Anderson (from the Interface carpet & fabric company) who had his own wake up call towards developing his company along more sustainable lines. Ray mentioned an author called Paul Hawken and an earlier book by Paul called The Ecology of Commerce. Even more interesting to me is a more recent book by Hawken called

“Blessed Unrest, How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming published by Viking Press (New York) in May 2007, argues that a vast world-changing “movement with no name” is now forming, which Hawken believes will prevail. He conceives of this “movement” as developing not by ideology but rather through the identification of what is and is not humane, like an immune system. ”

I haven’t been able to get a copy of the book to read yet but the hypothesis sounds very plausible and it does fit in what we see around us in the politics and economic debates of many nations.

Last year I saw the documentary Inside Job which among many arguments makes the depressing point that President Obama has not fixed any of the broken financial systems and structures in the U.S. In fact he has re-appointed the very people responsible for causing many of the financial meltdowns back into new roles where they can continue abusing the trust of voters despite having blood on their hands.

And so we know for sure now that US politics is completely corrupt and broken to the point that a reforming president elect has been so completely dominated by the commercial interests he said he wanted to fix.

The other key point in the that documentary was an observation that many of the high profile economists and academics had their viewpoints deeply compromised by their own commercial conflicts. That is – they were part of the problem where financial sector lobbyists have / had around 5 lobbyists for every single congress person. Never mind the lobbyists for other sectors.

How and Where does this Affect Us?

New Zealand like many other countries is being pressured by huge corporate interests mostly from the US to accept commercially driven laws designed to protect globalisation and to undermine local sovereignty.

One example of this is that the debate over Pharmac and US TPP negotiations or should that be stand-over tactics.

Back in May this year the PM said of TPP and Pharmac

“Let’s wait and see – there are a lot of component parts here. We’re talking about access, through a free trade agreement, to arguably the largest economy in the world. That’s the prize if you can complete a US FTA, which is what TPP is,” he said.

More obviously though when the US sneezes we still tend to catch the cold. The US despite its downward spiral still dominates world trade thinking and any changes to such rules impacts greatly on smaller nations like New Zealand.

I’m with Kennedy Graham of the Greens on this issue.

“Graham said the Greens rejected the assertion a free trade deal was a massive prize for New Zealand, saying the massive prize would be the predation of New Zealand’s iconic agencies by American corporations.

If the US walked away from the negotiations because Pharmac was taken off the table “so be it”, he said.”

While looking for the Paul Hawken book  mentioned above I found and bought a copy of The Price of Civilization, Economics and Ethics after the Fall by Jeffrey Sachs. That is my holdiday reading. More on that next post when I finish it for now here is a video clip from him.

As Jeffrey says “The US is in a structural crisis”…

Here is a glimpse into the future of online shopping from Korea. What is exciting and significant here is that customers using mobile phones are able to use QR codes to short cut straight to a shopping cart by scanning those codes directly off a poster.

We have seen some use of QR codes and mostly it has been trivial to date.

“A QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) designed to be read by smartphones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded may be text, a URL, or other data.”

For QR codes to be useful shoppers need to have access to a QR reader cable ecommerce shopping system, a smart phone and fast, inexpensive mobile data.

The display posters are close to lifesize photos of each of the products. I can see this is an exceptional idea for extending online shopping functionality to busy locations where a billboard space might be available.

In effect shoppers are able to browse the equivalent of a several metres wide screen image of key products without going near a computer. Although to be fair their smart phones do need to be able to read the qr codes off the posters.

We need to do some more research on exactly how to do this for online shopping sites but I suspect billboard owners will be extremely excited about this

My QR code is displayed at left and if you have a reader you can scan my contact details but just imagine I could also sell you an ecommerce report at the same time.

Now we’re talking business !

P.S We’ve been watching all of the coupon sites and while that seems like a good way to drive offline media traffic on to online channels not all deals work that well for vendors or the media channels.

Also the price of accessing the old media (TV for the most part) is still expensive and the unintended consequences of a huge rush of traffic to a website or physical store is not easy to manage or profit from. Getting repeat business is not easy to do if most of the shoppers are deal takers who just chase discounts.

“We’ve also heard consistently from certain categories of businesses (very popular ones I’m afraid) that daily deals are uneconomic for them, which does raise questions around the sustainability of “50% off” daily deals for these types of businesses.”

Yelp CEO says they are working on new developments to the daily deal type of business.

My money is on QR codes and this store concept from Korea is the future of online stores and no unsustainable 50% off foolish deals are needed to get more online business by heading down the QR path.

One of the nicer things about getting older is being able to take a longer term perspective on the future.

More specifically; how our lives and those of our friends turn out based on decisions and actions in time past. It is a truism that we often don’t know or fully understand the significance of key events until much later.

The trigger for some of these thoughts was a long term wedding anniversary which is great achievement in itself but the what I really enjoyed was the opportunity to compare notes across a very wide sample of people ranging from 3 to 70+ .

In some case I talked with people I hadn’t seen in 30 years. With so many people it was a series of quick snapshots on what they or I had been up to and the results were often fascinating.

Marshall McLuhan famously said that “Predicting the present” was more difficult that trying to guess the future.

In answer to the question What Are You Optimistic About? Howard Rhinegold started his answer in this way (in a 2007 series.)

“The tools for cultural production and distribution are in the pockets of 14 year olds.

This does not guarantee that they will do the hard work of democratic self-governance: the tools that enable the free circulation of information and communication of opinion are necessary but not sufficient for the formation of public opinion.

Ask yourself this question: Which kind of population seems more likely to become actively engaged in civic affairs

— a population of passive consumers, sitting slackjawed in their darkened rooms, soaking in mass-manufactured culture that is broadcast by a few to an audience of many,

or a world of creators who might be misinformed or ill-intentioned, but in any case are actively engaged in producing as well as consuming cultural products?

Recent polls indicate that a majority of today’s youth — the “digital natives” for whom laptops and wireless Internet connections are part of the environment, like electricity and running water — have created as well as consumed online content.

I think this bodes well for the possibility that they will take the repair of the world into their own hands, instead of turning away from civic issues, or turning to nihilistic destruction.

In my life I’ve been far more motivated by causes and big ideas than anything else.

My Dad always used to say he wouldn’t know how he’d done till he sees how our children turn out. How is that for a longer term view? My daughter keeps me on my toes  and we are enjoying the journey of being engaged with the world around us and beyond.

I agree with Rhinegold and the idea that we can choose to repair the present and engage with optimism.

With recent events in Egypt still unfolding we can take heart that it is largely the youth of that nation who have called time on the tired old ideas of the past. (Linda Herrera)

“Some characteristics of this global generation are excessive communication, involving many people in decision making, multitasking, group work, blurring of public and private, sharing, individual expression, and collective identification.

Another important distinction between the generations is that the digital generation take what media theorist Clay Shirky calls “symmetrical participation” for granted.

In other words, they are not passive recipients of media and messages, as in the days when television and print media ruled, but take for granted that they can play a role in the simultaneous production, consumption, interaction with, and dissemination of on-line content.”

There is no doubt that the social connections and amplification of these ideas online has made a huge contribution to a far more optimistic future.

As a parent – I’m always interested in ways that children can get more engaged with learning about everything. Touch screens like those used by the iPad are clearly of interest and as a music fan I liked this one.  The featured app here is a curated history of jazz that costs $US9.95.

It offers more content that most books on Jazz and a much richer experience with different video and other content all collated together. That also means that content can be updated online within the limits of technology and pricing models.

One aspect of the application that I like is the keyboard style navigation at the bottom of the screen. The keyboard “look” is an interactive timeline.

It is great to see application designers rethinking the intersection of reading, listening, touching, looking.

The UX designer calls this a collision of media.

Scobelizer says.

“I look at a lot of iPad apps and there are very few that get to a really great interface. http://www.955dreams.com/ History of Jazz’ app is one of those examples. Really nice all the way around. What did it take? I sit down with the team to learn more. Their app is currently rated five stars and is high on the best selling list.” (35 mins)

What is also very interesting about this video is the discussion around the design process and especially about how to bring a concept to life for the iPad.

Here is what the application looks like on an iPad.

Down to the wire is an archive project for NZ internet*. A new competition launches on Nov 11 so enter if you would like to be part of that. Watch the video below for more details.

*Down to the Wire is a permanent resource for New Zealand that tells the story of how the Internet has shaped Kiwi lives.

Not just over the past 21 years, but in the future too.

We look forward to evolving both past and future chapters with your contributions. So let’s start with 2010, which we will launch on 24 December.

As it happens I have been working on some music archiving ideas and projects and so I’m very much looking forward to see how this complementary project unfolds.

I’ve worked with musicians all my life and ironically some of the current opportunities that are coming up for musicians are because the “music industry” doesn’t understand that curating a culture is very different and much better than trying to simply exploit it.

Granted not all music business people are the same and there are legal rights issues galore but I’m positive about the future of NZ music and related cultural history.

For more information on the music project follow the deleting music website and a very fine related post by Simon Grigg over here called A Trillion Shades of Happy.

Much of our recent cultural history is disappearing and we shouldn’t let that happen.

“Just to make the point stronger, the following albums, from 1974 onwards, all important musical landmarks (and some are rather good too) are either unavailable or only out there in shitty first generation CD issues with appalling sleeves:

• Car Crash Set
• The Dance Exponents (the Mushroom albums are in print but almost unlistenable, the Ze Disc one has never been on CD)
• The Body Electric
• Grace (wonderful sweet soul from the Ioasa Brothers)
• Fuemana (parts of it are on Amplifier)
• The Deepgrooves Double” etc.

Watch this space as they say. There are a number of music collectors, journalists and other stakeholders who all see a future where contemporary and historical music / culture should not be lost.

Finally – if you are interested in NZ music 1918 to 1960 something go get a copy of Chris Bourke’s book Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music 1918-1964:

Graham Reid has a great Lost Dawn summary over here .

Now if I was able to I’d say something dramatic like  – “I’m off to the bookshop – I may be some time…” but its back to work for me.

This video clip is from Plum Jungle: Pete Longworth (photography), Michael K. Chin (music), Christopher Baron (film). @PlumJungle are coming across to Auckland and presenting at TEDxAuckland on 26th of Sept. I’m looking forward to this. Music, film, photography, media and more. Michael is @TokyoLoveIn Genres:Electronic, Music, Jazz

‘Life on Top of Hyde Park’ project – the genesis for other works like, ‘Another Time, Another Pace’. Music: ‘Crosstown’ – from the album, ‘Life on top of Hyde Park’ by Michael K. Chin (Tokyo Love-In)

Available on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/au/album/

I like the work but also spotted that @FundBreak is partly behind some of this creative work. Their tagline is FundBreaker, Crowd funding platform for your projects & ideas.

I don’t believe we have anything like this in NZ . The fundbreak business model looks like a great way to lend a hand up. I have written here before about peer to peer banking and development aid. This looks like a start-up waiting to happen here. The Big Idea New Zealand creative community meets Give a Little.

Apparently there is some $ available The New Zealand Venture Investment Fund says $50 million has become available to establish new funds targeting innovative local companies …not strictly for creative companies (The deadline for proposals for new funds is 5pm Monday, 27 September 2010.)

What is Fundbreak?
Fundbreak is a new crowdfunding platform and community for creative projects and ideas. Developed for artists, musicians, filmmakers, journalists, designers, entrepreneurs, inventors, event organisers, software developers and all other creative’s, to raise funds and give project creators the break they need to realise their goals and aspirations.

How does Fundbreak work?
Fundbreak provides project creators with a platform to present their ideas to a worldwide audience. If anyone likes the idea, they can support it by pledging money to the creator’s project. In return for support, the project creators will offer rewards depending on the level of funding; essentially differentiating itself from the normal funding process.

Who is the Fundbreak team?
The Fundbreak team is made up of four energetic, tech-savvy, eccentric team members, situated in Sydney.

Whether you are a part-time photographer or an inspiring xylophone musician, Fundbreak is here with a capable platform in helping you find your funds.

Dave McClure over at 500hats is always a good read. His posts on reinventing venture capital there and at various conferences make a great deal of sense.

I really liked MoneyBall for Startups a recent very long essay – which is an essential read if the future of business is your thing.

“the primary issue is that investors of all shapes and sizes have become incredibly lazy and complacent over the past two decades, measured by both activity and by IRR.  Meanwhile, the consumer internet has brought a tsunami of technological & behavioral change which has resulted in stunning reductions in time & cost needed to distribute products and services to the over 2-3B connected people on the planet.”

On a recent visit to Silicon Valley and San Francisco I was personally struck by the gap between the incredible resources on offer and the sorts of projects that I saw pitched.

In my personal view I know NZ and Australian businesses who could do a whole lot better than what I saw at Web 2.0 and generally around. On the other hand I did meet some extremely smart people who are doing very well and in time will write about them as well.

There are better ways to measure all of this and I did see an applied math project that got me very excited.

Of course- it is not quite as simple as that but Dave McClure is the go to guy on these and related topics.

If you have less time and you want to try the more gentle option the slideshow below may suit.

If you enjoy reading Dave McClure you should check out David Cowan on Startups