A little busy here at the main branch of the Global Ideas Bank, so a brief catch-up of some interesting recent ideas-related stuff:
- Chimps have a similar sense of justice to humans - so be sure to give out the bananas equally....
- The alternative Finnish Parliament - would be nice if we could have something here....County Hall in Westminster, perhaps?
- Patently Absurd - weird and wacky patents from the UK's finest inventors....
- Open Source E-mail Charity Scheme - needs critical mass to work, so I'm doing my bit here....
- Walking promotions Japanese-style and a neat top 10 of how to make a walkable neighbourhood
- Folksonomies tapping people power - no, not George Bush's style of rule.....but the tagging phenomenon
- Naabur-hood - become an online neighbour and help a real community in a developing country...
[via Smart Mobs, Greg Wright, WorldChanging, Heads Up!]
If the chimps story interests you the its probably worth having a look at James Surowiecki's discussion of it in 'The Wisdom of Crowds'. He draws conclusions about how collectively we establish and enforce norms of behaviour without ever explicitly collaborating to do so. (He also applies this to tipping in restaurants, inspired by the scene Reservoir Dogs when mr White[?] declares he's against it).
Posted by: Duncan | February 08, 2005 at 10:03 AM