Peer2Politics

Airbnb was ruled illegal in New York City today. A victory for the city’s ledger and a loss for the informal economy. (RT @diana_m_lind: Airbnb deemed illegal in NYC.

Enabled by the sharing culture on social media and with ever more sophisticated malicious software known as malware at their disposal cybercriminals have become far more adept at crafting attacks and targeting individuals and organisations. Phishing emails purporting to be from friends, often reflecting our interests perhaps gleaned from social media sites or from trusted organisations such as your bank or HM Revenue Customs encourage us to click on infected links or attachments containing malware. (A recent example of the latter was malware disguised as a security warning from Microsoft’s digital crimes unit.) “We have a level of trust in certain organisations and criminals exploit that trust,” says Sidaway.

Is higher education widening the gap between the rich and the poor? A 2011 surveyindicated that 35 percent college admission directors are increasing their efforts to find "full pay" students instead of low-income students. Given the rise of tuitions, can technology like massively open online courses (MOOCs) reduce tuition costs and make education more affordable? Many argue the answer is yes.

 

Pearltrees lets you collect, organize and share everything you like.

Pearltrees lets you collect, organize and share everything you like.

All businesses are comprised of a variety of assets, including both tangible assets and intangible assets. Tangible assets include items such as cash, inventory, accounts receivable, and fixed assets. Intangible assets include both "traditional" intangible assets and intellectual property (IP). "Traditional" intangible assets can include the company's customer lists, vendor relationships, license agreements, and noncompete agreements. Some intangible assets (such as customer lists) exist in the normal course of business. Other intangible assets, such as noncompete agreements, typically originate during the course of an unusual event such as an acquisition.1 Balance sheets of American companies are increasingly comprised of intangible assets such as those discussed in this article.

As White Queen remarked in Lewis Carroll’s immortal story Through the Looking Glass, “…it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” We all run after innovation just as fast as we can and sometimes we feel that it’s all we can do just to stay even with the competition. Sometimes it is good to pause for a moment and reflect on the role of innovation, what we’re doing currently and what we might do differently. The State of Ohio did exactly that in creating the Ohio Third Frontier’s Open Innovation Incentive, which they launched last year.

Michel Bauwens, founder of the Foundation for P2P Alternatives, offers a compelling framework for understanding the world-changing potential of a networked collaborative economy.