Actics Blog

Yeah, we all love our macs, iPods, iTunes or even Pixar movies or … In fact it’s hard not to find something intrinsically Apple related you like unless you’re really, really clueless or an idiosyncratic ideologists. But, just as I’ve claimed before, Apple cannot keep the increasingly green hipsters, their new (in Europe at least) well-educated customers or anyone else longing for ‘clean’ brands blinded simply with stunning design. It is simply too last year innovation- through-design kind of thinking. The green is coming Apple, and you’re benchmarked here as well. Check out Greenpeace’s new jab at Apple.

We warned you, a new kind of demand has arisen, and you better not only follow but lead. You’ve taught us to expect only the excellent from you. Especially to innovate green and socially responsible business. So far hints have been nice and friendly, but remember, brands can turn sour almost overnight.

Via Treehugger

New Scientist is exploring the ongoing social networking revolution this week with several fine more or less introductory pieces. The issue covers:

This is your space – Discover how social networking evolved, how it works and how it is already revolutionising the way we live, socialise and work

I’ll have to ask my friends – Instant messaging, Wi-Fi and cellphones allow us to be constantly plugged into our social networks. Sociologist Sherry Turkle worries this is transforming human psychology

The end of privacy? – You wouldn’t tell a stranger on the bus about your sexual habits, so why do people reveal this stuff on websites available to everyone? Will their openness return to haunt them?

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by Google – A short story by Bruce Sterling

The internet could be so much better – Social networking websites like MySpace or YouTube owe everything to the genius of Ted Nelson, who invented hypertext in the 1960s

Give it a try – Feeling left out of the social networking revolution? There are many ways you can get involved, so take a look

I just saw this spectacular event ignited this coming Saturday in Berlin. 112 influential and (hopefully) wise persons will be seated around a round table in the Bebelplatz square to answer 100 questions carefully chosen from the pool of questions submitted by the public about the state of the world and visions for dealing with it. Everything will be recorded and made accessible in a vast multimedia forum on the web for people globally to explore. Surely spectacular. And as such good to create awareness of our most urgent issues. I especially like the ‘dropping knowledge’ notion of how to accumulate and create spill over effects of everybody’s knowledge through the web. However, the spectacular also have a tendency to loose its impact as soon as the smoke has settled. I hope it will disseminate throughout the world communities and lead to ever new questions in the end clustering so much as to bring real pressure on governments and companies and not least you and I. We really need to continually reflect on new ways of harvesting energy, consume less and smarter, oppose religious, regional and ethnic misguided fanatics, settle international crises by humane means and all the rest that threatens to leave mankind an unsuccessful evolutionary experiment.

The accompanying blog - the drop

I’ve been invited to talk about Actics at a seminar on Web 2.0 and Social Software at Ålborg University October 6. I’m looking forward to discuss the genuine long term value of these overly hyped phenomena with some nice academically calm and reasonable people (not to mention the high spirited dinner afterward Here’s what I’m planning to talk about (my abstract):

The pressure on companies to act on their societal responsibility intensified during the nineties and nearly exploded after the sudden collapses of corporate role models early in the new millennium. Yet, Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR as the response of the business world was named, never really got beyond lip service.Meanwhile, a disorganized but much more severe threat to public agents lacking integrity arose in the blogosphere. Bloggers revealing politicians polishing their curriculum and companies fatally ignoring the wrong unsatisfied customers, became everyday news. Today, a largely defensive and skeptic establishment viewing the web as a liability and taking ‘social’ for ‘mob’ stand opposed to web ideologists arguing for a utopia of co-creation, democratization and diversity.

I’ll speak from within the battlefield and especially Actics’ efforts to invigorate CSR by empowering both stakeholders and companies through social software - what I call CSR 2.0. By allowing stakeholders to evaluate the ethical performance of public agents (e.g. their employer), our web application provide leverage to the wishes and concerns of those influenced by the choices of major social players. For companies willing to open up for dialogue with their stakeholders, this feedback represent unique sensors into valuable cultural capital.

Link to seminar web page

I seriously hope, that Actics is not perceived to fight for a better world in this sense. John Thackara of Doors Of Perception writes:

“Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, has advised the US Department of Defence on rebranding war. In a speech to the military reported in Brandweek he says: “I’m going to show you how we create emotional connections with consumers, and how we inspire Loyalty Beyond Reason”. He goes on to advise the military “not to abandon the mass market, but to transform it with multiple emotional connections,” and concludes: “Deploy Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy to create America as a Lovemark”.

Read Robert’s speech in full here.

Please tell me it’s a hoax. I cannot even begin to tell you how deeply unethical I find this way of putting your skills into pursuit of ‘a better world’. I mean, the ad-business is notoriously rumored for exactly this kind total lack of contextual jugdement, but this I simply over the caricature.

I’m looking forward to the Actics systems goes public to be able to probe the public agreement and acceptance of such business measures.