Archive for February, 2004

Information-based medicine a la IBM

Saturday, February 28th, 2004

When you think about major healthcare system players does the name IBM come to mind? Probably not, but maybe it should at least as we move into the future. Four years ago Big Blue opened a department on life science to develop the growing market for high-power computing in research. Now they’ve consolidated it with [...]

Friday, February 27th, 2004

This site is an interesting blog posting about the new site LA.confidential. It is a blog hosted by the news conglomerate that holds USA TODAY and a handful of other new outlets such as TV stations etc. One concern point in the article is that by design blogs are counter government, corporation, or [...]

What (if anything) We Learned In The New Economy

Thursday, February 26th, 2004

Fast Company has done a retrospective of sorts about the lessons of the “New Economy.” And why not; FC along with Wired, was one of the foremost proponents of the New Economy hype. Their name is ample testimony to that. My impression is the magazine has barely survived the bust. There are some reflections on [...]

Building better foundations

Thursday, February 26th, 2004

The McKinsey Quarterly: Building better foundations
An update on some current issues in philanthropy, especially as they apply to foundations.
This may require registration (free), so if you want a PDF copy send me an e-mail.

Personal observation re change

Wednesday, February 25th, 2004

Ever since I attended a conference on accelerating change last September I’ve been asking myself if change is really accelerating or if it just seems that way. I’ve reached a conclusion: it’s accelerating.

New journal on nutrition and physical activity

Tuesday, February 24th, 2004

A new “open access” journal (ie, no subscription fees to greedy publishers) is starting up focusing on nutrition, physical activity and behavior. It’s a peer-reviewed publication with quantitative research. Not surprisingly it’s called: The International Journal of Behvioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. It’s purpose statement:
The IJBNPA is an open access, international and peer-reviewed journal devoted [...]

Uh-oh, New Economy redux

Tuesday, February 24th, 2004

I thought the term “New Economy” died along with the dot-coms a couple of years ago. Then it meant a cornucopia of growth and prosperity from technological evolution. But now the New York Times is using it to mean global competition for jobs and outsourcing. I guess we didn’t perceive that the New Economy [...]

Let’s democratize everything!

Monday, February 23rd, 2004

First democratizing philanthropy, and now democratizing supercomputing…all in the news today.
Some class science projects get out of hand. That is certainly the case with Patrick Miller’s graduate course in do-it-yourself supercomputing at the University of San Francisco. On April 3, his students plan to assemble the first “flash mob supercomputer” in the school gym.
“We’re trying [...]

Big donations up

Monday, February 23rd, 2004

New charity laws proposed; regulators warns donors.
* The 60 biggest donors in the U.S. made donations and pledges totaling $5.9 billion in 2003, up from $4.6 billion in 2002, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported in its Feb. 19 issue. Bequests by those donors grew 50 percent to $2.7 billion in 2003, while pledges fell by [...]

Philanthropic relativity

Monday, February 23rd, 2004

Influences on giving, volunteering vary by region.
Depending on where Americans live in the U.S., different factors influence the rate at which they give and volunteer, says a new study.