James Samuel

My ears pricked up when I heard that heads of state and the financial elite are acknowledging that we are in …the “age of damage”, where “social media creates a world of radical transparency”. 
The suggestion by the founder of the WEF summit, Prof Klaus Schwab that: “Capitalism in its current form no longer fits the world around us,” shows the depth of change which social media has brought to our world.

After watching this video, I followed the link to the Natural Homes site, and discovered this beautiful gallery of photos (below), which led me in turn to the Facebook gallery with explanations of each photo according to that most inspiring book “A Pattern Language“. I was given this book by my wife when I was [...]

I’m leaving New Zealand on Christmas eve, and would love to meetup with some people and share some ideas and knowledge. Purpose: to strengthen some existing connections and build some new ones. Right now my service is, to help networks utilise the rapidly evolving social tools to support collaboration.

As we move from being a carbon society, dependent on fossil fuels, towards a society where collaboration and innovation is becoming the new energy source, supported by the free flow of information. How do we enhance the ability for members of an organization to collaborate and innovate. Creative sparks come when serendipitous links are made, as the same challenge is seen through different lenses.

Things are either evolving towards, or devolving into, nothingness and there is only the present moment – so enjoy it, it’s not coming again!

The current path we’re on is not sustainable and many have realized that society has now arrived at a vulnerable point in history as a result of over-dependence on fossil fuels and carbon energy. In this article I will make the case for innovation as the post-carbon energy we have yet to tap, but are about to.

Here’s the Prezi I created to guide the five hour Social Media session with Otago Polytechnic’s heads of department. I’m posting it here as a resource for the people who attended that event, as there are a number of videos and links we didn’t have time to explore fully on the day. View this on [...]

There has been a distinct increase in dialogue around energy in the last year, and I hear a growing acceptance of the idea that we live on a finite planet and will either reduce the amount of energy we demand from this planet, or hit some version of a brick wall when that demand cannot be met. Maybe we’re there already, we’re just not hitting the wall at a speed and therefore we’re not recognising it.

Software is being developed to facilitate vegetable box schemes, offering practical community benefits where ever it is used, and being software it can be used everywhere. The idea is to make is easy to coordinate the collection (gathering) of local food, and then the redistribution of it, in a consistent and predicatable manner. It will create opportunities to entrepreneurial types to quickly begin a local business that benefits eaters (all of us) and growers alike.

“…when a society reaches the limits of its stability, and turns chaotic, it becomes supersensitive, responsive even to small fluctuations such as changes in the values, beliefs, world-views and aspirations of its members.”