Today’s New York Times Review has a nice piece on ‘making sense of complexity’ which cites the work of Brenda Zimmerman, noted complexity specialist whose work on health systems has featured on two previous Aid on the Edge posts (here and here). Here it is in full: The Great Recession and the wars in Iraq and [...]
Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
New York Times Article on Making Sense of Complexity
Posted in Conflict and peace building, Financial crisis, Healthcare, Public Policy, Strategy, Technology, Urbanisation, Water on May 2, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Powerpoint, complexity and the art of hypnotising chickens
Posted in Knowledge and learning, Public Policy, Reports and Studies, Strategy, Technology on April 27, 2010 | 3 Comments »
An article in yesterday’s NY Times launches a scathing attack on the use of Powerpoint in the US military, and draws some interesting conclusions about how such tools can inhibit understanding of complexity. Exhibit A, below, is a now-infamous slide that is intended to represent the complexity of American military strategy in Afghanistan. As General Stanley A. McChrystal, [...]
Social media, complexity science and an age-old information challenge for aid agencies
Posted in Networks, Organisations, Reports and Studies, Technology on January 7, 2010 | 5 Comments »
There is a visible and growing interest in complexity science among social media specialists. This interest is highlighting once again some longstanding flaws in the information approaches of aid agencies. In a recent interview, Arthur L. Jue, co-author of ‘Social Media at Work‘ has suggested that both social media and Open Space Technology share a common basis in the ideas [...]
Technology and development: a symbiotic relationship?
Posted in Economics, Knowledge and learning, Reports and Studies, Technology on November 27, 2009 | 1 Comment »
In “The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves,” W. Brian Arthur, a noted complexity economist who works at Santa Fe, has put forward a new theory of the relationship between science, economy and technology. McKinsey Principle Eric Beinhocker has described it as “The most important book on technology and the economy since [...]
