An idea worth spreading doesn’t just magically appear out of thin air. Instead, it needs a long incubation period, a sometimes frustrating — and often exciting — trial and error of creation, failure and innovation.

On April 18, TED welcomed its first-ever class of the TED Residency program, an in-house community of 28 bright minds who are tackling ambitious projects and making meaningful change.

This group of thinkers will spend the next four months in a collaborative space, learning with and from each other on ideas that address …

How to explain complex scientific concepts
The personal stories of migrants
Violence prevention in at-risk communities
How to make the most of personal connections in a tech-heavy world
The history of the Internet
Inclusion in the fashion world
Building the digital Disney of Africa
Frictionless housing for a mobile society

… among many other fascinating subjects

At the end of the session, the residents will give a TED Talk about their ideas in the TED office theater. Read more about each resident below:

Daniel Ahmadizadeh is working with artificial intelligence to revolutionize how consumers are informed and make choices. He co-founded Riley, a chatbot concierge service for the real-estate business.

Piper Anderson is a writer and creative strategist who has spent the past 15 years working to end mass criminalization and incarceration. She recently launched the National Mass Story Campaign, which will host participatory storytelling events in 20 cities to catalyze more restorative and transformative approaches to justice.

Isabel Behncke is an Oxford field primatologist from Chile who is working on the evolutionary roots of social behavior in humans and other animals. She is creating a show on the science of joy that blurs boundaries among theater, poetry and cutting-edge science.

Susan Bird is CEO of Wf360, a global consultancy that promotes conversation not as a “soft skill,” but as a strategic tool. She is developing a podcast about the art of face-to-face conversation, which has become something of a luxury in this age of electronic communication.

Artist and traveler Reggie Black started Sticky Inspiration as an online project designed to motivate others through thought-provoking quotes distributed daily on Post-Its left in public spaces. Now he’s ready to expand offline.

Sashko Danylenko is a Ukraine-based filmmaker whose animated films explore wonder and curiosity. Currently, he’s working on a film that documents cities around the world through by focusing on their bicyclists. 

Tanya Dwyer is an attorney and social entrepreneur in Brooklyn who works to promote inclusive capitalism and economic justice. She wants to help establish a living-wage business park in Crown Heights that is cooperatively owned by neighborhood residents and stakeholders.

Laura Anne Edwards is building DATA OASIS, a dynamic index of valuable data sets, many of which are taxpayer–funded and technically “open” but in practice, extremely difficult to locate and access. DATA OASIS will reduce redundant research and provide a forum for idea sharing.

Rob Gore, an academic emergency medicine physician based in Brooklyn, leads KAVI (Kings Against Violence Initiative), a youth empowerment and violence prevention program that has been running for the past five years. He is working to transform health care in marginalized populations.

Che Grayson is a filmmaker and comic book creator whose multimedia project Rigamo, a comic series and short film about a young girl whose tears bring people back to life, helped her overcome her grief at the death of a beloved aunt. She wants to explore using these forms of storytelling to tackle other tough subjects, heal, and inspire.

Bethany Halbreich runs Paint the World, an organization that wants to make opportunities for creativity ubiquitous. Paint the World facilitates public art projects in underserved communities; the resulting pieces are sold, the profits fund more kits and supplies for areas in need.

Sarah Hinawi is the co-founder and director of Purpl, a small-business incubator that focuses on the person rather than the business. Building upon two decades in the field of human development, she is now examining what leadership training looks like in the gig economy.

Designer and writer DK Holland has spent the past two and a half years in high-poverty public elementary school classrooms in Brooklyn, developing free after-school micro-democracies run by the kids, for kids, so they can learn better. She is working with her team of progressive educators to develop the kids’ ideas into  toolkits—notably the Learning Wall, Portfolio Pockets, and Democracy in a Box—to offer to other schools.

Liz Jackson is the founder and chief advocacy officer for the Inclusive Fashion & Design Collective, the first fashion trade association for businesses and designers serving the needs of people with disabilities. Her mission is to introduce the world to inclusive design.

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist and policy expert who advocates zoning the ocean as we do land, so we can use the sea without using it up. As executive director of the Waitt Institute, she led the Caribbean’s first successful island-wide ocean zoning project, resulting in one third of Barbuda’s coastal waters being protected, and went on to launch similar initiatives on other islands. 

Jonathan Kalan and Michael Youngblood want to redefine the notion of home and its relation to work. Aimed at millennials who care more about mobility than about owning real estate, their “global lease” aims to let subscribers stay “location-independent.”

Brian McCullough is the creator of the Internet History Podcast, an oral history of the internet; he’s now telling the stories of Web 2.0. 

Christia Mercer is a full-time Columbia philosophy professor and part-time activist. She plans to examine radically different answers to hard questions that people have given throughout history and across cultures and then to show their relevance to modern thinking.

Ted Myerson is a co-founder of Anonos, a Big Privacy technology company that enables data to be more readily collected, shared, and combined, potentially enabling breakthroughs in personalized and precision medicine. 

As a tap dancer, Andrew Nemr has lived the oral tradition of American Vernacular Dance. Cofounder (with the late, great Gregory Hines) of the Tap Legacy Foundation, he is now working to transfer that archive online. 

Cavaughn Noel is an experienced digital strategist and tech entrepreneur who is broadening the horizons of urban youth by creating a platform that exposes them to technology, via hip-hop, fashion, and travel.

Torin Perez is building a digital platform for sharing children’s stories from Africa and the diaspora. The DreamAfrica app contains multimedia content from established publishers, independent content creators, and children.

Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya is a Columbia-trained neuroscientist–turned–art director. Her organization recruits designers and researchers to collaborate on visual media that demystify academic science.

After her Flappy Bird in a Box video went viral, Fawn Qiu wondered how else she could hook teens on engineering.  By creating an open-source model for designing fun projects with low-cost, everyday objects, she hopes to encourages a new generation of engineers.  

Vanessa Valenti is the co-founder of FRESH, a next-generation speakers’ bureau focused on diversifying public speaking. She’s studying who gets on the world’s most influential stages and what their experiences are once they get there. Her goal is to redesign thought leadership.

Kimberlee Williams is the CEO of FEMWORKS, a communications agency based in Newark, NJ.  She wants to transform local economies by enrolling African-American consumers in buy-local campaigns.

Sheryl Winarick‘s work as an immigration lawyer gives her a unique opportunity to know intimately the people she serves, the reasons they choose to migrate, and the challenges they face. She aims to create an online storytelling platform to humanize “the other,” and to cultivate a sense of individual and collective responsibility.

–Ambassador Henry F. Cooper was Chief Negotiator for President Ronald Reagan at the Geneva Defense and Space Talks. He is Chairman of the non-partisan, not for profit High Frontier, an educational corporation whose goal is to examine ways to prevent missile attacks against the U.S. He commented to CNBC that North Korea’s recent testing of what is believed to be a low yield hydrogen bomb is yet another indication that we should not discount the possibility of North Korea planning a future high altitutde EMP attack.

CNBC, 2/20/16

The post North Korea’s arsenal raises the stakes for US grid security: Experts appeared first on The Good For You Network.

By Dave Imbrogno, President of National Account Services for ADP’s Global Enterprise Solutions unit.

As mobile job-seeking gains popularity, today’s candidates increasingly want tools that leverage the latest social and mobile technology — from mobile-enabled job alerts and postings to the ability to apply via smartphone to tracking applications, viewing job postings and reading job-related blogs, forums and articles.

According to its 2014 Social Recruiting Survey, recruiting software platform specialist Jobvite found that mobile continues to be a burgeoning channel for candidate engagement and they caution that recruiters who don’t leverage mobile will risk losing talent to the competition. The survey revealed that 55% of recruiters use or plan to use a mobile career site to support recruiting efforts. But, interestingly, the study also showed that despite 43% of job seekers using mobile in their job search, 59% of recruiters invested nothing in 2014 in mobile career sites.

Additional research conducted by the ADP Research Institute® reveals a similar disconnect between the tools recruiters and job seekers use to find each other.

For example, the research found that 44% of recruiters listed LinkedIn as “extremely” or “very” useful in their pursuit of new talent. Yet, only 19% of job seekers felt the same when looking for a job. Recruiters’ and job seekers’ perspectives on the usefulness of other social media sites during the recruiting process — including Facebook, Twitter and Google+ — showed a similar disconnect, with recruiters consistently viewing the social platforms as more useful than job candidates did.

As we’ve grown accustomed to the simplicity of online shopping, we increasingly demand a similar experience from the systems we use at work. Yet, many core business systems, including human capital management (HCM) platforms, haven’t kept pace with the trend toward more consumer-centric user interfaces. Meeting this growing candidate and employee expectation is critical to recruiting and retaining top performers. Once a candidate is hired, it makes it easier for them to do their jobs and manage their HR information anytime, anywhere.

For HR leaders, these trends have clear implications.

Accommodating the user expectations of candidates and employees requires modern HCM systems that leverage the latest technology innovations to deliver a highly intuitive user interface akin to the mobile apps we use in our personal lives. And the HR systems of the future should empower employees with visual, personalized dashboards that give them a single point of entry to their benefits, payroll and other HR information. HR systems should also include built-in decision-support tools tailored to both employees — such as for annual open enrollment — as well as managers, to drive better decision-making, based on actionable insights regarding talent and performance. The end result will be a more satisfied, engaged and productive workforce.

This article was written by By Dave Imbrogno, President of National Account Services for ADP’s Global Enterprise Solutions unit. He is responsible for many of the company’s Human Capital Management solutions, including Human Resources, Payroll, Time and Labor Management, Comprehensive Outsourcing Services, Talent Acquisition and Talent Management.

Recruiting and Retaining Talent Takes Mobile-enabled Sites and Consumer-Centric HCM Platforms

Recruiting and Retaining Talent Takes Mobile-enabled Sites and Consumer-Centric HCM Platforms

Do you know what it takes to successfully sell high-ticket products and services? Business advisor, coach, and mentor Trevor Crane visited my show, “Magnificent Time,” to share his simple step-by-step system to sell high-ticket products and services. Below are the highlights of the conversation and some of my insights on…

That I think the odd mixture of capitalism and free markets that we have is pretty much the best system humans have yet devised is well known. That I also rather play down the ways in which companies and producers abuse this system is also pretty obvious. But that people really do abuse the system has been obvious at least since Adam Smith pointed it out in 1776. And that real abuse needs to be dealt with and dealt with hard. Thus my welcoming the conclusion of the Silicon Valley wage fixing scandal, where the perpetrators, Google, Apple, Intel and Adobe, are going to have to pay $415 million in compensation to the people they cheated. That a lot of what others see as market abuse or manipulation I see as perfectly honest business practice does not mean that I am actually in favour of laissez faire. We do not need to work to make sure that markets are fair but we do need to be vigilant to make sure that they are free, free of cartels.

The news itself:

A U.S. judge on Wednesday granted final approval to a $415 million settlement that ends a high profile lawsuit in which workers accused Apple, Google and two other Silicon Valley companies of conspiring to hold down salaries.

The plaintiffs alleged that Apple Inc, Google Inc , Intel Corp and Adobe Systems Inc agreed to avoid poaching each other’s employees, thus limiting job mobility and, as a result, keeping a lid on salaries.

The basic story is that the tech giants (Facebook was a notable standout from joining the arrangements) agreed that they wouldn’t try to hire engineers away from each other. There was at the time, still is in fact, a shortage of seriously talented engineers. And of course one solution to wanting more engineers in the face of such a shortage is to make really good job offers to the people who are working for your competitors. This annoys your competitors no end and of course it annoys you when they return the favour. So, it ended up with a general agreement that Google wouldn’t poach engineers from Apple and Apple wouldn’t from Google and so on.

The problem with this is that it’s illegal: it’s quite obviously a cartel. It’s a cartel of the employers against their own employees. Because if there’s a shortage of skilled engineers then the pay of skilled engineers should be bid up.

It was another classical economist, Karl Marx, who got this point correct (lifted, as with all the other bits he got right, from either Ricardo or Smith). It is this sort of bidding up of wages which leads to raises for the workers in general in fact. If there’s unemployment about then a factory owner doesn’t have to raise wages to gain more labour. And if his current labour starts getting a bit bolshie, asking for more of the profits of their labour, then he can fire them and go hire the unemployed. It’s only when there are no unemployed people around that the employer must start to share those profits with the workers: and that’s what makes wages go up in general.

So, a cartel that prevents job poaching in the face of shortage short circuits this process. And we really, really, don’t like that happening. So much so that I think that the penalties on these companies should have been rather higher. This is the civil suit settlement being announced today. The criminal stuff was sorted out several years ago and the fines paid were trivial given the size of the companies and the manner of their behaviour. I welcome this settlement, but would argue that those criminal penalties should have been a lot, lot, higher. Over here in Europe they could have been as much as 10% of global revenues of the participants. That might be too much but the basic point still remains. Yes, I think that there’s less market manipulation and monopoly around than most other people do. But when there really is this collaboration to create a cartel then the authorities really should come down on them like a tonne of bricks.

This article was written by Tim Worstall from Forbes and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Talent HQ is a premier information channel empowering professional development for recruiting and HR communities through regional events including Minnesota Recruiters, Wisconsin Recruiters, Oregon Recruiters and California Recruiters.

#Tech Giants Will Pay $415 Million In Poaching Settlement

#Tech Giants Will Pay $415 Million In Poaching Settlement

It’s easy to see what makes a great job. A great job ad is one that gets people excited about working for you, and then makes it easy for them to learn more. Most job ads fail on both counts.

Most job ads start off by telling job-seekers about the high opinion your company has of itself. They don’t give any evidence for the opinion — they just tell us “With a long history of excellence, XYZ Inc. is a leader in its industry.”

Big deal! Anyone could say that. What makes your company a great place to work? That’s what inquiring minds want to know.

The most obnoxious job ads don’t even speak to the people who are reading them. They speak right past their readers, using the third person like this:

The Selected Candidate will possess twenty years of search-engine optimization experience, the ability to play the trombone while riding a unicycle and excellent Greek skills (ancient Greek) plus a current taxi driver’s license.

When you talk past the job-seeker in the third person, referring to The Selected Candidate instead of “you” the way any other kind of ad would do, you’re saying “We don’t know who The Selected Candidate will be, but we can say for sure it won’t be your sorry ass!”

That’s a horrible way to try and attract smart people. Anybody with a teaspoonful of self-esteem is going to zip right past your job ad and go to work for somebody else — and can you blame them?

The best job ads tell you why the job will be fun and interesting. Lousy job ads skip that part entirely. They drone on and on about the Essential Qualifications that a job-seeker has to bring to the party, in order for the  lofty company to stoop to notice him or her.

What will that kind of ad — a boring, insulting boilerplate job ad – bring you?

It will bring you mojo-depleted, desperate job-seekers who will be happy to kiss your feet and bury their own needs and personalities in order to get a job. Don’t expect much in the way of innovation or fresh thinking from those folks!

If you hate innovation and new ideas, you should be very happy with your sheeplike new hires, at least until shareholders start asking why you aren’t making any money.

5 Ways To Improve Your Company’s Search For Talent

It’s easy to write a job ad with a human voice in it. Here’s an example:

My grandfather started Acme Explosives in 1955 to get coyotes the stick dynamite they need for their projects, and now we’re going strong with manufacturing on three continents.

We’ve just gotten approval to ship modular, assemble-on-site stick dynamite products through UPS and trucking firms and we’re launching our first e-commerce site. We need an E-Commerce Operations Manager to run the online sales and marketing part of our business and coordinate with Production and Purchasing.

The job will be fast and furious and full of new adventures as you design our back-end operations to support our e-commerce business. You’ll work closely with our inside and outside sales folks, Marketing and everyone else on our team.

Who will love this job? It might you if you like creating new processes, love to juggle projects and know something about e-commerce and online merchandising.

If you think this $70-$75K assignment might be right for you, please write to me at [email protected] and tell me why in 300 words. Include your LinkedIn profile url in your message and skip the resume.

One of us will get back to you within 48 hours of receiving your message or the next business day.

Thanks for checking out Acme Explosives and wishing you a dynamite day!

It is hard to write a job ad this way? No – it’s simple. Chuck Jones is the CEO of Acme Explosives and he’s ready to read 300-word messages for a week or two to find the right person for his needs. He’s ready to reply to everyone who responds.

What’s special about Chuck? Only that he cares about talent, instead of saying that he cares when he really doesn’t the way most medium-sized and larger employers do.

It’s a new day in the talent marketplace. Either you learn how to bring great people into your firm and keep them there or you’ll die. The good news is that it’s easy to make any workplace a Human Workplace.

You just have to give up the delusional belief that the company is in control and the employees are interchangeable. Make that one mental switch, and watch your results go boom!

This article was written by Liz Ryan from Forbes and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Talent HQ is a premier information channel empowering professional development for recruiting and HR communities through regional events including Minnesota Recruiters, Wisconsin Recruiters, Oregon Recruiters and California Recruiters.

Are Your Job Ads Attracting Talent – Or Driving It Away?

Are Your Job Ads Attracting Talent – Or Driving It Away?

There are certain things in life we take for granted.  Flip a switch, the lights go on; our refrigerators and other appliances work and our tech devices get charged.   But what if the electricity went out, not just for a day or two or a period of weeks, but months or even years?  How many of us could survive such a catastrophe?

Our civilian electric grid on which we all depend is vulnerable–not only to cyber-attacks and physical assaults, but to something called electromagnetic pulse (EMP).  At a Senate hearing on the electric grid this past July, here is what Sen. Ron Johnson, Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said:  “The purpose of this hearing is basically to pull our heads out of the sand. This is a threat that is real, and we need to acknowledge.”

There are two ways that electromagnetic pulse can be generated with the potential to take down our grid.  Neither way is science fiction.  First, a major solar storm can generate enough electromagnetic pulse to seriously damage or destroy our vulnerable grid.  In 1859, a big solar storm hit Planet Earth.  But as experts have noted, that was back in the days of the horse & buggy and telegraph.   Another solar storm occurred in 1921.  And there was a near miss in 2012 when a solar storm hit Earth’s orbit.  Two years later, Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado, wrote the following in NASA Science:  “I have come away from our studies more convinced than ever that Earth and its inhabitants were incredibly fortunate that the eruption happened when it did.  If the eruption had occurred one week earlier, Earth would have been in the line of fire.”

Our grid is also at risk from a man-made attack from a rogue regime like Iran or North Korea.  All they need to do is place a nuclear device on a missile and  explode it high above our atmosphere.  That too could generate enough electromagnetic pulse to take down our grid.  And after a period of months, or a year or more without a fully functioning electric grid, a large number of people will begin to die from a lack of food, water, resources.  James Woolsey, former CIA Director under President Bill Clinton, warned of the dire consequences of a high altitude EMP attack at that recent Senate hearing:  “One estimate is that within a year or so, two-thirds of the U.S. population would die.”

In December, 2014, with a bi-partisan vote, the House of Representatives passed the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act (CIPA) to protect the electric grid.  The Senate still needs to approve legislation and the President to sign it.  We need to ask our elected representatives, why after 2 Congressional Commissions years ago heard numerous experts make the case for securing the grid, are their recommendations from 2008 still waiting to be adopted?

In 2011, Democratic Congresswoman, Yvette Clark of N.Y. and Trent Franks, Republican of Ohio, co-wrote “Protecting Our Electric Grid” for politico.com.  They said “we must act now and decisively.  We cannot wait for the clock to run out on such grave threats when they are now predicted by all relevant U.S. agencies.”  They went on to write that “with scientists and engineers now advising that the cost and complexity to bring this problem under control is modest, our course is clear.  We cannot, and must not leave our nation vulnerable.  We must secure our electric infrastructure now.”  Those words from 2011 have yet to be heeded.

We can’t afford to wait any longer, or just cross our fingers and hope there won’t be another big solar storm.  Experts say they happen about once every 100 years, so we are due.  And are you willing to bet the health & well-being of every family in America that a country like Iran, whose leaders shout “Death to America”, won’t ever take advantage of our vulnerable civilian electric grid?  Some states like Maine and Virginia are not waiting for the federal government to act.  They have already taken steps to secure their grids.  So what can you do?  Sign the petition which The Good for You Network has created on https://www.change.org/p/tell-congress-to-shield-the-grid-now-all-of-our-lives-depend-on-it.  Send it to your Senators, Congressmen, to the President, the Governor of your state and state legislators.  Ask 11 or more of your friends & family to do the same.

We had one wake-up call on 9/11 that we cannot ever forget.  Let us all make a commitment here and now to do everything we can to prevent the take down of our electric grid and preserve the quality of life that has long made America a beacon of light and hope to a world dearly in need of it.  May America’s light always shine bright!

#ShieldTheGridNow

The post Tell Congress to Shield the Grid Now: All of our lives depend on it. appeared first on The Good For You Network.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Click here for Cristi Hegranes’ exclusive interview with Forbes magazine.

There are certain things in life we take for granted. Flip a switch, the lights go on; our refrigerators and other appliances work and our tech devices get charged. But what if the electricity went out, not just for a day or two or a period of weeks, but months or even years? How many of us could survive such a catastrophe?

Our civilian electric grid on which we all depend is vulnerable—not only to cyber-attacks and physical assaults, but to something called electromagnetic pulse (EMP). At a Senate hearing on the electric grid this past July, here is what Sen. Ron Johnson, Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said: “The purpose of this hearing is basically to pull our heads out of the sand. This is a threat that is real, and we need to acknowledge.”

There are two ways that electromagnetic pulse can be generated with the potential to take down our grid. Neither way is science fiction. First, a major solar storm can generate enough electromagnetic pulse to seriously damage or destroy our vulnerable grid. In 1859, a big solar storm hit Planet Earth. But as experts have noted, that was back in the days of the horse & buggy and telegraph. Another solar storm occurred in 1921. And there was a near miss in 2012 when a solar storm hit Earth’s orbit. Two years later, Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado, wrote the following in NASA Science: “I have come away from our studies more convinced than ever that Earth and its inhabitants were incredibly fortunate that the eruption happened when it did. If the eruption had occurred one week earlier, Earth would have been in the line of fire.”

Our grid is also at risk from a man-made attack from a rogue regime like Iran or North Korea. All they need to do is place a nuclear device on a missile and explode it high above our atmosphere. That too could generate enough electromagnetic pulse to take down our grid. And after a period of months, or a year or more without a fully functioning electric grid, a large number of people will begin to die from a lack of food, water, resources. James Woolsey, former CIA Director under President Bill Clinton, warned of the dire consequences of a high altitude EMP attack at that recent Senate hearing: “One estimate is that within a year or so, two-thirds of the U.S. population would die.”

In December, 2014, with a bi-partisan vote, the House of Representatives passed the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act (CIPA) to protect the electric grid. The Senate still needs to approve legislation and the President to sign it. We need to ask our elected representatives, why after 2 Congressional Commissions years ago heard numerous experts make the case for securing the grid, are their recommendations from 2008 still waiting to be adopted?

In 2011, Democratic Congresswoman, Yvette Clark of N.Y. and Trent Franks, Republican of Ohio, co-wrote “Protecting Our Electric Grid” for politico.com. They said “we must act now and decisively. We cannot wait for the clock to run out on such grave threats when they are now predicted by all relevant U.S. agencies.” They went on to write that “with scientists and engineers now advising that the cost and complexity to bring this problem under control is modest, our course is clear. We cannot, and must not leave our nation vulnerable. We must secure our electric infrastructure now.” Those words from 2011 have yet to be heeded.

We can’t afford to wait any longer, or just cross our fingers and hope there won’t be another big solar storm. Experts say they happen about once every 100 years, so we are due. And are you willing to bet the health & well-being of every family in America that a country like Iran, whose leaders shout “Death to America”, won’t ever take advantage of our vulnerable civilian electric grid? Some states like Maine and Virginia are not waiting for the federal government to act. They have already taken steps to secure their grids. So what can you do? Sign the petition which The Good for You Network has created on www.change.org Send it to your Senators, Congressmen, to the President, the Governor of your state and state legislators. Ask 11 or more of your friends & family to do the same.

We had one wake-up call on 9/11 that we cannot ever forget. Let us all make a commitment here and now to do everything we can to prevent the take down of our electric grid and preserve the quality of life that has long made America a beacon of light and hope to a world dearly in need of it. May America’s light always shine bright!

#ShieldTheGridNow

The post America’s Electric Grid is Vulnerable appeared first on The Good For You Network.

When I see ‘Chef’s Pick’ on the menu, quite often I am tempted to pick it for my order. As a teenager, I used to wait for the arrival of Reader’s Digest every month. There is something weirdly beautiful about things that are handpicked. Even as internet giants such as Google and Amazon, strive to make their recommendation engines smarter, the good old handpicking thrives in various forms as competing alternatives. Let’s look at four interesting examples:

MistoBox – MistoBox enables people to discover coffee from around the world, like never before. The company chooses and sends four coffee samples every month to its subscribers, and they call themselves coffee geeks who know the difference between the merely-good and the truly-special coffee roasts.

Quarterly – Internet provides us with innumerable means to stay tuned with the people we admire. Quarterly adds a new dimension to the way we connect with those people. The company provides a platform through which, every quarter subscribers receive actual items that tell a compelling story crafted by the person they admire, and subscribe to.

8tracks – The founders of 8tracks believe that handcrafted music programming trumps algorithms. The website enables users to discover playlists created by DJ’s/other users, and to create their own playlists which others can listen to. Listeners get a unique blend of word-of-mouth sharing and radio programming — long trusted means for music discovery.

Scoop.it – Like the founders of 8tracks, those of Scoop.it also believe that algorithms alone are not enough at organizing the web’s content in a smart, meaningful way and that humans could do a much better job at it. The website enables users to curate web content and share it with others.

As you may have noted, the four examples presented above represent different scope, in terms of things that are curated, and the people who curate them. The possibilities are many. So look around and see if you can curate something yourself or create a platform for others to curate something in a meaningful way. There may be a business opportunity out there. Good luck!

To stay tuned with me  Follow @nbhaskar888