Who Says There's No Such Thing As A Free Lunch?

Since we're all about to focus more on fireworks and BBQs than work, here's something from the lighter side. Last week in Crain's New York I read about the new "loyalty" program put in place by famed restaurateur Danny Meyer of the Union Square Hospitality Group. Customers who shell out big bucks to throw a wedding, bar mitzvah, or corporate event through the catering company earn points which can be redeemed at places like The Modern (at the Museum of Modern Art aka MOMA) or Eleven Madison Park. Ok, let me get this straight, if I drop $25,000+ to make junior a man I get lunch for two at Gramercy Tavern?! This sure makes 50,000 miles on United to fly round trip NY/PDX look pretty reasonable--even with the $25 fuel surcharge!

Sustainable Profit and Social Returns Under "OneRoof"

I recently learned about a for-profit company called OneRoof that is building franchises (and company owned stores) throughout India with the goal of delivering "essential services" to the rural poor.

"We identify, train and provide ongoing business support to entrepreneurs who run their own OneRoof stores. A typical OneRoof franchisee builds his or her business around our central IT service—internet access, computer courses, printing, digital photography. The franchisee then provides valued-added services such as eLearning/distance learning, financial services, e-ticketing, and eventually employment generation that can allow talented young people the choice to stay in their rural communities."

This is a great idea that not only creates jobs in rural areas (where the are often few is any non-agricultural opportunities), but also educates people and provides a real opportunity to move a step up from the bottom of the pyramid - a kind of "micro-franchise" if you will. I hope their success in India will be a model for other developing communities around the world.

Web 2.0 vs. Web 3.0

There's quite a bit of talk about Web 2.0 and as a result there is of course now talk about Web 3.0. I recently came across a definition of the Web 2.0 platform on Gimme The Scoop that was pretty straightfoward: "Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies." Ok, so "folksonomies" is a bit of a silly word but the basic idea of "collaboration and community" is well described and that's what makes Web 2.0 so much more interesting than 1.0.

The tricky part is trying to understand Web 3.0 because definitions like "an overlay of scalable vector graphics - everything rippling and folding and looking misty - on Web 2.0 and access to a semantic Web integrated across a huge space of data" just doesn't do it for me. Neither does this: Web 3.0 "is perceived as part of digital media contribution to the evolutionary path to artificial intelligence that can provide access to information driven by laws of mathematical probability." Once this moves beyond the domain of the tech-heads and the marketing and advertising folks better understand 3.0, I'm sure we'll all start to see the light as well. For those of you want a more detailed explanation you can read/view more of what some "digital ethnographers" are saying.

Suffice it to say it may be like other media we've encountered, we'll know it when we see it!

Obama Victory Celebrated in Africa

Global support for Barak Obama is starting to bubble up and this is clearly the case in Africa, particularly in Kenya, where Obama's grandmother was born. A CNN video shows people in Kibera slum celebrating (see an earlier blog post for a video clip that highlights life in Kibera) the presumptive nominee and I've heard from my friends in Rwanda that they too are thrilled to see an African American have the chance to be President of the United States.

It is indeed pretty amazing that despite plenty of evidence that the problems of racism in the US are a long way from being "solved," that millions of Americans can still come together behind the enthusiasm and energy of Barak Obama. We'll have to wait and see just how 'White" the House will be in November.