Public Strategist

“Best practices” are – by definition – not innovative. Mark Drapeau (via Bruce Johnson)

Societal impact doesn’t come from the latest trendy technologies but from mass adoption of unfashionable ones. William Perrin

Data is good at asking questions, but rarely gives clear answers. Simon  Dickson

Social media spells the end of communicative discretion. This may be a good thing. Charlie Beckett

Responses to information are inseparable from their interests, desires, resources, cognitive capacities, and social contexts. Owing to these and other factors, people may ignore information, or misunderstand it, or misuse it. Whether and how new information is used to further public objectives depends upon its incorporation into complex chains of comprehension, action, and response. Archon [...]

In every organization, there is at least one awesome idea that can upset the status quo. The challenge is finding it – and freeing it. Umair Haque

Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution. Clay Shirky, quoted by Kevin Kelly, suggested by Martin Stewart-Weeks It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it! Upton Sinclair

Your first design may seem like a solution but it is usually just an early definition of the problem you are trying to solve from. Luke Wroblewski (viaLee McIvor)

Why do free social networks tilt inevitably toward user exploitation? Because you’re not their customer, you’re their product.   So, solve social-networking’s malign tilt by paying for it – demand they monetize your happiness, not your exploitation. Tim Spalding (h/t @piawaugh)

Nothing is so fatal to the progress of the human mind as to suppose that our views of science are ultimate; that there are no mysteries in nature; that our triumphs are complete, and that there are no new worlds to conquer. Humphry Davy, quoted by Brian Cox, the Voltaire Lecture, 6 April 2010