Shop Here, Not There: Science Says Reducing Inequality Is Almost That Simple by Chris Winters. Imagine heading out to run errands at all your usual places, and your phone’s “equity app” has a better idea.
Siri might say: “Buy your groceries at one of these other stores, just as close as your regular store.” Or: “There are three coffee shops within 2 miles. You haven’t tried this one before.” We already get shopping suggestions when we bring up Google Maps, especially when our smartphones are transmitting our GPS coordinates. A similar type of computation is happening behind the scenes at Facebook and Twitter, whose targeted ads can sometimes be scarily on point. These Tech Entrepreneurs Want To Create A Network Of Private Microstates In Europe. "Seasteaders" are a group of people who want to create libertarian-paradise countries on floating platforms in the ocean, free from the laws and regulations of traditional countries that they feel are holding back business and progress.
It's unlikely that these techno-paradise islands will be built anytime soon. But now a group of young Canadian tech entrepreneurs is hoping to build a network of their own land-based private microstates throughout Europe. Like all utopian dreamers, they want to start from scratch. "It's actually very hard to fix problems with government," says Montreal-based Guillaume Dumas, one of the people behind Sui Generis. "We've had democracies for over 150 years in some countries, and we're still struggling with making things work the way we want. The Future Economy - Future Economy. How Fiverr.com is changing the creative economy $5 at a time. Fiverr.com co-founder Micha Kaufman The website Fiverr poses two immediate questions for its community of users: What would you do for $5 and what would you pay someone else to do for $5?
And with a rapidly growing base of 600,000 service gigs, the answers to both appear nearly limitless. "When we looked at what was out there, we realized that there were options for people that were willing to work for as little as one cent," Fiverr co-founder Micha Kaufman told Yahoo News in a phone interview from Israel. "Or if you are a very professional freelancer, you probably have some options. But in between, there is a huge gap. " When Kaufman and co-founder Shai Wininger launched the site together in February 2010, the options for users were fairly simple: Offer a service on the site for $5 and see how many people were willing to pay you for it. The new economy in 20 enterprises. New ways to make a living and meet Transition’s aims A recent REconomy report highlighted the enormous potential of the enterprises emerging from Transition, or similar places.
You can download the full report, including all 20 case studies, in one PDF document here…Download the full report …or you can download the individual case studies by clicking on the links in the picture gallery below. By the way, we are currently working on a European version of this report with our national hubs that are exploring REconomy. If you are looking for help or support to start your own new enterprise, this section is below, under all the case study images.
The new economy in 20 enterprises – introduction. Project Ara: Inside Google's Modular Smartphone. LightWise Beta Launch Led Light Modernization. Forget premiums: A peer-to-peer network will cover you - tech - 22 September 2013. People can now insure one another in peer-to-peer networks and do away with big insurance companies and premiums INSURANCE is an unfortunate fact of life.
We pay large premiums to cover ourselves for bad events that often never happen. But there is another way. An online insurance firm called Peercover lets groups of people insure each other on their own terms and at a fraction of the cost. Insurance is the latest financial service to get a shake-up from peer-to-peer (P2P) dynamics. "The changes in financial services that are happening now are happening more quickly and dramatically than anything we've seen over the last 100 years," says Ron Suber of peer-to-peer loan company Prosper.
P2P insurance is simpler and cheaper than mainstream methods. The reason all this is possible is, as with other P2P services, because of the rise of new ways to pay online. Behind micropayments are breakthroughs such as the virtual currency Bitcoin and the payment network Ripple, which Peercover uses. Toms Opens Up A Marketplace For Socially Responsible Companies To Sell Their Wares. In addition to offering up stylish shoes and glasses, TOMS is now selling products from other feel-good businesses through a brand-new online marketplace.
Think of it as the seedling of an Amazon.com for socially responsible businesses. Since its launch in 2006, TOMS has sold millions of products and given away over 10 million pairs of shoes and 150,000 eyeglasses through a somewhat controversial one-for-one program. So when founder Blake Mycoskie released a book two years ago profiling entrepreneurial leaders in the social good movement and offering tips to up-and-comers, he was inundated with emails and letters from other aspiring entrepreneurs.
Then he had an idea: "The social entrepreneur movement is growing and thriving and allowing more and more people to buy different types of products that have a giving component to it, but there's no central hub to see all these products, to get inspired by their stories in one place," Mycoskie says.