Big Ideas

This is Eric's List of Awesome Nodes

Rob Loach — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:39:10 -0500

This is a list of awesome shizzle.

A government lifeline for Detroit punishes foreign car makers and their American employees for making better business decisions.

Fast Company staff — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:12:27 -0500

Detroit's Big Three made its case for a taxpayer rescue yesterday. Ford asked the government to throw it a $9 billion lifeline, one that it does not expect to use but needs as a safety net. GM has asked for a total of 18 billion, while Chrysler is reportedly asking for $7 billion.

But some, like this opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, argue that a bailout for Detroit could be unfair for foreign car makers.

Online video is not cannibalizing TV.

Fast Company staff — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:09:20 -0500

A few weeks ago, IBM released a report showing 36% of people watched significantly less TV as a result of their online video viewing. Their study was based on 2,800 people polled across six countries.

The Internet has created the greatest generation gap since rock and roll.

Fast Company staff — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 10:26:24 -0500

Online security guru Bruce Schneier thinks that the Internet is the biggest contributor to the cultural divide between old and young since the 1950s:

Twitter was wise to reject Facebook’s $500 million all-stock acquisition offer.

Fast Company staff — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:46:12 -0500

According to Kara Swisher, about three weeks ago Twitter rejected a deal in which Facebook offered to acquire it for $500 million of its stock, which also included a cash compo

All tech companies should design their new products for early adopters.

Fast Company staff — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:33:59 -0500

There’s an increasingly popular sentiment that early adopters are overrated and the companies that woo them are wasting their time. But some, like Robert Scoble, believe that early adopters are invaluable for a company: “This idea that the tech industry should focus on the larger group of ‘nonpassionates’ to the exclusion of passionates is ridiculous. Passionates are a new product's best friends.

The music industry should embrace unauthorized file sharing as a form of free marketing

Fast Company staff — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:25:38 -0500

The music industry loses billions of dollars each year because of unauthorized downloads and file sharing. In 2007, the value of unlicensed music trafficked on P2P networks was pegged at $69 billion. Many industry insiders see this as having a massively negative impact on the music industry.

Emerging nations like China, Brazil and India - and not the US or Europe - will have to lead the world out of the economic slump

Fast Company staff — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:48:03 -0500

According to business executives, government officials, and economic experts who congregated earlier this week at the Global China Business Meeting to discuss China’s role in the global economy, it will take China and other emerging nations to lead the world out of what will probably be a long and intense recession. "The emerging countries are the solution to the overall global slump,” said Josep Piqué, chairman of Barcelona based budget airline, Vueling.

China, Brazil, India and other large emerging nations represent about 30 percent of global G.D.P.

Microsoft will buy Yahoo within six months.

Fast Company staff — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:00:44 -0500

On Monday, Jerry Yang resigned from his post as Yahoo's CEO. In late January, Yahoo rejected Microsoft's $31 a share offer, and the company has been in a slump ever since. Yahoo's stock is down 62% in the past six months.

Yang's departure has rekindled speculations that Microsoft will make a fresh bid for Yahoo.