business model innovation design we're on a road to nowhere // on a quest to analyze and explore the design of business model innovations, i.e. 'hideous and hidden things' like organizational structures and capabilities, corporate strategies and all things related // on a yellow brick road with a girl, a lion and a straw-man wasting our time // …

Long list – but you’ve got time on a weekend, don’t you?

Jon Udell speaks to Ledeen and Lewis (blog), co-authors of Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the Digital Explosion, reflecting on the rapid and sweeping changes internet technologies bring (mp3). BusinessWeek Columnists Jack & Suzy Welch say that Web Age managers must learn to sift for gems through torrents of data and chatter (“The connected leader”, mp3). Yes, add to this some preparation to tomorrow’s chat with David Weinberger and check out this podcast – originally published by SWR2 Forum in March 2008: “Bildung auf der Datenautobahn – Wie wir Information und Wissen organisieren” (mp3).

BusinessWeek’s John Byrne and Jena McGregor talk about the BusinessWeek-Boston Consulting Group annual innovation ranking, which singles out some smart companies for tough times (mp3). And Bruce Nussbaum chats with BCG’s innovation head Jim Andrew about this year’s list (mp3)

The Smallbiz Podcast takes a look at the life of a freelancer. The podcast includes interviews with speakers at the Going Solo conference – Stephanie Booth, Laura Fitton, Martin Röll, Stowe Boyd, Suw Charman-Anderson and Dennis Howlett – on how to survive as a soloist (mp3).

William Drayton in Social Innovation Conversations talks on the Importance of Being a Changemaker (mp3)

If you’re living on this planet you probably sense that the world is in a time of tremendous change. Ashoka founder William Drayton calls it “Revolution” in his keynote address on the occasion of receiving the Purpose Prize Entrepreneurial Leadership Award. In this talk, sponsored by the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, Drayton offers inspiring words about the nature of the times we are in, and how becoming a changemaker is critical for seizing opportunities that are emerging in these unprecedented times.

Yes, be the change you want to see in the world. And check out SWR2’s german language portrait of the d.school at Potsdam (“Zusatzstudium für Querdenker und solche, die es werden wollen”, mp3)

An Europas erster Innovationsschule in Potsdam läuft die Bewerbungsfrist. Deutschland braucht nicht nur mehr Experten – vor allem in den Ingenieur- und Naturwissenschaften. Deutschland braucht auch mehr kreative Experten, die ganz neue Ideen entwickeln. Und auch diese Fähigkeit kann man in gewissem Umfang lernen oder zumindest trainieren. Das jedenfalls ist die Idee hinter einem europaweit einmaligen Studienangebot an der Universität Potsdam.

Design-thinking, interdisciplinary thinking, creativity, innovation processes, and more.

And for an extraordinary piece listen to David Mindell of MIT as he shares his experience with reading Thomas Pynchon‘s wonderful 1973 novel Gravity’s Rainbow (mp3)

The novel, which tells the story of the design, manufacture, and use of the German V-2 rockets in World War II, shows the fruits of a complicated technical endeavor and contains symbols of bigger issues in society.