ThinkingShift roundup

Mmm…the title of this post sort of sounds like I’m about to herd cattle, but it’s better than “link-dump”, which is what I’m about to do. There are a number of reports I’ve come across over the last few weeks that I want to share with you. And they range in topic from leadership and corporate sustainability, to privacy and digital footprints. So let’s start off.

• Avastone Consulting has released a report called Leadership and the Corporate Sustainability Challenge: Mindsets in Action Report. You’ll need to register to get the report. It focuses on 10 prominent, global organisations across diverse industries and looks at the degrees of achievement in sustainability against a 5-stage sustainability framework. The verdict? Many organisations are missing a crucial step in their journey towards sustainability – the leadership mind-set required to “navigate the complexity of sustainability and proactively work with other key players toward sustainability at the scale needed.”

• If you’re concerned about how your personal details are stored or shared amongst different databases. Or if you’ve ever wondered what happens to information gathered from you for supermarket or store loyalty cards – then read this report called FYI: The New Politics of Personal Information from Demos (UK).

• And if you’re interested in digital footprints and online identify management, then here’s a report from Pew Internet and American Life Project. A bit of a worry from my POV is this finding:
  • “most internet users are not concerned about the amount of information available about them online, and most do not take steps to limit that information. Fully 60% of internet users say they are not worried about how much information is available about them online”.

• The Information Commissioner’s Office (UK) has released a qualitative research report into the Surveillance Society, which you can read here. Conducted via focus groups, the report found that whilst some people aren’t concerned about things like CCTV because “only the guilty are being watched” or because “someone, somewhere will be looking after our best interests”, others were concerned about surveillance and data gathering for the following reasons:
  • “that it runs counter to our tradition and to the principles of a democratic society that citizens should be monitored to such a degree..”
  • “that it does not reflect well on us as a society that we feel a need to resort to CCTV and other forms of surveillance in order to feel ‘safe'”
  • “that many of the forms of state data gathering and surveillance.. work on the principle that you are guilty until you provide the personal information (for example fingerprints) to prove your innocence”.

• And finally, if you’re at all worried about what information Google is gathering about you, there are two good things I have for you. Firstly, Scroogle, the anti-Google. Scroogle is a search engine that carries no advertisements and does not keep a record of who is using the site or what they are looking for. So you don’t have to use Google. And the second good thing? A blog, The Googlization of Everything, or how “one company is disrupting commerce, culture and community”.

Some good Christmas reading. Enjoy.