Your simple, sophisticated, and brilliant response to this design challenge may have a profound impact on global public health.

McDonalds needs your creative ideas to improve their [tag]coffee[/tag] service. They’ve created a [tag]corporate social responsibility[/tag] blog, and now they’re soliciting your creative ideas for making their business more successful. Steve Kropfl has initiated some dialog with [tag]McDonalds[/tag] around their use of foam cups (via Triple Pundit). They’ve graciously and wisely accepted this opportunity to improve their business practices.

Sort of. McDonalds has publicly responded to the issue. Now the ball is back in our court.

Read the rest of this entry »

Caterina has produced good list of reasons why NOT to start a company right now. (via Kedrosky) My personal observations are consistent with Caterina’s.

I had this same stay-out-of-the-water-there’s-sharks feeling circa 1998.

Listen to that. She’s sounds like a good intuitive decision maker. Her recent history speaks for itself (see FLICKR). Read the rest of this entry »

I know the [tag]careless post updating[/tag] might be annoying. I’m going to subscribe to this site’s RSS feed for the first time to better understand what that experience is like. Regretfully I haven’t taken the time to do it yet. Thanks for being patient.

It’s too easy to ignore how that process looks via an RSS client. I post some half baked content, check it out, see some typos, update, check it out again, see a better way to turn a phrase, update, remember to add categories, update, remember technorati tags, update again. By the time it’s over you’ve been asked to scroll through several versions of the same message.

And I know it’s hard. We’ve redoubled and then also doubled up (AGAIN) my solo effort to substantially mitigate these unnecessary and superflous distractions.

As always,

You get what you pay for.

Jeff

I’m no [tag]web stats[/tag] expert. I do what I do, and the results are useful to me. That’s not to suggest there isn’t a better way either.

In this web stats related post I linked to a nice resource produced by Pat McCarthy of Conversion Rater. I’ve also posted this [tag]DIY web stats analysis[/tag] process. Other resources on the web include:

* Aaron Wall’s SEOBook

* Website Promotion sub-forum at GeekVillage.com

* WebmasterWorld.com offers a lot of information.

Got a particularly good resource for [tag]interpreting web stats[/tag]? Post a link to it here. Thanks.

Bread delivery riders load their Worldbike Bigga Boda cargo bike.

Short story:

Worldbike is changing peoples’ lives for the better.

Why You Should Care:

People around the world use bicycles to carry cargo. Most bikes are not designed to carry heavy loads. Worldbike teaches communities how to create simple, cost effective, and amazingly efficient extensions to their bicycles. The resulting cargo bike can easily and safely carry large loads (200 lbs!).

Worldbike has created a socially and environmentally significant sustainable development opportunity.

Bikes equipped with hitchless trailers represent a dramatic improvement to the lives of many entrepreneurs. These are entrepreneurs like the bread delivery riders pictured above. They’re able to earn a living for themselves and their families by carrying basic goods and passengers with their bicycles. The extra cargo capacity of the Bigga Boda extension kit makes a big difference in the rider’s earning potential.

Worldbike is developing technology, training materials, and a production process that relies on basic metalworking tools and locally available materials. It’s a technologically appropriate solution to some very complex social and environmental challenges.

Why Else You Should Care:

This project is an opportunity for us Westerners to learn more about alternatives for sustainable economic development. It’s amazing how much we stand to learn from the people in places like Kisumu, Kenya.

Worldbike is focusing on the way people use bicycles. They’re documenting the lessons from Kisumu and sharing those lessons with the rest of the world. They’re building an online community; and making information and technical resources freely available to anyone, anywhere.

In Case You’d Like More Reasons Why You Should Care:

Hunger. Poverty. Peak oil. Global warming.

How You Can Help:

1.) Donate to Worldbike. Visit this page to learn how.

2.) Volunteer your skills as a content management system expert. Worldbike is building an online resource to train communities around the world about advanced load carrying bicycle technology. We need help from programmers who understand drupal, civicspace, PHP, MySQL, and HTML. Please email me or Worldbike to learn how you can get involved.

3.) Visit this Flickr photostream and check out the great pictures of Worldbike’s current efforts.