News & Opinion

Links for a Monday Afternoon

June 06, 2011

➻ Cory Doctorow has laid out an interesting chronology of intellectual property rights since the first part of the 20th century for The Guardian's Comment Is Free interview series. Arguing that Every pirate wants to be an admiral, he tells a story that begins with sheet music composers and ends with the Internet about how elements of every innovation are seen as piracy until they become the mainstream, at which time they begin accusing the next generation of innovators of piracy. Stating at the beginning of the video that "The way to increase the health of the cultural realm is to allow more people to participate in it in more ways," he ends with anxiety that, for the first time in history, lawmakers may end up on the wrong side of the debate between the so-called "pirates" and supposed "admirals.

Cory Doctorow has laid out an interesting chronology of intellectual property rights since the first part of the 20th century for The Guardian's Comment Is Free interview series. Arguing that Every pirate wants to be an admiral, he tells a story that begins with sheet music composers and ends with the Internet about how elements of every innovation are seen as piracy until they become the mainstream, at which time they begin accusing the next generation of innovators of piracy. Stating at the beginning of the video that "The way to increase the health of the cultural realm is to allow more people to participate in it in more ways," he ends with anxiety that, for the first time in history, lawmakers may end up on the wrong side of the debate between the so-called "pirates" and supposed "admirals." If you're interested in real piracy, The Guardian also covered that recently, with Jay Bahadur (the author of Deadly Waters: Inside the Hidden World of Somalia's Pirates—not yet available in the U.S.) writing about his Interview With a Pirate for the paper. Palgrave Macmillan has a new Family Business Publication series. Mark T. Green wrote recently for the Powell's Books blog about his release in that series, Inside the Multi-Generational Family Business: Nine Symptoms of Generational Stack-Up and How to Cure Them. Speaking of Family Business Light and Dark, he wrote: Death of a Salesman. Buddenbrooks. The Godfather. The Count of Monte Cristo.

These great works of literature have larger-than-life characters and sweeping themes of love and loss. They also share something else: They're about family businesses. Sometimes the fictional business is like a living, breathing character itself (Buddenbrooks, The Godfather). Sometimes the business is more for setting and context (The Count of Monte Cristo). As a family-business researcher and consultant for over 10 years, I'm not surprised that so many authors, playwrights, filmmakers, and TV-show creators look to a family livelihood for inspiration. The real-life intersection of family and work, arguably the two richest sources of self-worth (and pain), is rife with the most archetypal themes and conflicts, the lightest and darkest sides of the human psyche and human interaction.

I'm sure those of you out there with family businesses can relate. And, if so, Palgrave's Family Business Bookstore can probably help you avoid the dark side. They're the Jedi of the family business book universe.

And for all you social entrepreneurs out there, The Echoing Green SPARK*BLOG posted a list of books for social entrepreneurs that were recommended by their readers. It's about a month old now, but it's new to me so maybe it will be new to you. The original post broke the answers up to show which suggestions came from Americorps Alumni and which came from the Echoing Green Community, but I'm going to list them all together:

Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future by Robert B. Reich
Big Citizenship: How Pragmatic Idealism Can Bring Out the Best in America by Alan Khazei
Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin
What's Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers
KaBoom! How One Man Built A Movement to Save Play by Darell Hammond
Gandhi an Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth by Mahatma Gandhi
The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World by Jacqueline Novogratz
How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas by David Bornstein
A Billion Bootstraps: Microcredit, Barefoot Banking, and The Business Solution for Ending Poverty by Philip Smith
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World by Paul Hawken
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows
Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose it, Why People Demand It by James Kouzes and Barry Posnerr
Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt
Tactics of Hope: How Social Entrepreneurs Are Changing Our World by Wilford Welch
Just Another Emperor? The Myths and Realities of Philanthrocapitalism by Michael Edwards
Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the Worlds Problems by Michael Strong
Solving Tough Problems: An Open Way of Talking, Listening, and Creating New Realities by Adam Kahane and Peter Senge
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
The Answer to How is Yes: Acting on What Matters by Peter Block
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Hopefully Lisa Galinsky's Work on Purpose will show up on that list soon (Ms. Galisnky is the Senior Vice President of Echoing Green). To get even more book recommendations, check out their previous post on Books Every Social Entrepreneur Should Read, which links to lists from Change.org, Acumen Fund, and Social Edge.

Jon and Aaron have been out of town attending Chris Guillebeau's World Domination Summit, which gives me a great reason to link to Chris's recent post about The Need for Change:

When the time comes where you're willing to make a big break, you may find yourself facing down fear and trying to see through to the other side. Just remember: once you start going down the road of change, you don't always know where you're going to end up. This very reason is why many people remain stuck in discontent but unable to find their way out. Will it be easy? Probably not, at least not if it's worth doing. Will everything be OK? Maybe, maybe not. That's why it's scary.

That's also why it's worth it. Speaking of change, we now turn to music (a passion everyone in our office shares) and an article Jack shared with me to this morning—The New York Times Magazine's great profile of Who, What and Where is Bon Iver? It turns out that all of those questions can in be answered in one way or another with "Eau Claire, Wisconsin." Skinny Love.