Links and bits of thoughts captured from more than a week offline; even though they are unordered, there is still an underlying theme tying them together. Can you guess the theme?

• Jan Chipchase: Tokyo Driving School:

  Imagine never having to take a test in your life ever again – not at school, university, in the work place.

  Instead assessment is ongoing, everywhere – continuous learning pushed to its il/logical extreme. The authority required to start task X or access service Y assessed in real time drawing on a life’s worth of data pushed through a filter of you in the here and now.

  … If you’ve spent time in a large organisation these past few years you’ve probably brushed up against that early 21th century notion of ‘life long learning’ – that it’s never too late to re skill, retool, learn something new. We are undergoing a fundamental change in the way we relate to objects and the way (connected) objects relate to us. ‘Life long learning’ is no longer about you in relation to what you can offer to achieve you potential – but rather the systems’ ability to learn about you over the course of it, and your lifetime.

• Michael Lewkowitz: Opportunity ‘09: Micro-messaging Based Collaboration:
  

  My focus heading into 2009 is micro-messaging based collaboration. From where I sit I think it will have a profound effect on the way we organize resources to get things done and will mark a fundamental shift in shape of the organizations and systems of our future.

  Also: Peer-producing a for-profit startup.

  Expect much, much more on Social Venture Commons (SVC), peer-produced organizations and distributed value creation very soon.

• Fred Wilson: Always Treat Money Like It Is Your Own:
  

  Why is it that most of the best managed companies are operated by their owners? Think about Apple, Google, News Corp, etc. All of these companies are run by owners who have a huge amount of their net worth tied up in the business.

  My comment:

  I’m most interested in seeing how the ideal of “treating money like it is your own” works as companies evolve and grow. Apple and Fox, as examples of well-managed companies, are also examples of companies that are run (micromanaged?) by their founders and figureheads.

  Can a diffuse, open, large organization provide the kind of transparency and incentives required to give people the opportunity to “treat money as their own”? What kind of organizational structures do we need to create that kind of culture? I think we’ve all learned that stock options and “keeping skin in the game” aren’t enough on their own.

• Justin Kistner: The Lord Matt Borg attempts to automate social interaction:
  

  I believe social interaction could have rule engines. Etiquette is programmable.

  Also, via Ethan Bauley:

  Whoever makes the etiquette API will get rich.

  Can we automate etiquette, and if automated and commoditized would it be worth anything? Regardless, I’m sure we will try…

• Mike Bonifer: Trust the Game Before You Trust the Player
  

  The lessons of the Madoff Scandal are crystal clear:

  Honest players play honest games.

  It is easier to spot a crooked game than a crooked player.

  Trust the game before you trust the player.

• Fred Wilson: Default To Public:
  

  I encourage all of our companies and all the companies that I meet with to “default to public” as much as they possibly can. Sure, there are some things that should remain private, but not nearly as many things as people initially think. The value of public discourse and enagement around content/information/knowledge vastly outweighs most of the privacy concerns most of the time.

  “Defaulting to public” is a pretty strong tell regardless of the game you’re playing.
  

• David Heinemeier Hansson at 37 Signals: The untold millions:
  

  Inflating evaluations are great when you’re listed on the market, gunning for more venture capital, or trying to bail with the biggest parachute. So naturally these companies drip and drop the honey for the journo worker bees and we get all these silly stories about younger and younger people being worth more and more monopoly money.

  In the mean time, many of the real stories are never told. The quiet successes by small teams who stand little if anything to gain by sharing their numbers and telling about their success. Lest they attract competitors or other unwanted interest. They’re just happy making millions quietly from happy customers.

  I’ve talked to so many of these entrepreneurs in private and have often been shocked by how well they’re doing. And I always think to myself: 1) why didn’t I know about this?, and 2) if only everyone else knew too.

  …Know that the world of successful businesses online is much larger than that tiny tip that peaks above the surface for a reporter to find. There’s incredible wealth being created below. Sure, they’re probably not making billions (that’s hard to keep quiet), but there are plenty of untold millions.

A return to thought pieces soon, lots of different topics in play at the moment…