From maker space to solver space
Conferences are for meetings. Project teams build deliverables. Data is for data scientists. Online communities are for social contact. Until now, when a new mix is emerging. Can we solve difficult problems in a...
Category: Wicked Problems
The World Resources Sim Center: on its way to Silicon Valley
Last month I received an intriguing email inviting me to an event at Kimberly Wiefling’s house. I’d met Kimberly before through Jonathan Trent, as part of the work I’ve been doing to help out...
The re-emergence of Buckminster Fuller
This popped up today: (thanks, Ray Podder!) Of course. It’s a Bucky Ball.
What is machine learning, and why you should care (in 500 words)
It’s critical that you understand machine learning, even if just a little bit. Why? Machine learning is at the heart of the most common artificial intelligence systems today. It’s an important new technology that’s...
Data from the future in the presidential race
Looking back on the presidential election of 2012, one view of the Obama win is to attribute it to his team’s understanding of a phase shift in electoral dynamics: Democrats looked at historical turnout...
Guest Post: A knowledge management system capable of blinking red
Inattention to critical knowledge is an old problem. Lessons are forgotten, near misses are ignored, caution is dismissed, disasters result. Titanic. Bhopal. AIG. Katrina. Fukushima. And on and on. Knowledge Management (KM) is supposed...
Showing up: #Hack4Congress goes to Washington
Earlier this year, the newly appointed White House CTO Megan Smith told Wired Magazine that the tech industry needs to “show up” in DC. It’s starting to happen: award-winning teams from around the country flew to Washington earlier this...
Decision Intelligence in conflict and disaster recovery
In our years building decision intelligence models for domains like banking, telecom, and more, the project that I am most proud of is the work that we did for Liberia in collaboration with The...
Towards two-marshmallow government
There’s a well-known psychological experiment, where children are offered a marshmallow, and told that if they could wait a few minutes before eating it, they’d get two. The kids who could handle the delayed...
Welcome to the age of unintended consequences
So one of my favorite things about decision intelligence is its promise to help to overcome unintended consequences. As a way to capture both mental models, as well as providing an ongoing infrastructure to...
