This week’s reading

Some great reading this week on technology, the economy, banking and smart transport … plus a little humour …

• A great article in Prospect magazine on the credit crunch, environmental issues and the possibility for a technology-enabled evolution of capitalism – it’s worth linking to the discussion on the weblog too: http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=10680 – a much more comprehensive view of something I suggested in a simplistic way in my recent post “Social media – a reminiscence”.
• A discussion of the applicability of a broad spectrum of Web 2.0 ideas and technology to commercial banking: http://www.banktech.com/blog/archives/2009/04/banks_need_to_b.html?cid=RSS_bt_blog
• Facebook’s launch of “virtual credits” – not a currency yet, but could be an early move in that direction: http://venturebeat.com/2009/04/03/facebook-wants-you-to-give-credit-where-credit-is-due/ and http://thefinanser.co.uk/fsclub/2009/04/facebook-testing-virtual-currency.html
• Yet another electric car network announced as a partnership between an electricity provider and a car manufacturer, in this case Renault/Nissan and ESB in Ireland – this idea seems to be taking off in the current economic and environmental climate: http://earth2tech.com/2009/04/03/renault-nissan-ireland-utility-team-up-for-electric-car-network/
• An interesting and challenging post from Information Arbitrage and the likely effectiveness of the US and UK bank bailouts: http://www.informationarbitrage.com/2009/04/bailing-out-the-bailout-or-a-plan-for-change-.html

And on a lighter note:

• The amazing “BillMyParents.com”: http://www.netbanker.com/2009/03/straight_out_of_twitter_billmyparents_launches.html and http://www.billmyparents.com/
• … and take a look at Rockwell Automation’s superb technology: