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Joshua-Michele Ross

Biography

Josh has spent over 10 years consulting on digital business strategy. His focus over the last four years has been on applying Web 2.0 principles to deliver competitive advantage (from new business model development to customer engagement and communication strategies). Mr. Ross has been a guest lecturer at Harvard University and has spoken at conferences related to technology and digital strategy around the world. Past clients include Washington Mutual, Accenture, Best Buy, Autodesk, and Polycom.

Joshua holds a degree with honors in Chinese Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Blog

Recent Posts | All Posts

In Defense of Social Media (At Least Some Of It)

July 02 2009

Scott Berkun just posted a great rant titled, Calling Bullshit on Social Media. I suggest everyone read it. Berkun raises good points - and I agree the hype around social media warrants taking a critical look. Despite being in general agreement, there are a few areas I can't abide, starting… read more

“Silicon Valley’s First Phone Company” -A conversation with Ted Griggs

June 27 2009

Ribbit bills itself as “Silicon Valley’s First Phone Company.” Recently I sat down with Ted Griggs, Ribbit’s CEO to talk about that tag line, Ribbit’s business and what’s behind their recent acquisition by British Telecom. It will be interesting to see how the telecommunications industry is going to handle the… read more

Social Science Moves from Academia to the Corporation

May 21 2009

This is the latest of a series of posts addressing questions regarding social technologies. These topics will be opened to live discussion in an upcoming webcast on May 27 with a special guest to be announced. In order to control a thing you must first classify that thing -- and… read more

The Digital Panopticon

May 20 2009

This post is part three of a series raising questions about the mass adoption of social technologies;. Here are links to part one and two. These posts will be opened to live discussion in an upcoming webcast on May 27. (special guest to be announced shortly) In 1785 utilitarian philosopher… read more

Captivity of the Commons

May 19 2009

This post is part two of the series, “The Question Concerning Social Technology”. Part one is here. These posts will be opened to live discussion in an upcoming webcast on May 27. In January 2002 DARPA launched the Information Awareness Office. The mission was to, “ imagine, develop, apply, integrate,… read more

The Question Concerning Social Technology

May 18 2009

I am an evangelist of social media and an active participant: on Linked In (business), MySpace (music) and Facebook (increasingly my online identity), I blog on several sites and I am a daily user of Twitter. I also make my living speaking to companies about the value and operating principles… read more

Radar Interview with Clay Shirky

February 16 2009

Clay Shirky is one of the most incisive thinkers on technology and its effects on business and society. I had the pleasure to sit down with him after his keynote at the FASTForward '09 conference last week in Las Vegas. In this interview Clay talks about The effects of low… read more

Stimuluswatch.org; The Falling Cost and Accelerated Speed of Group Action

February 14 2009

Stimuluswatch.org is a great example of how easy it is today for people to, as Clay Shirky says, “organize without organizations.” Stimuluswatch.org began after Jerry Brito attended a mayor’s Conference and posted this request: "Let’s help President-Elect Obama do what he is promising. Let’s help him “prioritize” so the projects… read more

Security in the Age of Social Networks

February 06 2009

Over the past four years we have seen an explosion in the volume of personally identifiable information (PII) online as social software and user generated content have allowed millions of people to create, manage and share their data in the cloud. While the rewards have been pretty clear (lower barriers… read more

What Does It Mean To Be An Internet President?

January 21 2009

FDR was our radio president, JFK was our television president and Barack Obama will be our Internet President. Quietly at noon yesterday, as the world was fixated on the televised inauguration of Barack Obama, some obscure IT managers flipped a switch (metaphorically) and transferred Change.gov to Whitehouse.gov... While the inauguration… read more

Work On Stuff That Matters: Video Interview with Tim O'Reilly

January 15 2009

Over the past few months I have been interviewing various people that are "on our Radar" so to speak. It recently occurred to me that we had never done a video with Tim. So last week Kirk Walter (bless him!) grabbed his camera and Tim and I took a walk… read more

Seeing New Possibilities in Existing Technologies: An Interview with April Allderdice of MicroEnergy Credits

January 10 2009

This interview is with April Allderdice, CEO and cofounder of MicroEnergy Credits. MicroEnergy Credits has developed a mechanism using microfinance institutions and GPS cell phones to allow carbon credits to reach small households in the developing world. Until now the relatively high transaction costs involved in set up and verification… read more

Software for Civic Life: An Interview with Mike Mathieu of Frontseat.org

December 30 2008

In this interview Mike Mathieu, founder of Frontseat.org, discusses how he is helping to build “software for civic life”. Using publicly available data and web services (many of their applications use S3 and EC2) Frontseat creates simple, highly functional tools like Walkscore (rating neighborhood walkability) and Countmore (helping students in… read more

Zappos: If You Are Great at Something - Let It Go... (Or Resell It)

December 22 2008

I am fascinated by what I see as Zappos' ongoing evolution from a simple, online retailer to a leading online innovator. A few months back I wrote about Zappos pioneering what I called “Experience Syndication" with their Powered by Zappos (PBZ) service. In brief, PBZ syndicates the end-to-end value of… read more

Catch 22: Too Big To Fail, Too Big To Succeed

December 08 2008

Hat in hand the U.S. Auto Industry lined up for their slice of government aid and it appears as of this posting that they will get the money they are asking for. These titans spent years hiding behind the “free market” shibboleth when convenient (the market wants gas guzzling SUV’s)… read more

Recent Posts | All Posts

Multimedia

Webcast: Reconsidering Social Media
May 27, 2009
Duration: Approximately 60 minutes. Preview Video: Free Full Video: Available on Safari Books Online No corner of modern American life is untouched by technology. And no technology is more transformative than the Internet. This for the simple reason...

Webcast - The Evangelist's Toolkit: A field guide to bringing social technologies into your organization
September 30, 2008
This is a free live event. Scheduled for approximately 45 minutes. While it has become cliché to talk about how much the Internet and the Social Web have changed business, what has been less well explored is how traditional (meaning non-Internet...

Webcast: Success Factors: What traditional business really needs to know about Web 2.0
July 21, 2008
This is a free live event. Scheduled for approximately 45 minutes. The business world is experiencing successive waves of disruption caused by new trends and technologies; from publishing to media and entertainment, software development to financial...

Joshua-Michele Ross