Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Welcome to the Big Blog Leagues

I take my blog screening duties seriously. Before I add any blog to my "Interesting Ideas" list, I read it. Fairly frequently. I ponder it's fit. It's intellectual contribution to the field. Whether the blogger has ever bought me a beer. Whether it is worth reading in ADDITION to my blog and the effort expended by clicking on the link. So, after much careful consideration, I have added a few:

1) Rob Katz has moved to Acumen Fund in NYC. A worthy group. By adding Rob, they have finally made it to the Big Blog Leagues.

2) Patagonia's "Cleanest Line" blog. After a lot of pondering on my part. There are some great posts, but some are underwhelming. Perhaps now that they have made it to the big leagues, Yvonne and crew will step it up a notch (but don't hire Rob). Being an Abbey fan, I loved "Get Some Ed in Your Head." And I still have a Patagonia fleece jacket that is older than any of my kids. That's sustainable. Their blog is not as good as their clothing, but it has potential.

3) In an act of pure nepotism, I have added KLD's blog. I mean it is a good blog on socially responsible investing, but it is a crowded field. However... they recently hired one of my favorite children. One of the independent ones. One who no longer requires financial support from her old man. Smart firm. As with Patagonia, they are on probation. But they appear to be worthy.

One I haven't added: "What Sucks? The All Purpose Guide to Everything Disappointing and Sucky." Too bad it is a comedian and his rants about celebrities. Instead of an inspiring site like this one. Maybe we could partner up?

And, if you haven't checked out the new New Belgium website, try it. Clever and Creative. I feel lucky to work with this crew (and to drink their brew). But it's not a blog.

My most loyal readers (that's you Mom) may notice I finally upgraded to the new version of Blogger. So my picture is bigger. And the wrinkles of wisdom are more noticeable. That isn't why I changed. I changed because I thought it would be easier to do an iGoogle gadget, which would make it convenient to find out when I occasionally post. No clicking. No wasted calories. No waiting near the digital mailbox. Alas, I have yet to figure out how to do this. Which sucks.

3 comments:

Jeff Mowatt said...

Hi Paul,

Picking up on the suggestion to visit here from Social Edge.

Here's a model which has recently come to the fore via others, though few know of its origins:

http://www.p-ced.com/History/tabid/57/Default.aspx

Jeff

Ron Robins said...

I'm glad to have come across your blog and happy to see your interest in socially responsible investing. I'm writing to let you know about my site that could be of interest to you and some of your readers.

I have a background in the investment industry and been following socially responsible investing (SRI) for around forty years. My site covers the latest global green and SRI news and research. It's at www.investingforthesoul.com

Good luck and best wishes, Ron Robins

Bopreneur said...

Jeff- Thanks for sharing this paper on People Centered Economic Development.
Ron-
Welcome as well.

Thank you both for your comments.
It is interesting that Yunus is now suggesting a type of enterprise that repays investors (sans interest), and others are suggesting corporations that limit distributions of capital to shareholders.

The original deal with corporations was they would be given certain priveleges, in return they would take certain risks to do things (e.g., large factories or railroads)that weren't reachable by sole proprietorships, nor appropriate for governments (at least not capitalistic ones).

Mostly, corps have done what they were designed to do, with unprecedented economic development. Perhaps governments will decide they no longer want this deal. Or likeminded investors could certainly decide to limit distributions (perhaps not for companies that hope to go public at some point).