nuance intelligence

Leave it to the Brits. Small towns all over the UK have begun to follow the model developed in Totnes, in southwestern England, for living in smaller communities in a world of constrained oil and other resources.

CNN has reported on it. Over 50 cities in the UK have signed on to the framework, which emphasizes a step-by-step plan to get to zero carbon emissions and a dramatically reduced reliance on oil, increasing local food production and generally localizing the economy.

Boulder, by virtue of the efforts of Boulder Going Local, is the first US city to be accepted into the program.

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Here are some interesting stories I saw this week, and why…

• Industry Standard: 10 ‘Net Services that Will Succeed and 10 That Probably Won’t.  A new set of choices for the new new new new new thing, most of which I hadn’t heard about yet, and some harsh knocks on buzz darlings Second Life, Zillow, Twitter and Joost.
• Compete Blog: Analysis of Traffic Patters Among Users of Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.  Good insight into how these brands differ, based on data about the most popular sites visited by account holders in these three meganets.
• NYT: Feature on Boulder in the Travel Section.  For a piece in the Old Gray Lady, it’s not too bad.  What did they miss?  The 300-person-per-month TechMeetup at the core of the biggest tech entrepreneur scene between New York and San Francisco, five new CleanTech venture funds being started, how close excellent backcountry skiing really is and the wide variety of global leaders who make their living somewhere else, but make Boulder their home.
• Worldchanging: Emerging Green Jobs Market.  Joel Makower has a good piece on the gap between the hype and reality around the growth in ‘green jobs’.  Made me think about the solar panel installer I met at “Green Drinks” last week who said, “for the first time in my life, I’ve got job security, and I’m not worried at all about a recession.”

Enjoy your weekend.