Ready to Share: Fashion & the Ownership of Creativity
This conference, held on January 29, 2005, explored the intricate system by which creativity arises, circulates and is converted into marketable fashion. Fashion is a notable world of creativity because it permits and even celebrates the appropriation and modification of other people's creative designs. It is no accident that fashion is a highly robust, churning tide of innovation in the same way that many online digital environments are. The conference was hosted by the Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.

Stopping Urban Sprawl
Only three years ago, sprawl was not yet recognized as a distinct battlefront of activism. Few people saw the connections among land use, transportation policy, zoning, habitat loss, racial segregation and urban decline. To help synthesize a new analysis of sprawl and catalyze new activism, I wrote How Smart Growth Can Stop Sprawl, a report that helped launch Sprawl Watch Clearinghouse in Washington, D.C.

Social Innovation in Business
Beyond those reforms forced upon business, some enlightened companies have launched their own admirable, pro-active initiatives. The Business Enterprise Trust (1989-1999), founded by Norman Lear, identified dozens of such stories. The BET is now defunct, but other organizations worth checking out include: Business Alliance for a Local Living Economy and Social Ventures Network.

A History of Ralph Nader and the Consumer Movement
Ralph has been around for so long that no one really remembers when cars didn't have seat belts, airplanes allowed smoking, and congressional hearings were held in secret. My book, Citizen Action and Other Big Ideas (1989, updated in 1992) is one of the few serious, interpretive histories of Ralph Nader's career and the modern consumer movement. A more concise biographical profile of Nader's career can be found in my essay for the Encyclopedia of the Consumer Movement.

Can Quality Journalism Survive in Today's Marketplace?
Good question. The issue is explored by a host of celebrity journalists, editors and media executives at a series of annual conferences convened by the Aspen Institute's Communications and Society Program. I served as rapporteur.

2001: The Evolution of Journalism in a Changing Market Ecology

2000: Disruption and Disorientation: American Journalism in Transition

1999: Can Serious Journalism Survive in the New Media Marketplace?

1998: News Values in the New Multimedia Environment: The Case of Privacy