The Burness Effect Blog

“Today, 1.4 billion people around the world live in extreme poverty. Many of them are women and children. Most of them are farmers.” That’s World Bank President Robert Zoellick in a video address to the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD), an unprecedented gathering in Montpellier, France that brought together researchers, policymakers, farmers, donors, and members of civil society from every region of the world.

When a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, the call went out across the globe for relief to save lives in the impoverished Caribbean nation. For a group of technology pioneers in the U.S., that meant one thing: software. With skill, an understanding of the situation on the ground and a willing crowd of contributors, a networked few can make real impact – even from thousands of miles away.

Our nation is burdening Americans needlessly with disease— Americans who could be healthy if we tackled the factors that cause obesity: neighborhoods without spaces for physical activity, deficient access to healthy foods, high-calorie school lunches. It’s for this reason that the 42nd President called childhood obesity the “number one public health problem in the country”.

The new “social media revolution” seems to have hit parents in the same way that the “sexual revolution” hit parents in the 60s and 70s—we don’t always understand it.

SXSW 2010: Spot.us and the Future of Accountability Reporting

“There’s no silver bullet” to fix the decline of investigative reporting, says David Cohn. But the founder of Spot.us may be offering a bridge for journalism by handing editorial direction to the public.

I’ve just landed in Austin, Texas for the Internet’s Super Bowl, South by Southwest. With more than 10,000 expected, the annual interactive conference is guaranteed to be an all-you-can-eat buffet of digital innovations and new media experts. But amid the all tweets, check-ins, gurus and barbeque, I’ll be searching for one thing in particular – something we’re always thinking about at Burness: impact.

When a devastating 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile two weeks ago over 60 people packed Valparaiso Eterno for a fundraiser that yielded more than $5,000 for the Red Cross International Relief Fund, counting contributions from those who couldn’t attend.

Today, there is broad agreement: childhood obesity is a public health epidemic. One in three American children is now overweight or obese.

The threat of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) is not news. Hospitals, policymakers and advocates have known for years: sometimes, patients can pick up dangerous infections in the very places they came to get well. But who’s to blame when patients die in the hospital?

Researchers, scientists, doctors—really anyone with an issue for which they advocate—need to recognize that their cause is most likely not a top priority for most. Fitting into the news of the day, rather than trying to demand a separate story in a world with breaking news on Afghanistan, H1N1 and the economy, ensures messages will be heard even in a world of competing priorities.