We’re back with our weekly recap of the interesting and inspiring, with a particular eye for what shifts and ideas brands should be tracking, evaluating and acting on. This is a collection of  some standout business strategy, brand-building and digital media stories catching our attention.

Discussions Shaping Strategy, Creativity & Innovation 

• Stop Talking About Social and Just Do It (on creating, managing and organizing around disruption in business)
• Why Companies Fail (because the hardest thing to change is culture)
• Today Is the Most Exciting Time To Be Working in the Internet
• The Origins of Futurism (and predictive methods)
• The Benefits of Bilingualism
• The Zen of Doing
• Research on Optimal Boarding Methods for Airline Passengers (may inspire other design challenges)
• What SXSW Attendees Need the Most
• 6 Lessons in Brand Strategy from the Brains Behind Gaming’s Best Brand
• Infographic: How Teens Have Changed Over the Course of a Generation
• Infographic: Where Are Women Taking Over (and Where Are They Not?)

Evolving Thoughts on Curation (a very active conversation this week):

• What is Curation? (lot of conversation on curation this week – see below)
• The Curation Debate
• Guidelines Proposed for Content Aggregation Online (the Curators Code)
• Content & the Internet: Stock & Flow

Notable Ideas: New Products, Platforms and Projects 

• How This Entrepreneur Raised $28K to Fund Her Startup, Using AirBnB
• PayPal Here: A Direct (and triangular) Competitor to Square
• What SXSW Apps Do Real Americans Actually Use?
• Picle (a storytelling app created by Made By Many, launched at SXSW)
• jQuery Scroll Path
• Thoughts on improving the Homeless Hotspots program
• Here Comes a Hot New Chip for the Internet of Things

Brands, Companies and Entities of Note (some more obvious than others)

• To Celebrate 500,000 Fans, Cadbury Creates Google+ Page Made of Chocolate
• Two Brands (and one thing) That Nailed It This Year at SXSW
• Path is Raising Up to $30MM at a $250MM Valuation
• Live Life, Don’t Watch It: A Puma Sport

Digital & Social Media News and Resources

• Non-Humans Account for 51% of All Internet Traffic
• Why Twitter Bought Posterous: Talent and Apple
• How PayPay Here Could Lay the Hurt on Square and Others
• Why Do So Many Digital Music Services Fail?
• Why Are Ad Agencies So Cautious About Mobile Advertising?
• Pinterest Revamps Profile Pages
• A Flaw in Pinterest’s Potential Fair Use Argument
• How to Track Traffic from Pinterest in Google Analytics
• Polyvore Hits 15MM Monthly Uniques By Embracing the Pinterest Effect
• The New iPad Already Accounts for Over 5% of the iPads on the Internet in the US