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 

• Facebook, Google Must Adapt As Users Embrace ‘Unsocial’ Networks (on the growth of smaller, closed networks – and the challenge for marketers in reaching transitioning users)
• Innovation Isn’t Easy, Especially Midstream (why a company like Kodak couldn’t build a platform like Instagram)
• The Flight from Conversation (on technology’s ability to keep us isolated)
• How Mobile Technologies Are Shaping a Generation
• The Jig Is Up: Time to Get Past Facebook and Invent A New Future (we need a new paradigm for social-mobile-local)
• How to Create Products Hand in Hand with Your Customer (on participatory design)

• How Open Is Your Internet? An Interactive Map
• The Geography of Trust in Social Networks (a cultural anthropologist’s observations, through the story of a young man in China that used his social network to bypass and protest internet censorship in China)
• Sergei Brin on the Internet’s Future

Notable Ideas: New Products, Platforms and Projects 

• Young People Tire of Old Economic Models
• IKEA Uppleva
• Netflix Instant to Release Entire ‘Arrested Development’ Season At Once
• Nike Store Launches Twitter RSVP for US Product Launches
• LiveHoods: A Map of Your City’s Neighborhoods, Based on Foursquare Checkins
• The Noteboard: A $10 Foldable Whiteboard
• Reasons for Optimism

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

• Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World
• The 100 Best Corporate Citizens
• Zynga Flashes $1.8Billion Searching for Next Farmville
• P&G Innovates on Razor-Thin Margins
• Everyone’s Lives, In Pictures (an art critique of Instagram)
• It’s Not About Instagram: It’s About Mobile
• Moleskine Celebrates the SMS by Shooting Messages Across the Room
• Domino’s: Pizza Heroes Wanted

Digital & Social Media News and Resources

• The Future of Mobile
• If You Have a Smartphone, Anyone Can Track Your Every Move
• Foursquare Eyes June for Launch of New Advertising Platform
• Next Instagram-Size Acquisition Could be Tumblr
• Tumblr Starts Selling Ads
• The Most Pinned and Re-Pinned Words on Pinterest
• Facebook Activates Realtime Insights
• What Makes a Great Tweet