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 

• The Simplicity Thesis: the businesses that will succeed will offer the lowest complexity for the highest value
• The Fastest Growing Entrepreneurial Industries (and some clues on what people are attributing value to)
• Top Tech Trends of 2011: Last Year At A Glance (will these hold true in 2012?)
• How to Make Observations Like a Scientist
• Eight Ways to Cultivate Serendipity in Business and In Life
• Why Floundering Is Good
• Everything We Know, Is Wrong
• How Do You Create a Culture of Innovation?
• The Rise + Fall of Influence Metrics
• The Science of Mining Social Media Data

Notable Ideas: New Products, Platforms and Projects 

• Digital Shoreditch: An Invitation to Global Startups
• You Might Not Be A Journalist, But You Play One on Twitter (new research project)
• Harvard, MIT Partner In $60MM Initiative On Free Online Classes
• The Automation of Rio: Smart City or Digital Tyranny? (is it too much Big Brother?)
• Pinstagram! How Two Friends Merged Pinterest and Instagram in Two Days
• Samplrs: A local artisan food subscription service in NYC
• Sourcemap: Track Where Your Stuff Comes From, Down to the Tiniest Part
• Gap, H&M, Sephora and Others Unwrap Social Gifting Service in the US
• Queu Hacker: Taking the Queu Out of the Post Office

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

• GE + Quirky: Crowdsourced product innovation
• Instagram Is Making a Camera with Its $1Billion (wink, wink)
• Three Years of Kickstarter Projects: A Visual Timeline
• LinkedIn to Buy Slideshare
• Microsoft Invests in B&N’s Nook
• Blackberry 10: What RIM Needs To Succeed
• Apple to Build New Austin Campus
• W Hotel Times Square to Host NYC’s First Instagram Exhibit
• Spotify Launches iPad App
• Lessons from the Rise of AirBnB (on the sharing economy)

Digital & Social Media News and Resources

• 5 Strategies to Manage Technology Overload
• Couch Commerce Spans Researching, Reviewing and Buying (difference in role of smartphones vs. tablets in shopping)
• What’s Next for Mobile Tech in the US
• Apple Legally Sidesteps Billions in Taxes
• The Nine Most Creative Uses of Pinterest
• Draw Something Now Allows Brands to Buy Key Terms: ‘Draw This Brand’
• Facebook‘s Numbers
• Facebook Adds Simple Photo Filter Options to Mobile App
• The Big Doubt Over Facebook’s IPO
• Hey, Google – Your G+ Desperation Is Showing
• Foursquare‘s Tristan Walker Heads to Andreessen Horowitz