Welcome back to another edition of the Wikinomics Roundup: Week in Review! In this week’s roundup, I will capture in brief, some of the thoughts, discoveries, and discussions that graced the blog throughout the past week.

In case you missed it, you can catch last week’s roundup HERE.  From now on the Wikinomics Roundup will have a  nice new home on the left side of the page, under Regular Features. Come visit!

“Governments are already lifting mandatory retirement ages but can do more to encourage employers to provide older workers with flexible options, such as phased retirement, part-time hours, telecommuting and other flexible arrangements, and mentoring opportunities.”

Are you young? Old? Unsure? Join the discussion @
Children of Men: The world in 2053?

“A few months ago my colleague Alan wrote a paper called ‘Social Networks as Operating Systems,’ in which he stated that:

‘Social networks and Web 2.0 technologies herald a new collaborative platform that will be very different from our experience of the Web today. Social networks are destined to become the new “operating systems” (OS) of the collaborative Internet. User identities, attributes, and relationships are all pivotal assets for the networked applications within this new platform. End users, social networks, application providers, and technology vendors will face a looming battle over the ownership and use of these assets and indeed, the question of whether they can be “owned” at all.’

Well, Mark Z. and the Facebook team must have had the same idea…”

Talk about Facebook’s plans for web domination @
Facebook plans for Web domination

“Peering: My colleague David Cameron wrote about My Starbucks Idea on the blog a few months ago. The idea is quite similar to Dell’s Ideastorm, most recently blogged about by Justin Papermaster here. The basic idea is that Starbucks customers submit ideas, and then discuss and vote on them. Starbucks then tries to implement the best ideas, and you can now follow their implementation progress on Twitter. This is a great idea that both generates great feedback and does a great job at engaging customers.”

Did they pass with flying colours or get a sheet full of red ink?  Find out @
Wikinomics Report Card: Starbucks

As I wrote back in January, the rise of the Net and its ability to engage citizens is equally applicable to globalist or nationalist schools of thought. While on one hand it has, and will continue, to break down the barriers of distance and standards that exist between nations and people, it holds an equal ability to reinforce those very walls by those who see what’s beyond them as threatening to the sovereignty and future of their nations.

Get the full story @
China’s net nation

Keep checking back each week, as Wikinomics bloggers keeps their eyes on the web, and their fingers on the keyboard. And as always…if something stood out and interested you, please comment!

Until next week…