It used to be that when I spoke about a future in which we’d have mini-manufacturing hubs in the home, that I’d see the audience squirm with discomfort. It just seemed too freaky, too unrelated to life as we know it.
But in this last year I’ve been able to share video clips demonstrating current technologies that “print” products, and seen people’s expressions transform from “Eeeeww!” to “Wow!!” The old saw that “seeing is believing” proves its point once again; the problem is that by the time trends and innovations can be seen, you’ve lost the advantage of anticipating them.
It’s not too late, however, to appreciate the ultimate impact of personal manufacturing hubs on the economy, with it’s potential to disrupt every link of the supply chain, from raw materials to design, production to distribution, inventory to retail and marketing. Watch the following video from Fab@Home, an open-source tool set that allows anyone to download blueprints and instructions to assemble your very own 3-D fabricator, right now. Material cost runs around $2,400.
Desktop fabricators allow users to print 3D objects
Ambient Technologies is offering far more than a penny for your thoughts with a new application that can translate thoughts into speech. Imagine what this means for people suffering from ALS (i.e, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking) and a wide range of neurological disorders who have much to say - and now a new way to say it.
The ability to connect brains and computers has applications in medicine, robotics, defense, security and everyday software. Stretch this a bit further and it’s easy to imagine the effects on retail, marketing, gaming, education, polling, social networking, dating, criminal justice and rehabilitation, training, psychotherapy…anywhere brains and computers meet.
Which is what Microsoft is readying itself for, as evidenced by a patent filed on their behalf in 08.07. They’re working on EEG brain scanning technology that reads only the cognitive patterns of a computer user (filtering out non-cognitive activity). Microsoft’s goal, as stated on its research site, is “…to create brain-wave detection devices costing less than $100 per computer, this could very well lead to a revolution of sorts in PC capabilities.”
Factoring in emotional states of computer users is what researchers at Tufts University’s Human Computer Interaction are investigating. They’re working with infrared technology to visualize varying levels of blood oxygenation and their corresponding emotional states, similar to what functional MRIs yield, without having to lie stationary in a tube. Instead, fNIR headbands are worn in real-life environment.
“New evaluation techniques that monitor user experiences while working with computers are increasingly necessary,” said Robert Jacob, computer science professor and researcher. “One moment a user may be bored, and the next moment, the same user may be overwhelmed. Measuring mental workload, frustration and distraction is typically limited to qualitatively observing computer users or to administering surveys after completion of a task, potentially missing valuable insight into the users’ changing experiences.”
While the work being done at Tufts is still in the investigative stages, there’s a mind-reading EEG headset that you can buy now (I knew you wanted one!). Developed by NeuroSky the headsets will largely be used by gamers at first, however applications with robotics, space vehicles, and prosthetic devices are being played with as well. My guess is that requests for Wii on gift lists might just be replaced by NeuroSky’s MindSets by the 2008 holiday season - let the countdown begin!
If you can do it, or send a group from your organization, I highly recommend the Global Institute for Tomorrow (GIFT)’s Leadership Training in Beijing this August. If you’re interested, contact Chandran Nair [cnair AT global-inst DOT org] by the end of March. Download Brochure
The YLP is designed for anyone with leadership potential, is interested in globalisation and development issues, and wants to work for positive solutions, regardless of his or her nationality, industry or subject discipline. Normally, participants are from 28 to 45 years of age.
The course is ideal for individuals who:
• Are poised for rapid career progression
• Have demonstrated leadership ability and need international exposure
• Have worked in demanding management positions in a global organisation
• Are at the stage in their careers where a posting to an overseas location under unusual circumstances is likely
• Have worked in a multi-disciplinary and multicultural team
• Are proficient in English and have a working knowledge of one or more other languages
• Have a growing understanding of the role of business in society in a globalised world
• Have an interest in how leadership in Asia will need to evolve to meet the challenge of the next 25 years
• Desire to complement formal business training such as an MBA with experiential immersion learning
• Are flexible and adaptable, with a curiosity for the different
Chandran Nair, Founder and Chief Executive of the Global Institute for Tomorrow (GIFT), is one of our speakers for PUSH 2008: The Fertile Delta. GIFT is based in Beijing, and its work is focused on sustainable business (and, by definition, social and environmental) for Asia, offering “Honest Inquiry. Asia’s World View. Ideas to Action.”
GIFT has an inspiring program for training Global Young Leaders, which had its beginning at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2005. Its next project takes students and executives to business opportunities in Cambodia:
Cambodia Rural Agricultural Enterprise Project
March 3-15, 2008
The programme taking place from March 3-14, begins with an MBA-style classroom module in Hong Kong during which GIFT facilitators and guest speakers from corporate and civil society groups will focus on the challenges of being effective in a rapidly changing business environment. In their first week, participants will examine topics such as: globalisation, civil society, role of government, business ethics, diversity and corporate social responsibility. They will then apply these concepts in a seven-day experience on-site in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where they will work closely with community members in the surrounding rural vicinity and a local NGO partner, the Cambodian Centre for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC), to produce a robust business plan for a Cambodian social enterprise.
The assumption underlying our Fertile Delta program this year is that those who lead the future must lead from the space between the two poles of rich-poor, connected-unconnected, consumer-crisis, and the enormous divides in education, health care, literacy, religion, politics, etc. New models, solutions and leaders are needed, and GIFT’s Global Young Leaders Program is a stunning example of how it’s being done.
Today is The Return of Super Tuesday, the big primary to see whether we get any closer to knowing which of the Democratic candidates will go up against John McCain in the general election. There are big, exciting, important things happening all over the world as we speak, and analysis I’m eager to share, but what’s really got me going tonight is a new super-slick research tool, Zotero.
Conducting research is a little bit like laying out the patterns of your thought process, in all of its associative glory. For all the research I do, I’d be hard pressed to recreate how I discovered an important idea, innovation or person; mostly it feels like I’m scurrying down rabbit holes without knowing what I’ll find or when I’ll resurface. But now it looks like I’ll be able to capture all my activity in one place with Zotero.
Produced by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, this tool puts the best of both disciplines together in one sweet online application (but that can be used offline as well). It’s a Firefox extension that lets you drag and drop pages or references, take notes, link to any desktop document, and store related links, PDFs, images and entire web pages all in one place. And ever so considerately, it automatically records and stored citation references of your sources. I’m looking forward to using it, and expect it will become a part of my regular self-management system.
Zotero’s been launched in its 1.0 phase, with expectations for a Zotero server to hit in 2008. This 2.0 application will make digital research collaborative, allowing recommendations and feeds for new resources to be shared. As they say on their site, it’s supposed to be research, not re-search. I call it b-u-tee- ful!
Ignore the impact of environmental concerns on the marketplace, and you’ll risk the same fate as that of the poor snowman. Consider the following:
A survey released this month by the Economist Intelligence Unit shows that sustainability strategies provide the ultimate feel-good dividend: improved share price performance by at least 50%.
But be authentic or beware: consumers are watching for greenwashing, and will hold you to account.
The good news is that new incentives are moving sustainability strategies from reputation enhancement and “sentimental shoulds” to market mandate, including:
Wal-Mart pressures suppliers to adopt sustainable practices and is looking for ways to reduce non-renewable energy sources
Taxes on greenhouse gas emissions and penalties for not using renewable energy sources may be passed in California
Consumers want to participate! Check out Carbon Hero, the new cell phone GPS system that calculates the carbon footprint of the user’s daily travel, going into open beta testing this April (in the UK).
Leave a comment and share any behaviors, practices, research or innovations that are a part of your sustainability strategy.
There’s been plenty of talk about “change” so far in the 2008 presidential election. Each candidate is pledging to bring some degree of change to government in Washington, D.C. But Americans may have their hearts broken once the winner takes office.
Futurist Cecily Sommers, president of the Push institute in Minneapolis, says Presidents and governments are better equipped to react to changes in society than to actually bring about those changes.
She talked to MPR’s host Tom Crann about why democracy and capitalism don’t necessarily make it easy to create change and why the leaders who do so don’t emerge from government.
Stuart Brown, M.D. opened PUSH 2007: SuperPower for us last year, establishing play as a central modality for people engaged in inventing the future. He’s warm and fascinating, weaving his knowledge of psychology, neurology and mythology into a case for play as essential to human development, intelligence and sociability. Stuart’s work has taken him from the research lab to the clinical practice, from working with Joseph Campbell to Jane Goodall, and finally to wrapping it all up in the creation of The National Institute for Play.
He’s an extraordinary person, and I couldn’t have been more pleased to see him hosted as a guest on public radio’s Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippet following PUSH. Their conversation about Spirit, Character and Play led to an encore - and sold out - performance of the discussion at NY Public Library in January. This engagement, in turn, led to the cover story in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine, “Serious Play.” Bravo!
A few of my favorite Stuart-isms:
Brown found early in his clinical practice that a lack of natural, spontaneous, free-spirited play during childhood seemed to be a common thread in the histories of “horribly violent mass murderers, really off-the-wall felony drunk drivers,” and others “on the fringes.”
Play fosters curiosity and is a major catalyst to learning.
Play is any nonstereotyped, pleasureful activity that has no clear-cut goal and that is free of anxiety. Human beings have been “designed by nature to play” — that we retain juvenile physical and behavioral characteristics long into adulthood, and that play is important in every stage of life.
There is a tremendous hunger in the culture for true play. Work is not the opposite of play, depression is.
Play needs to be prioritized into our businesses, educational and family systems.
