Services 2020

"The World Economics Association (WEA) was launched on May 16, 2011. It fills a gap in the international community of economists -- the absence of a professional organization which is truly international and pluralist. The American Economic Association and other nationally based organizations provide broad associations mainly for their country's economists. The WEA will do the same for the world's community of economists, while promoting a pluralism of approaches to economic analysis."

The Gov 2.0 movement continues to gain momentum around the world with a number of inspiring people, projects & ideas rising to prominence over the last year or so. Sometimes the most important innovations emerge from the periphery where creative citizens take a "do it first, ask for permission later" approach that can generate a wealth of benefits for the entire global community. So here's my pick of the world's best Gov 2.0 initiatives. What are your favourites?

"China's top legislator Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) Wu Bangguo met today with his Maldivian counterpart, Speaker of the Majlis and Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Abdulla Shahid."

The baby bust, the big tilt, whatever you want to call this bold new demographic world, it is like nothing we have experienced before. It works silently, eating away at the consumer and the tax base just as it worked for the consumer and the tax base over the past 60 years: more babies and more young migrants pumped up the worker base. But at some point it all comes crashing down. And that point is upon us or at least will be upon us in the coming decade. And it's not just Australia where the demography tilts in favour of the retirement age group. The working-age population in Japan has contracted from 87 million in 1994 to 81 million in 2010; over the previous 16 years the working-age population had expanded by nine million. Which period delivered greatest prosperity to the Japanese people?

"HONOLULU, Hawaii, U.S., May 26, 2011 (IPS) - For the past quarter century, the United States' relations with Pacific island nations were framed by the South Pacific Tuna Treaty, which combines foreign aid, subsidies to the U.S. fleet of purse-seine fishing vessels and their largely unfettered access to the islands' waters, which contain the world's last major stocks of tuna."

"Resonant City is an interdisciplinary writing and research collaborative exploring the intersections of art, architecture, technology, the immediate past, enduring present, and possible futures. In the course of our explorations we hope to illuminate a subtle yet critical discourse underlying the construction of nature, landscape, the city, and cultural modes of production. We write anonymously because it is not a single author that is important, but rather ideas."

"Global Foresight Associates is a futures research and consulting firm that offers ideas and insights about the future to help our clients determine the strategic implications of change for their business and industry. Our uninhibited thinking offers a unique perspective - a big picture view of the future that explores the current trends and emerging issues reverberating throughout society and business. This view from the "outside in" helps clients innovate existing products, identify new areas and markets for growth and explore the possible, probable and preferable futures for their business."

[I forget which dimension this goes in...]

Building infrastructure does not produce economic growth unless there is already a skilled workforce and an expanding private sector to exploit it. Job creation schemes are expensive, require continuing support and tend to divert jobs from elsewhere rather than create new ones. Worse than the waste, these regional economic development programs can prevent money from going where it is both needed and able to contribute to economic growth - in Australia's fast-growing or `bolting' regions.

"The world's largest emerging economies on Tuesday slammed Europe's push to lock up the International Monetary Fund's top job, calling its hold on the managing director position "obsolete.""

"Rebellious Media Conference logoA corporate media group has trademarked the phrase "Radical Media" and has issued a cease and desist letter to activists using it in the title of their conference, which takes place in London later this year."

"From the Gold Rush to the rise of the film industry, from the free speech movement to the emergence of Silicon Valley, California has always been a frontier-a place of change and innovation, and today the state is facing some of its toughest challenges yet. Looking ahead, we need to ask … Will California reinvent itself again for the 21st century? Can everyday citizens be empowered to help transform California? Will California keep growing, start conserving, reinvent itself, or completely collapse? These were the questions posed to the participants of IFTF's California Dreams: Which Future is Yours contest-challenging everyday people to make a better future for our state."

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has initiated a study to inspire the first steps in the next era of space exploration-a journey between the stars. Neither the vagaries of the modern fiscal cycle, nor net-present-value calculations over reasonably foreseeable futures, have lent themselves to the kinds of century-long patronage and persistence needed to definitively transform mankind into a space-faring species.

Look quite relevant to the broad profile of our CRC work.

This is a very cool trailer that depicts many of the challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. It is highly significant because the Communication of Foresight s one of the pre-eminent challenges we face today as societies. The dangers of climate change have been well developed by generations of climate scientists. But what about engaging various publics in the issue, garnering interest and energy for change through instigating new debates. How many other areas are like climate change - genetics, human consciousness, the list goes on. This trailer is a good example of aestheticizing the future in ways that CAN garner interest.

Rare earth elements massively improve energy efficiency and conductivity of metals. Yet rare earth are some of the most toxic and difficult materials to mine, and most are controlled by China. This article provokes consideration of both the need for developing super-efficient electronics with the costs associated in mining, as well as geo-political factors related to minerals extraction.

This is an exceedingly erudite essay by futurist Richard Hames. Stylistically echoing JR Saul's critique of Western Rationalism, Hames takes apart the current structure and worldview of the West, demanding nothing less than a re-invention of the way that we envision ourselves as a species with respect for life and Earth. "The Occidental mindset, for example, overwhelmingly sees reality as a logically explicable system of physical artifacts, calibrations and observable phenomena. This mindset has been dominated by scientific rationalism, in spite of the philosophical outcry cautioning us that this viewpoint only illumines a path to perdition. Indeed the German writer Goethe claims in Urfaustus that putting one's faith in Newtonian principles is tantamount to selling one's soul to the devil." It is a beautiful and impassioned essay that is calling forth a new culture for an urgent transformation.

thanks Josh Floyd Great overview of personal energy calculus in context of climate change Saul Griffith has done a very detailed analysis of the energy portfolio required to address the problem of climate change inducing carbon emissions. He begins by examining what our maximum output of carbon emissions would be to limit carbon increases to 450 parts per million. He then calculates how much other types of energy (non carbon / fossil fuel based) will be needed. He then distributes this using a global equity system. The result is an overall reduction in energy consumption which is a quarter (25%) of current amounts. It is a useful application of backcasting and it has big applications for eco-innovation and entrepreneurship. For ICT, it implies a huge reduction in current energy consumption and a strong movement toward closed loop engineering.

watching great preso on post collapse USA

thanks Gareth, I'm sure you have already added this ;)