Services 2020

"When Texas Gov. Rick Perry decided to stage a Texas-size prayer event - dubbed "The Response" - on Aug. 6, it no doubt seemed like the right thing to do at the time. It received little critical scrutiny when he announced it back in early June, except on websites that track these sorts of things. But after Rachel Maddow, drawing on these sites, did a segment highlighting some of the more bizarre statements made by Perry's high-profile religious endorsers, things cooled considerably - even though the real story is still not remotely well-understood."

I've heard thin threads of this before, but this does seem like one of these massive, subterranean movements that no-one's going to notice until it pops up "out of nowhere".

" BEIJING - The operators of China's most vibrant equivalent of Twitter notified each of its 200 million users Friday that several bloggers deemed to have spread unfounded rumors would have their accounts suspended for one month. "

"Thousands of museum professionals gathered Sunday in Houston to mull their futures and contemplate ways to recast their missions and audiences. Participants at the American Association of Museums' annual conference pondered possibilities that included a multiple-voucher system in which museums compete to meet certain components of a public school child's education. They even discussed a "Facebook update from hell" that would simultaneously publish everyone's personal data - including information museums have gathered in order to personalize visitor experiences."

"On both sides of an increasingly fractious political divide, there's a common belief underlying the debates: what we really need is more stimulus, spending, cutting, slashing, or [insert big idea here], and the economy will "recover" - hey, presto!! - and pop roaring back into life. Hence, like many, you're probably waiting for this so-called mysteriously reluctant non-recovering "recovery" - the one that always seems just around the corner, but when the corner's turned, has automagically disappeared yet again. (Want fries with that latest global "soft patch"?) Recovery means "a return to a normal state of strength." So here's a question. Is recovery enough? Consider seven things that a mere "recovery" probably wouldn't fix..."

This blog serves as the primary point of contact for a competition seeking game designs to engage participants in research on the relationship between communication technology and power relations.

The Hawaii game competition

"When the number of committed opinion holders is below 10 percent, there is no visible progress in the spread of ideas. It would literally take the amount of time comparable to the age of the universe for this size group to reach the majority," said SCNARC Director Boleslaw Szymanski, the Claire and Roland Schmitt Distinguished Professor at Rensselaer. "Once that number grows above 10 percent, the idea spreads like flame."

I think all of these ideas, power of pull, TIMN are similar... also there's constructal theory which may provide an overarching framework.. i think ,some what vaguely... http://www.constructal.org/

This progress is quietly driven by improvements in computer hardware. Many of us find it unremarkable that a $600 iPad can outperform the Cray 2, which not so long ago was the fastest computer on Earth. Unfortunately the source of these endless performance improvements is drying up, and the free ride so long enjoyed by software developers is in jeopardy. Worse, this is occurring at a time when software has become more important than ever.

UnCollege is a social movement designed to help you hack your education.  This manifesto will show you how to gain the passion, hustle, and contrarianism requisite for success - all without setting foot inside a classroom.

Interest brings groups together, but intent is what brings teams together to actually get things done.  Intentcasting is deceptively simple to describe. It consists in broadcasting your intent to make something happen. 

"We say price falls are both imminent and unstoppable. Philip Soos explains why," Collyer concluded. "This is essential reading for every citizen thinking of buying.

"Open Foresight"

Are you ready for designer biohazards, an end to Middle Eastern dominance of the oil business, and a United Nations with a lot more countries sitting at the grown-ups' table? What about a robot chauffeur, Iranian smart bombs, or a United States desperate to encourage immigrants from south of the border, not keep them out? Welcome to Foreign Policy's first-ever predictions issue. We asked some of the world's most bleeding-edge thinkers to look at the planet in the year 2025-and those are just a few of their remarkable, and at times startling, projections. Most of all, what they told us is that The Future Is Now; the big trends and inescapable developments dictating our next few decades have already been set in motion, and though of course we can't begin to predict the unknowable, we actually already know an awful lot about how the world will look in the coming years.

"Are you making money renting your apartment on Airbnb? You're a Micro-Entrepreneur. As more and more services let people monetize their own assets and knowledge, it's creating a new sector of the economy."

The TrendWiki engages your networks to study problems of interest and communicates the results to the decision makers and experts. The TrendWiki is different from typical Wikis in two ways: it is designed to support selected business processes and contains the data and text mining tools to study the content of the wiki pages. Click the balls on the left to study more; click the logos below to study our references.

"In his classic novel "Invisible Cities," Italo Calvino envisioned a building, in a city called Fedora, containing a series of small globes. The visitor peering into each would see a small city, a model of a different Fedora. "These are the forms the city could have taken," wrote Calvino, "if for one reason or another, it had not become what we see today." In the real world, one can stand on a street in Manhattan and look into one's iPhone, where the app "Museum of the Phantom City: Other Futures" reveals the New York that might have been: from the fantastic (Buckminster Fuller's projected Midtown-covering dome) to the nearly realized (Diller and Scofidio's Eyebeam Museum)."

"A new model for crowdsourcing predictions called Aggregative Contingent Estimation System (ACES) is transforming the way future events are forecast - combining the collective knowledge of many individual opinions in a unique way that improves accuracy beyond what any one person or small group of experts could provide."

"The 4th International Risk Assessment and Horizon Scanning Symposium will be held from 18 to 19 October 2011 in Raffles City Convention Centre, Singapore. The symposium is organized by the National Security Coordination Secretariat at the Prime Minister's Office. About 300 international participants are expected for the by-invitation-only symposium, mainly from governments, think tanks and private enterprises with a strong interest in horizon scanning."

"Springwise scans the globe for the most promising business ventures, ideas and concepts that are ready for regional or international adaptation, expansion, partnering, investments or cooperation. Springwise headquarters is in close contact with more than 15,000 Springspotters in over 150 countries worldwide, who provide us with details of the latest innovations in their countries. These are compiled and assessed by our editorial team, and the best examples are published to provide entrepreneurial inspiration to our readers around the world!"

Local Sydney futures guy.