The evidence is in: we believe technology will create a better future but not better environment

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The Smithsonian Institute and Pew Research Center recently did a survey of Americans on what they thought would happen by the year 2050.

Good created a nice infographic, below, summarizing some of the data. Click on the image for the full size version.


Image source: Good

The Smithsonian magazine has also created a nice animation from the results.

Here are some of what the American people believe will (or is likely to) happen by 2050:
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How Arthur C. Clarke almost 50 years ago accurately predicted our world of global distributed work

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Arthur C. Clarke was certainly one of the most prescient people of the last century, anticipating many developments and in fact inventing the geo-stationary satellite on which much of the early media and communication revolution was based.

In this fantastic segment from a BBC broadcast in 1964 he confidently makes two predictions, one absolutely accurate, one completely wrong.

He says (from 1:45 to 3:13):
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How technological and social change are feeding on each other in an accelerating spiral

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In my recent keynotes I have frequently used variations on my Transformation of Business framework, which looks at how Technology Drivers and Social Drivers lead to a changed Business Landscape, and in turn New Drivers of Success.


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Launch of the Transformation of Government framework

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The vast majority of my work over the years has been in the business sector, however I am increasingly being pulled into government and the public sector. As I spend more time in the government space, it is becoming increasingly evident to me that the public sector can lead fundamental positive structural shifts in society and the economy, making me keen to put more of my time and attention into this arena.

To help support a number of keynotes and other engagements in the public sector I have created The Transformation of Government Framework, as below. This was first shown this morning when I gave the opening keynote at the Institute of Public Administration NSW annual conference, and I will be using an adapted version for my keynote at the Local Government Association of Tasmania’s annual conference this Thursday, which celebrates their 100th anniversary.

The Transformation of Government framework (click on image for full-size pdf)

The framework is derived from The Transformation of Business framework that I created recently, as some of the driving forces are exactly the same across business and government, while other issues are expressed differently or have different prominence across the domains.

The framework is primarily intended to support my keynotes, workshops, and strategy sessions, though hopefully it will also be useful as a stand-alone to help frame fundamental issues around change in the government space. I will expand on and discuss these key themes in greater detail when I get an opportunity.
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The fabulous case study of Queensland Police on Facebook

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I am at the NSW IPAA conference on The Future Course of Modern Government, where I gave the opening keynote on The Transformation of Government.

We have just heard about how Queensland Police used Facebook and Twitter for disaster communication during the extensive flooding in January. It may now seem obvious that these are the best communication channels for the purpose, but it required foresight and courage to engage in a way that allowed them do that when needed.
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Peter Shergold on The Ethical Framework (of Professional Public Service)

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I’m at IPAA NSW conference on the Future Course of Modern Government, where I gave the opening keynote on The Transformation of Government. 

I was followed by Christian Bason, Director of Denmark’s MindLab. The third keynote was delivered by Professor Peter Shergold, previously Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Australia’s most senior public servant, and now Chairman of the NSW Public Sector Commission Advisory Board.
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Christian Bason of MindLab on public sector innovation

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I am at IPAA NSW where I have just given the opening keynote on The Transformation of Government. I will endeavor to blog the event as I go.

Next up is Christian Bason, Director of MindLab, a cross-ministerial institution for innovation in the Danish government, presenting by Telepresence.

MindLab is a government organization that helps Danish government departments to co-create with the public solutions to “wicked problems”. 
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Keynote slides on The Transformation of Government

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Tomorrow morning I am giving the opening keynote at the annual conference of Institute of Public Affairs New South Wales, on the topic of The Transformation of Government.

Originally I was scheduled to follow the recently elected NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell, but he has had to travel to Beijing, so he will present at the conference after the morning break via Telepresence.

It is actually quite significant for an outsider like myself to be invited to speak at the event, let alone on a big picture view of a rapidly changing world. The title of the conference is The Future Course of Modern Government, mirroring an excellent policy paper of the same name created by IPAA a few months ago. I blogged about the 11 recommendations in the report, which are well worth a read if you don’t have the opportunity to read the entire paper.

The conference is intended to be a landmark event, several months since the NSW government changed after 16 years of Labor incumbency, and anticipating potentially dramatic change in how the state government functions in the years ahead. The themes of the conference – Technology, Innovation, Services Reform, Collaboration – are now squarely on the government’s agenda, and the reason I was invited to give the keynote.

Below is my Prezi presentation to support my keynote. I will shortly release the underlying framework as a pdf.


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Strategic positioning in the flow economy: 3 action steps

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Below is an excerpt from my book Living Networks that describes how to develop effective strategies in what I call the “flow economy” of information of ideas, where today almost all value resides. You can also download the complete Chapter 7 on The Flow Economy from the book website.

While the examples I used in the book are now a little dated, the strategic concepts are still absolutely relevant. I find that senior executives and strategists at my corporate clients continue to find the strategic planning process outlined here extremely useful. While the flow economy framework is most obviously relevant in technology, media, telecommunications, and services, it can be usefully applied in almost any industry.

Strategic positioning in the flow economy

floweconomyframework.jpg
The six elements of the flow economy
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A critical point in the MegaTrend of Creative Enablement: DSLRs are revolutionizing video production

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One of the biggest, broadest, most important trends of the last few decades has been how technology has democratized the tools of creation and production.

From early desktop publishing applications and screen-based sequencers in the 1980s, through to 3D printing of prototypes today, the production of professional quality output in just about every creative endeavor has become vastly easier and cheaper.

This MegaTrend of Creative Enablement means that it is no longer money or organizational resources that determine what creative people can achieve. It is simply their creativity, which can be fully expressed as never before without significant resources.


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