Cyborg rights: law and society must allow us to modify ourselves

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Yesterday I was interviewed live on the ABC National News on the case of Meow-Ludo Disco Gamma Meow-Meow, who had just been convicted for paying for his bus ride using an implanted chip instead of a standard bus card.

Below is the segment, running through the court case and conviction, followed by a 4 minute interview with me on the implications.

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Periodic Table of Disruptive Technologies and Innovation

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My colleague and friend Richard Watson and I have created a number of visual frameworks together over the years, including the Trend Blend series , the original Extinction Timeline and What will appear and disappear.

Richard has continued to create wonderful frameworks, with his latest a Periodic Table of Disruptive Technologies and Innovation (full size 9MB)


Click on the image for full size version (9MB)
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The only thing you can change about your life… is your future

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While recently re-reading some of my personal journals from my late teens and early twenties, I found a list of thoughts distilled from my writings over several years, categorized into the primary themes I was thinking about, such as ‘Experiencing’, ‘Independence’ and ‘Creation’.

One of these phrases was ‘The only thing you can change… is the future’.

It struck me as immensely apt to my work today, so I put it in a shareable image, shown below.
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In the age of AI, relationship scope will drive value in professional services

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I recently spoke to a group of senior partners responsible for a major law firm’s relationships with its top 50 clients.

The session was primarily framed around helping the partners understand the degree and nature of the shifts impacting their major clients in industries such as financial services, mining, construction, and infrastructure.

However I also delved into the impact of new technologies including AI on the delivery of high-end professional services, a topic I have been doing substantial work on recently with several clients.

The impact of AI on professional services

There are many specific issues stemming from the rise of AI and automation in professional services delivery, including the modularization of what have often been aggregated services, increased choice on service providers, changes in pricing models, and shifts in the relative roles of junior and senior professionals.
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The four wonders of how a journal can help you real-ize your dreams

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I have kept a journal in various guises since I was 16. Over the last few months, as I have transitioned into a substantially different phase of my life and work, I have been re-reading parts of my journals, particularly from my very early 20s when I was working out what I wanted to do with my life, to help make sense of where I am and where I’m going.
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The Future of Associations: vision, capabilities and leadership for a changing world

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Last month I gave the keynote at the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Annual Board of Directors Strategic Retreat held in Panama City, Panama, on The Future of Associations.

IEEE is an august institution with over 400,000 members and an enormous impact on the technology industry globally, publishing over 170 top-rated journals, running 1800 conferences a year, and managing over 1000 standards, including WiFi.

All associations globally have been impacted by technological, social and structural shifts. IEEE’s board is on the front foot in understanding and addressing these issues, inviting me to speak on these changes and the emerging opportunities to help frame the discussions over their two-day strategic retreat.

A video of the full keynote has kindly been provided by IEEE.tv here.

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Exploring the future of homes: they will be our butlers and help us live longer

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A recent article The revolution that will change how Australians live within 30 years dug into the future of homes, based on interviews with some of “Australia’s top futurists” including myself.

Here are some of the quotes they took from me:
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Vectors of Disruption: a framework to clarify the key forces of change

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Yesterday I gave a briefing on Technology Trends and the Future of Work to a group of Non Executive Directors of major corporations, organized by a large professional services firm for its clients.

The group was the first to get a run-through of my new concept framework Vectors of Disruption, shown below, which I used to introduce and frame the rest of my presentation.


Click on the image for the full-size pdf
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A huge holographic woman points at actor Ryan Gosling's character in the film Blade Runner 2049.

How Philip K. Dick anticipated the Zeitgeist of the 21st Century: 10 movies based on his work

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Even if you have never read his science-fiction writings or even know his name, chances are you’ve watched a film or TV series inspired by Philip K. Dick. Nearly four decades after his death, Dick’s body of work, which includes 44 published novels and more than 120 short stories, continues to influence popular culture.

In fact, his exceptionally vivid tales questioning the nature of reality have spawned several adaptations. A few became cult hits. Some achieved critical and commercial success. Others flopped and quickly vanished from mainstream memory.

Yet although Dick has left this earthly plane, here we share ten notable films that prove his power to provoke and fascinate the human mind has undoubtedly grown over the years. (Warning: Minor spoilers ahead.)

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Key Strategies for Building Successful Audience Revenue and Engagement Programs: Report

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Digital media publications struggled in 2017. The Facebook-Google Duopoly continued to rake in the lion’s share of advertising dollars. The much-hyped “pivot to video” strategy flopped as ads proved difficult to sell. While several online news companies fell short of their revenue targets, former media darling Mashable was sold for a fifth of the $250 million valuation it received the previous year.

It’s time to revisit revenue approaches once again. To help The Tow Center for Digital Journalism recently released the report “Guide to Audience Revenue and Engagement,” after carrying out hundreds of interviews with people involved with news sites, including their creation, operation, and consumption.

The 105-page report reveals these findings along with strategies that focus on how media organizations and entrepreneurs can develop revenue programs based on strengthening interactions with audiences.

The report’s main findings:

  • Digital news publications depend on a combination of revenue strategies, not simply direct revenue from audiences. They include advertising, affiliate programs, syndicated articles, funding from foundations, corporate underwriting, books sales, and merchandise. In some cases, such approaches take the place entirely of direct audience revenue programs.
  • Subscription strategies work well for publications that offer highly differentiated reporting as well as those with institutional audiences for which employers will pay for the work-related content.
  • A significant hurdle to building a lasting membership program is discovering interactions that benefit both the publication and the members.
  • Members want to join programs to become part of a bigger cause or something unique that the publication represents. They aren’t interested in branded merchandise or local discounts.
  • To attract members, news organizations must publish compelling “who we are” stories that reflect its mission and give readers a sense of its importance in the community.
  • The degree of editorial engagement a publication has with its members can have a significant impact on a revenue program’s sustainability.
  • Treat your approach to turning people into members as a stage in a conversion funnel: research, expose and attract, engage and deepen, convert and sustain.
  • Face-to-face interactions, newsletters, digital product design, and your particular brand of journalism are critical factors in strengthening audience engagement. Use data to influence how you target those in your audience.
  • Culture change is hugely important in developing news organizations that are audience and membership driven. Strong leadership is necessary to ensure and sustain two-way engagement between the publication and the audience.

Read the full report here.