Much ink and many pixels had already been shed on Britain’s super injunction laws before the last week, but the Ryan Giggs case has pushed this into the stratosphere.
In case you’ve been hiding in a closet, Manchester United star Ryan Giggs was awarded a “super injunction” from British courts, forbidding the press to report that he was alleged to have had an affair with Big Brother contestant Imogen Thomas, or even that they had been forbidden to report on it. Some 75,000 tweets and 1 use of parliamentary privilege later, everyone knows anyway.
This is one of those seemingly small incidents on which major social turning points hinge. So many fundamental issues of society, media, and our future are tied into this that it is difficult to disentangle. Here are a few compact thoughts and critical issues on what is at the heart of this extraordinary situation.
– The current super injunction law was created to respond to excesses of the press
The British tabloids have a tradition as world-leaders in muck-racking and invasion of privacy. Their excesses led to what were probably at the time reasonable laws to limit negative social impact from their activities. However the media landscape of today is barely recognizable from when these laws were enacted in 1990.
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Launch of Digital Sydney: Ideas, energy, success stories, and massive potential
By Ross DawsonI am at the launch of Digital Sydney, part of the Vivid Sydney and Creative Sydney festivals.
The reality is that for much of the last decade and more, the New South Wales government has been among the least supportive of the Australia states for the digital and creative industries, with in contrast Victoria, Queensland, and Tasmania in particular having considerably better developed initiatives to support these industries.
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SkyNews interview on future of tech: Cloud, Privacy, Big data, Reputation, Death of newspapers
By Ross DawsonLast week just before I flew to China I did an interview on SkyNews Tech Report about the future of today’s technology.
Topics we discussed in the interview include:
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6 critical issues: Why the super injunction story represents a major social turning point
By Ross DawsonMuch ink and many pixels had already been shed on Britain’s super injunction laws before the last week, but the Ryan Giggs case has pushed this into the stratosphere.
In case you’ve been hiding in a closet, Manchester United star Ryan Giggs was awarded a “super injunction” from British courts, forbidding the press to report that he was alleged to have had an affair with Big Brother contestant Imogen Thomas, or even that they had been forbidden to report on it. Some 75,000 tweets and 1 use of parliamentary privilege later, everyone knows anyway.
This is one of those seemingly small incidents on which major social turning points hinge. So many fundamental issues of society, media, and our future are tied into this that it is difficult to disentangle. Here are a few compact thoughts and critical issues on what is at the heart of this extraordinary situation.
– The current super injunction law was created to respond to excesses of the press
The British tabloids have a tradition as world-leaders in muck-racking and invasion of privacy. Their excesses led to what were probably at the time reasonable laws to limit negative social impact from their activities. However the media landscape of today is barely recognizable from when these laws were enacted in 1990.
Read more →
The role of a futurist is to help people gain perspective and transcend boundaries
By Ross DawsonYesterday I was interviewed by fellow futurist Eric Garland for a podcast series which was also featured on the World Future Society website. You can listen to the podcast on those sites or below (note that I have had some problems with the plug-in).
Our discussion ranged across global demographics, shifts in manufacturing, robotics, and far more. What I thought was worth pulling out of the conversation were my comments on the role of futurists and futures thinking.
The first point is that I am completely comfortable with the term futurist, even if some perceive it as lacking credibility. I’ve long been meaning to write about my views on the word ‘futurist’. I’ll be back soon on that point.
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Music videos are the new journalism: learn about fracking!
By Ross DawsonAfter watching the documentary Gasland my wife Victoria has become incensed about the practice of fracking, as hydraulic fracturing is commonly known. The issue has received global attention, but is also being practised close to home for us near Sydney’s water supplies. Victoria has been wondering why people don’t seem to be paying attention to what seems like a major environmental issue on our doorstep.
The US public interest news group ProPublica recently teamed up with New York University’s Jay Rosen to create ‘explanatory journalism’.
ProPublica has an existing three-year running project reporting on fracking and drinking water contamination. However their latest initiative may get more attention than the rest combined. The team has created a great music video which explains fracking in graphics and music in 2 1/2 minutes.
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Scoop: Corporate directors understand change and embrace governance for transformation
By Ross DawsonI gave my keynote on How Technology is Transforming Business for Australian Institute of Company Directors this morning here in Beijing.
Based on the responses of the 500+ company directors in the audience, they absolutely understand the need for change. Here are their answers on audience response units to questions I posed during my presentation.
One of my key messages was that social and technological change are inextricable – they drive each other and cannot be understood separately. What is interesting is that directors felt that social drivers are more important than technology drivers. Certainly I believe that social change is moving at least as fast as technological change, and responding to this is fundamental to the success of organizations.
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Notes from the Australian Institute of Company Directors in Beijing
By Ross DawsonI am at the annual conference of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, held this year in Beijing. It is fantastic that Australian company directors are choosing to meet here rather than at home, broadening vistas and opportunities. The Grand Ballroom at China World Hotel is full, with around 500 people here.
While I don’t have access to Twitter from my iPad (I haven’t had time to try to set up a VPN on my laptop yet) I can at least blog, so I might be doing more of that while I am in Beijing this week.
For now, here are my presentation slides for my keynote on How Technology is Transforming Business this morning. These are just a slightly different version of the presentation I shared last week. You can also find a pdf version of the Transformation of Business framework on which the presentation is based.
Transformation of Business – AICD on Prezi
A story about Connected: The Film and why you must see it
By Ross DawsonI saw Connected: The Film by Tiffany Shlain last night at its Australian premiere, organized by Annalie Killian.
The first thing I have to say is that the film is absolutely fantastic. It nails how we as humans live an intensely interdependent world, and how our recognition of and response to that will determine our future. I think the more people that see it the better, so I dearly hope it will get a healthy – or even massive – audience.
I have to say I am not an independent reviewer, and that in itself is a highly relevant story.
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Crowdsourcing among an awesome speaker line-up at Australian Business Congress
By Ross DawsonThe Australian Chambers Business Congress on 1-2 June is shaping up to be one of the top business conferences of the year in Australia, with an awesome speaker line-up. The Congress is organized by the Australian Chamber Alliance, a consortium of all the major business chambers across Australia.
Speakers include Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Porter, Steve Wozniak, Tony Abbott, Anna Bligh plus an array of some of most interesting people in business in Australia and worldwide.
I will be speaking at the Congress on Friday 3rd about Crowdsourcing.
I will do my best to pack in as many practical insights as I can on how to grow your business using crowdsourcing tools. This topic will be a major focus for me for the rest of the year, so stand by for plenty of content on how to get results from crowdsourcing – the scoop will be at the Congress!
The rise of participative TV (hint: that’s better than social TV)
By Ross DawsonThe opportunity for television is to become a truly participative media.
Over the last year or so my views on the future of TV have significantly shifted, to be far more optimistic for the media. Last year I gave the opening keynote at the Regional TV Marketing conference, and subsequently wrote how The Future of TV is community. In my keynote I reflected on how the power of big screen will remain truly compelling. However TV must transcend the classic broadcast mentality that implies a passive audience. It needs to create participative experiences, from which comes real community. Which, incidentally, will lead to the most powerful business models for the future of television, as I mentioned in some thoughts on TV in 10 years from now.
After a very slow start, TV channels appear to be getting the message and getting on board. The latest is What’s Trending, a “new kind of news show” from CBS News. Here is the trailer.
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