I wrote up some brief notes from the Gallery of Modern Art’s recent panel discussion on the future of the 21st century.
Radio National’s Future Tense program subsequently broadcast the discussion and provided a full transcript for those who would like to see more of the content.
One of the many interesting topics of discussion was dealing with information overload. This is an issue that often comes up as a futurist, as people wonder how you keep across everything that’s happening. I’ll write in more detail on this later, but for now here is the transcript from the panel (somewhat mangled from the original) including comments from myself and Tim Longhurst. Some of the key points were:
* The new generation of web tools are enabling us to collaborate to filter massive information overload
* Creating visual frameworks can be a powerful way of making sense of information
* The role of futurists is pattern recognition
* Selective filtering to reinforce our biases is not new
* Most of us will experience more diverse views than before the web
Antony Funnell: Ross Dawson, I’ve given up looking at the technology section in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald because I just can’t keep pace with it – there just seems to be so much change going on. As a futurist, I just wonder how difficult it is to actually keep ahead of all that, to be involved in trying to forecast trends for business or organisations and be on the money, not feel like you’ve suddenly fallen behind the curve.
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Keynote slides: Building Success in a Connected World
By Ross DawsonTomorrow morning I give the breakfast keynote at Think Business 2011, making it my third keynote this week.
For those attending the breakfast, here are my slides, which go through and flesh out our recent Success in a Connected World framework and also touch on related issues such as personal branding. The usual disclaimers apply: these slides are designed to accompany my presentation and not to stand alone. However you may still find them useful!
Beijing social media/ future of media meetup on May 19
By Ross DawsonI’m in Beijing next week to do the keynote at the AICD conference on How Technology is Transforming Business and guest lecture at Beijing Foreign Studies University on The End of Newspapers and Future of News.
While I’m in Beijing I’m keen to catch up with any local folks on Twitter/ Weibo/ social media and those interested in the future of media. As such I’ve set up a Beijing Future of Media/ Social Media meetup on Eventbrite. Please register on the page if you can join us.
Date: May 19
Time: 12pm – 2pm
Location: Union Bar and Grille
S6-31, 3/F, Bldg 6, Sanlitun Village South, 19 Sanlitun Lu, Chaoyang District
朝阳区三里屯路19号三里屯Village南区6号楼3层S6-31
If you’re in Beijing next week would be great to see you there, or if you think there are people who might like to come along, please pass on word.
Thanks to @beijingboyce and @benjaminjoffe for the pointers and support!!
New Prezi: The Transformation of Business
By Ross DawsonI am always trying to get better at using visuals to support my keynotes and presentations. I use many videos, and we have created quite a few Flash animations that I embed into Powerpoint to make them more dynamic. I have been aware of Prezi as a dynamic presentation tool for some time now, though have never yet taken the leap to move my entire presentation into this format.
The launch of our Transformation of Business framework has provided a great opportunity to use Prezi. The entire story is laid out on a page, and Prezi enables me to zoom in, pan across, and illustrate they key points in the framework. I first used this on Tuesday for an executive team strategy session, and will be using it in a number of other presentations and keynotes over the next week.
As usual my disclaimer is that the slides are designed to accompany my presentation and not to stand alone, however they might be of interest and value even if you haven’t attended one of my keynotes.
Transformation of Business 1 on Prezi
New Framework: The Transformation of Business
By Ross DawsonOur latest visual framework is The Transformation of Business.
Many of my keynotes and client workshops at the moment are to high-level business audiences such as boards of directors and top executive teams who need to understand the essence of how the business landscape is changing and the implications. While you can never capture the rich diversity of change on a single page, this framework seeks to distill the issues in a meaningful way.
Click on the image for full-size pdf
[NOTE:] Also see the presentation in Prezi format for more detail.
I’ll soon provide some more detailed commentary on the framework, particularly on the vital point that this framework leads to: Governance for Transformation.
Here is the content in text format:
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Beijing lecture: The end of newspapers and the future of news
By Ross DawsonWhen I’m in Beijing next week I’ll be doing a guest lecture at Beijing Foreign Studies University, China’s premier international studies university, where many of the country’s foreign ministers have studied.
I will be speaking on The end of newspapers and the future of news. While many are familiar with my Newspaper Extinction Timeline, that is just one aspect of what I consider a far more interesting topic, the future of news.
Here are full details.
Date: May 19, 2011
Time: 4:30pm – 7:00pm
Location: 北京外国语大学东院日本学研究中心三层多功能厅 (Multimedia Hall, 3rd Floor, Japanese Studies Center, East Campus, Beijing Foreign Studies University).
Please do pass on word to people in Beijing who may be interested. I’ll also be doing a Beijing Social Media Meetup at lunch same day – I’m keen to meet interesting folk while I’m in town!
Where news website traffic comes from: Google vs Facebook
By Ross DawsonThe Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism has recently released some very interesting research on Navigating News Online, digging into how people navigate to news sites and what takes them away.
Among the interesting insights was data on how news website traffic comes from Google and Facebook, shown below.
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5 Driving Forces of Global Professional Services
By Ross DawsonA little while ago I co-authored a White Paper for SAP titled Service Delivery Innovation: Creating Client Value and Enhancing Profitability, focused on large professional services organisations.
Later today I’m running a strategy workshop for a large technology vendor with a significant professional services arm. In the course of preparing for the session I looked back at this paper. While I would probably frame my views somewhat differently now, I thought the section of driving forces was worth sharing.
DRIVING FORCES
Faced with increasingly sophisticated clients, market globalization, and evolving technology, professional services firms must evaluate their business models to ensure they can delivery the greatest value to every client on every project. If firms continue to do business as usual, they will face eroding margins, increased operational complexity and risk, and underleveraged partnerships. Let’s take a moment to look at each of the five fundamental driving forces at work in the professional services marketplace today before we explore how firms can proactively address these trends.
Source: Service Delivery Innovation SAP White Paper
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Making sense of and filtering information overload
By Ross DawsonI wrote up some brief notes from the Gallery of Modern Art’s recent panel discussion on the future of the 21st century.
Radio National’s Future Tense program subsequently broadcast the discussion and provided a full transcript for those who would like to see more of the content.
One of the many interesting topics of discussion was dealing with information overload. This is an issue that often comes up as a futurist, as people wonder how you keep across everything that’s happening. I’ll write in more detail on this later, but for now here is the transcript from the panel (somewhat mangled from the original) including comments from myself and Tim Longhurst. Some of the key points were:
* The new generation of web tools are enabling us to collaborate to filter massive information overload
* Creating visual frameworks can be a powerful way of making sense of information
* The role of futurists is pattern recognition
* Selective filtering to reinforce our biases is not new
* Most of us will experience more diverse views than before the web
Antony Funnell: Ross Dawson, I’ve given up looking at the technology section in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald because I just can’t keep pace with it – there just seems to be so much change going on. As a futurist, I just wonder how difficult it is to actually keep ahead of all that, to be involved in trying to forecast trends for business or organisations and be on the money, not feel like you’ve suddenly fallen behind the curve.
Read more →
How tablets are changing how we use tech
By Ross DawsonNielsen has come out with some interesting research on tablet usage in the US and associated changes in the use of other devices.
Source: Nielsen
It seems that some of the data may simply reflect changes in usage rather than the direct impact of the use of tablets.
For example, Nielsen highlights the fact that 25% of people are using their portable gaming consoles less after having bought a tablet. However they neglect to note that 26% say they are using them MORE after having bought a tablet.
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6 uncertainties that will shape the future of mobile operating systems
By Ross DawsonYesterday I completed co-presenting the three-part Ketchum webinar series on Tapping the Power of Mobile. The feedback was excellent, with record audiences of Ketchum clients and staff for the series. Here is an overview of the content we covered over the three webinars.
The final session was on Where Mobile is Going, which looked at the mobile industry landscape, as well as the implications of emerging technologies such as 4G and LTE, next generation augmented reality, NFC and mobile payments, new interfaces such as video glasses and pico projectors, mobile sensors, and far more.
I began by looking at the mobile operating system landscape, showing the forecasts recently made by Gartner, as below.
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