Going beyond Zoom hell to avatar-based meetings in virtual spaces

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Since March many people feel they have been caught in a ‘Zoom hell‘ of back-to-back video calls throughout their waking hours.

While this would have seemed futuristic a few decades ago, it already feels deeply tired. We have all experienced the problems with engagement, attention, and effective collaboration on video-conferencing calls.

One of the most interesting directions for the next phase of virtual meetings is avatar-based meetings in augmented and virtual reality.

In this very interesting excerpt from my conversation with futurist and AR/VR expert Cathy Hackl on The Virtual Excellence Show, Cathy discusses the realities, potential, and pragmatics of avatar meetings, including a demonstration of one of the current offerings in the space, and her own experiences using the technology.
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Reinvention and the virtuous circle of learning by doing: the case of The Virtual Excellence Show

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For the last couple of months I have been selectively sharing conversations, tutorials, and highlight videos from The Virtual Excellence Show on this blog, but I haven’t written anything about the show itself. This is the story of the show and the most important things I’ve learned so far.

The last time I spoke in-person at a conference was in late February of this year, with in following weeks all my other engagements cancelled in rapid succession. It quickly became apparent that there would be no more physical events for the foreseeable future.

I do have other ventures but the majority of my revenue for the last couple of years has been as a professional speaker, so, as many others, I saw my current livelihood simply evaporating.
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How technology is changing dating and remote relationships in pandemic times

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I was recently interviewed on the Studio 10 TV program about the future of dating and relationships. See the video below:


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Imagine… a global economy optimized around everyone’s unique ability to contribute

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Every one of the almost 8 billion people on this planet is unique.

And everyone can contribute to the world and humanity in a unique way. Most of us spend our lives trying to work out quite how.

The past of work has been one of using and paying for a tiny and specific portion of people’s capabilities.

The future of work should be one that is able to uncover, express, and reward everyone’s unique capabilities and their ability to contribute to society.
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Sharing my life story from a virtual perspective

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Last week on The Virtual Excellence Show our scheduled guest was not able to make it at short notice, so I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to share my own life story and how it relates to the virtual.

For those are familiar with some of my work, the broader frame that I share in the show gives perspective on some of the other facets of my work over the years, much of which has related to the virtual, and how these pieces fit together.

To get the fuller picture watch the video, or if you prefer you can read a transcript below. And if being excellent at things virtual is of interest, please do subscribe to The Virtual Excellence Show on YouTube. 🙂
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Scalable learning founded on small group collaboration and extended networks will drive organizational success

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In my recent conversation with John Hagel on The Virtual Excellence Show, one of the topics John shared insights on was scalable learning, which he has substantially focused on in recent years. For an excellent framing of the subject see his article in Harvard Business Review Great Businesses Scale Their Learning, Not Just Their Operations.

In our conversation John spoke about scalable learning – which by its very nature has to be significantly virtual – as a fundamental driver of institutional success.

He describes how the most powerful form of learning is creating new knowledge by learning from action, the accelerated learning of small groups that challenge and help each other, and the opportunity to connect to broad and diverse expertise beyond the organization.

See the video for John’s full insights, or see below for a full transcript of the video.
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Wave and the future of immersive live virtual music

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Today virtual live music platform Wave announced a $30 million investment, placing it at the center of the burgeoning virtual live music performance space.

I recorded a segment for The Virtual Excellence Show on this, watch the short video below, including relevant video clips, or a transcript is below.
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The impact of COVID-19 on the future of homes: robotic disinfection, home healthcare, human adaptation

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The pandemic is changing many aspects of our lives. One of the impacts is on homes and how we live.

Fellow futurist Mark Pesce and I were interviewed for an article just out titled From a sharing economy to a sterile economy: how will COVID-19 change our future homes?

Here are some of the quotes they used from me in the article:
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Howard Rheingold on the origin and intent of what many say is their very favorite word: ‘teledildonics’

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Many people say that ‘teledildonics’ (defined by Collins as “a technology supposedly enabling two or more people to engage in sexual activity remotely”) is their favorite word.
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The pandemic is offering us many more choices in our behaviours, to help us carve a better future

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Humans, individually and collectively, often tend to get stuck in ruts and routines. That’s our nature, we try things until we find a point of comfort and then stay there.

One of the biggest potential positives of the COVID-19 pandemic is that it has broken established routines and structures, thereby giving us additional options and choices to those we perceived before.

Speaking to this point, I was recently interviewed for an interesting podcast from Defiance News, The Future of Technology: The Good, The Bad & The Orwellian. The full podcast is embedded below.
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