The Futures Agency

Layar - Ford Fiesta Promoted in India with Layar (by...

futuristgerd — Tue, 29 May 2012 08:51:57 +0200

Layar - Ford Fiesta Promoted in India with Layar (by layarmobile)

Augmented Reality in Advertising - cool:)

(via Humans Are Not Like Slowly Boiling Frogs … We Are Like...

futuristgerd — Mon, 28 May 2012 23:53:47 +0200

(via Humans Are Not Like Slowly Boiling Frogs … We Are Like Slowly Boiling Brainless Frogs | ThinkProgress)

very fitting cartoon

Organised Complexity

neilperkin — Mon, 28 May 2012 17:18:38 +0200

Organised Complexity:

A great talk here from a senior UX designer at Microsoft talking about how networks are becoming (and perhaps have always been) the default structure for how we understand and navigate the complexity of the modern world

Post by Neil Perkin, Futures Agency associate

Distributed And Destination Thinking

neilperkin — Fri, 25 May 2012 16:36:52 +0200

Distributed And Destination Thinking:

Perhaps one of the defining characteristics of effective organisations in the new networked age - the smart combination of distributed and destination thinking

Post by Futures Agency associate Neil Perkin

"What is important is providing the conditions through which people can achieve happiness as they..."

futuristgerd — Fri, 25 May 2012 06:38:22 +0200

“What is important is providing the conditions through which people can achieve happiness as they understand it.”

- Reframing The Global Economy To Include Happiness | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation

"We have all of the technologies that we need to solve all of the world’s problems. What we lack is..."

futuristgerd — Fri, 25 May 2012 05:38:52 +0200

“We have all of the technologies that we need to solve all of the world’s problems. What we lack is the political will.”

- Reframing The Global Economy To Include Happiness | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation

Visions from the Edge :: Futurist.com: Futurist Speaker Glen Hiemstra

futuristspeaker — Fri, 25 May 2012 00:14:26 +0200

Visions from the Edge :: Futurist.com: Futurist Speaker Glen Hiemstra:

I am looking forward to working this week with collaborators Kate McCallum and Ron James as we record interviews for our Visions from the Edge project, still in formation stages. We’ll be at the Future In Review conference all week. With luck we’ll be sharing some great interview material shortly after, with the likes of the in-house futurist at Ford, film makers, entrepreneurs, global thought leaders.

"Nations thrive when they develop “inclusive” political and economic institutions, and they fail when..."

futuristgerd — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:51:55 +0200

“Nations thrive when they develop “inclusive” political and economic institutions, and they fail when those institutions become “extractive” and concentrate power and opportunity in the hands of only a few.”

- Why Nations Fail - NYTimes.com

thenextweb: If you’re interested in what’s “next” in the world...

greenfuturist — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:50:26 +0200

thenextweb:

If you’re interested in what’s “next” in the world of technology, then watching Google’s CEO speak at this year’s Zeitgeist is a can’t miss. Of course, his talk was centered around all of the areas that Google focuses on, but that’s becoming everything you can think of, basically. (via Larry Page Discusses The Future, Wearing Project Glass [video])

Global Warming: An Exclusive Look at James Hansen’s Scary New Math | Ecocentric | TIME.com

futuristgerd — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:40:08 +0200

Global Warming: An Exclusive Look at James Hansen’s Scary New Math | Ecocentric | TIME.com:

Must read. Tough message.

"FINRA chairman Richard Ketchum is looking at whether or not Morgan Stanley and Facebook shared..."

futuristgerd — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:36:50 +0200

“FINRA chairman Richard Ketchum is looking at whether or not Morgan Stanley and Facebook shared negative news with institutional clients without telling the public at large.”

- The SEC And FINRA Are Going To Investigate The Facebook IPO - Business Insider

VLF 2012: Seeing the Future with Gerd Leonhard

gabrieleruttloff — Wed, 23 May 2012 08:27:18 +0200

As seen on Motorola.com: “Delegates at this year’s VLF heard from, Gerd Leonhard, described by the Wall Street Journal as one of the world’s leading futurists in the world, and author of The Future of Content (2011). Gerd outlined his vision for the future of our industry over the next three to five years and, like us, he focused on the shift of power from corporation to the consumer and how we need to adapt.

Power has shifted to the consumer

The emergence of social media has given power back to the consumer to share, consume and, most importantly, influence opinion and behaviour. Twitter, for example, is the new CNN and, once Twitter adds video, it will become the main source for breaking news – 2 minutes compared to an average of 50 minutes to broadcast a new story on TV. Peer-to-peer news will drive the modern paradigm, solely driven by consumers – something that telcos and content providers need to figure out how to capitalise on. We’re in a data-driven, social economy – Facebook accounts for 10 per cent of all web traffic – and companies like …read on.”

(via Can Spotify beat the iTunes ‘800-pound...

futuristgerd — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:41:51 +0200

(via Can Spotify beat the iTunes ‘800-pound gorilla’? | Information, Gadgets, Mobile Phones News & Reviews | News.com.au)

Nice chart!

Gerd Leonhard wants to 'reset the music business'

gabrieleruttloff — Tue, 22 May 2012 12:22:46 +0200

As seen on Wired UK: “At the Spot music conference in Århus, Denmark, musician and futurist Gerd Leonard discussed a series of possible futures for the music business.

Leonhard isn’t a fan of how the record industry has been run over the last decade or so. “The whole economy of music is based on big companies owning the rights. It’s unsustainable,” he said, comparing the major record labels to big oil companies. “Do big oil companies represent nature?” he asked. “Of course not. Do the big record labels represent music? Probably not.”

Leonhard sketched out the reasons why people pirate music, blaming high costs and a lack of legal alternatives, and he also argued that cracking down on filesharing doesn’t benefit artists. “We had 52,000 people sued in Europe over copyright infringement,” he said. “That earned nothing for the artists. Only the lawyers.” But Leonhard is optimistic, arguing that music is simply migrating into something larger. “The business model of merely selling ‘copies’ of music is…read on.”

Are Smart Phones Spreading Faster than Any Technology in Human History? - Michael DeGusta via Technology Review

futuristgerd — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:50:33 +0200

Are Smart Phones Spreading Faster than Any Technology in Human History? - Michael DeGusta via Technology Review:

stoweboyd:

Michael DeGusta via Technology Review

[…] smart phones, after a relatively fast start, have also outpaced nearly any comparable technology in the leap to mainstream use. It took landline telephones about 45 years to get from 5 percent to 50 percent penetration among U.S. households, and mobile phones took around seven years to reach a similar proportion of consumers. Smart phones have gone from 5 percent to 40 percent in about four years, despite a recession. In the comparison shown, the only technology that moved as quickly to the U.S. mainstream was television between 1950 and 1953.

Almost as fast as TV, which was artificially delayed by WWII.

"What politicians do not hear enough is that there is little relationship between stricter IP laws..."

futuristgerd — Tue, 22 May 2012 07:54:25 +0200

“What politicians do not hear enough is that there is little relationship between stricter IP laws and innovation or economic growth.”

- European Parliament Member Marietje Schaake’s Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week | Techdirt

A colleague at the Association of Professional Futurists just...

futuristspeaker — Mon, 21 May 2012 19:43:01 +0200

A colleague at the Association of Professional Futurists just shared his discovery of a most impressive and interesting website, in beta right now, Welcome to the Anthropocene. The site is “designed to improve our understanding of the earth system. (via Our Past, Our Future: Welcome to the Anthropocene :: Futurist.com: Futurist Speaker Glen Hiemstra)

The Rise Of Product Management

neilperkin — Mon, 21 May 2012 19:04:46 +0200

The Rise Of Product Management:

Product Management has arisen as a role/function within tech companies, and is now spreading to media and many other types of organisation as a truly pivotal role. Is Product Management the crucial function of the future?

Post by Futures Agency associate Neil Perkin

Keynote presentation: future of media & content (Futurist...

gabrieleruttloff — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:43:36 +0200

Keynote presentation: future of media & content (Futurist Gerd Leonhard Wiggin DES 2012) (by gleonhard) - This is the complete video of Gerd Leonhard’s keynote at the Wiggin Digital Entertainment Summit in London, March 2012. Original video is http://youtu.be/DhFqADWhgAA The PDF can be downloaded at http://db.tt/z4lcFGcf Topics: the future of media, social-local-mobile, piracy and what to do about it, video monetization, paywalls etc

FutureGov reports (via Thailand Inks $32.8 Million Deal for...

futuristgerd — Mon, 21 May 2012 00:29:57 +0200

FutureGov reports (via Thailand Inks $32.8 Million Deal for One-Tablet-Per-Child Initiative)

This is a global trend!!