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.Report:
Meetings in 2020 |
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by Christine
Perey, AMI Consortium Technology Transfer
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This white paper is provided to the members of the Club of Amsterdam
and the members of the Community of Interest by the AMI Consortium
as part of an ongoing initiative to increase global study and understanding
of the human-to-human communications and the future of technology-assisted
meetings using automation and intelligent agents in an environment
of virtually unlimited processing and bandwidth resources.
This white paper is designed to provide accurate and authoritative
information in regard of the future of meetings. It is made available
by the AMI Consortium, with the permission of ParkWood Advisors
LLC, with the understanding that the intent is not to render legal,
investment, accounting or other professional advisory services.
If investment advice or other expert assistance is required, the
services of a competent professional person should be sought. Requests
for permission to reuse the contents of this document or for further
information about its contents should be addressed to John Parkinson
at ParkWood Advisors LLC.
Preface
Speaking and digitally publishing about a
subject are two very, very different things. In the case of predicting
the future, however, the tangible results may be the same.
When speaking about
meetings in 2020, a presenter has a lot of liberty because chances
are relatively high that no one in the audience will remember what
he or she said about the subject by 2020. And, in contrast with
what you might expect, a digitally published/stored archive of the
same concepts will probably also be "lost" for all intents
and purposes. For John Parkinson, Chairman and Managing Partner
of ParkWood Advisors LLC, the risk of his words fading and disappearing
long before the accuracy of his predictions are tested just comes
with the territory.
Parkinson introduced
his talk, a keynote address at the Wainhouse Research European Forum
2006 in Berlin entitled "Meetings in 2020," with a touching
reminder that predictions of the future-even the future of technology
over the past 50 years-have more frequently been wrong than right.
All predictions/forecasts
and recommendations made in this paper are the rights and responsibilities
of ParkWood Advisors LLC.
Only time will tell
how well the words of 2006 will fit the future.
Download the report as *.pdf
click
here
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.Next
Event |
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Special
Event: Meetings in 2020 - A showcase
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
18:00-20:00, including free cocktail reception
Where:
De
Industrieele Groote Club, Dam 27, Amsterdam
Fully booked!
Showcase
of new technologies which some believe will change how people interact
during meetings and how they work with knowledge archives
between meetings.
The institutions hosting this event are internationally acclaimed
experts in machine learning, signal processing and the study of
human interaction and human computer interfaces:
IDIAP
Research Institute, Switzerland
DFKI,
Germany
TNO,
The Netherlands
ICSI,
USA
University
of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
University
of Sheffield, United Kingdom
Technology
University of Munich, Germany
Brno
University of Technology, Czech Republic
University
of Twente, The Netherlands
Philips,
The Netherlands
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.Club
of Amsterdam blog |
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Club
of Amsterdam blog
http://clubofamsterdam.blogspot.com
Subscribe
in a reader
September
6:
Are
chimeras part of our future?
September
1 :
Importance
of Multiculturalism Expertise, and a Program to Acquire It
September
1 :
Four
Planets
August
29:
Meetings
in 2020
July 30:
A
Second Enlightenment
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.News
about the Future |
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Aerovironment
architectural wind
The Aerovironment Architectural Wind AVX400 is a system of small wind
turbines that are integrated onto a buildings parapet wall to
generate green electricity.
This concept was accompanied
by AVs research of wind patterns over low-profile buildings
such as big box stores and distribution centres. As wind passes over
a building it can accelerate significantly enough to produce over
25% more energy than a standard freestanding wind turbine.
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Self-healing
materials mimic biological systems
Self-healing materials invented by researchers at the University
of Illinois mimic human skin by healing themselves time after time.
The new materials rely upon embedded, 3D microvascular networks
that emulate biological circulatory systems.
In the same manner
that a cut in the skin triggers blood flow to promote healing, a
crack in these new materials will trigger the flow of healing agent
to repair the damage, said Nancy Sottos, a Willett Professor
of materials science and engineering.
The vascular
nature of this new supply system means minor damage to the same
location can be healed repeatedly, she added.
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.Linden
Lab Innovation Award winners |
This years awards
focused on open source contributors who are making the Second
Life experience better for everyone.
Rob Lindens : "Im really happy to be presenting
these awards this year. When we were planning to release the source
code, we knew we had a robust community of developers, and that
there would be plenty of interest in tinkering, but we were still
thinking wed have to figure out some gimmicks to get people
to really start participating in building a great Viewer. Once we
launched, we immediately started getting great contributions, and
realized that instead of focusing on gimmicks to preemptively motivate,
we should instead shift our efforts to thanking people for what
they had done without any expectation of reward."
The
Linden Lab Innovation Awards winners
are:
Best Community
Organizer
Strife Onizuka
"Wiki's
are the way of the future when it comes to making documentation
Ad-hoc but eventually become static as graffiti grows with popularity
as a way of controlling it."
Best Bug Hunter
Gigs Taggart
From in-world interactive games to PHP/database back-end programming,
Gigs
Taggart is
constantly pushing the envelope with novel content in SL.
Best Contribution
Alissa Sabre
"I'm
interested in tweaking Viewer. Especially on internationalization
issues. I have a
blog
on open source viewer development, that is written mostly in
Japanese."
Best Feature
Able Whitman
Ables blog
Ready,
Willing, and Able -
The virtual adventures of one man and his pink lawn flamingo
Contributor of
the Year
Nicholaz Beresford
"Nicholaz Beresford is my SL name and some people call
me "the mad patcher" because of my work with the open
source version of SL. In FL, I'm now working for many years
now as a self employed software developer and together with
a friend I am developing and selling our own line of communication
software. This blog is about my interest in second life and
my exploring of the world as well as the source code under this
world."
His blog
The
"Nicholaz Edition" of the Second Life Browser
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.Recommended
Book |
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Business
Communication Design: Creativity, Strategies, and Solutions
by Pamela Angell and Teeanna Rizkallah
Business Communication Design: Creativity, Strategies, Solutions by
Pamela Angell emphasizes the role of critical and creative thinking
in the communication process. Students learn a systematic approach
to designing messages for every business communication situation.
The authors offer a simple yet effective model for message design
that focuses on the needs of the people involved in the communication
and the circumstances of the message. Business Communication Design
addresses the variety of communication options that modern workers
face. |
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.Importance
of Multiculturalism Expertise, and a Program to
.Acquire
It |
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by Dr. V. H. Manek
Kirpalani and Dr. Leif Thomas Olsen |
Multiculturalism is growing by leaps and bounds due to three driving
forces.
Ø Multinational Enterprises
with their explosive expansions into different regions.
Ø Emigration and Immigration.
Ø Increased Communication Speed
and the Internet Highway.
The rationale for the growth of these driving forces and the environment
they create are the following:
The Rationale for Growth of Multiculturalism
Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) have been
growing at some 8% a year in terms of total revenues for the last
50 years or so. The environment of globalization has helped. International
trade talks have aided the creation of a substantially large world
market for many products and services. Other types of international
cooperation have helped speed up growth in previously stagnant economies
by providing investment and credit opportunities across the globe.
Thus the business environment has encouraged the expansion of MNE
products and services, and facilitated the internationalization
of production. The latter has allowed the MNEs to produce and/or
purchase many components from countries with lower costs of production.
Today the total revenue of MNEs is greater than the GDP of any country
in the world, even greater than that of the USA which produces roughly
25% of the worlds GDP. Moreover the MNEs dominate world trade
with a roughly 60% overall share of this trade. The MNEs thus need
the cross-cultural expertise to produce and market their products
and services in countries worldwide, to deal with component suppliers
from different cultures, and to manage employees who come from diverse
countries and cultures. Further the successful manager and/or business
owner must learn about a range of cross-cultural experience in order
to continue their success. Furthermore every manager and policy
maker in business or government and its public sector organizations
has to deal sooner or later with people from different cultures
who are workers or consumers.
Emigration and immigration provide other driving forces that contribute
to the creation of diverse cross-cultural environments in many countries.
All in all it is estimated that worldwide over 600 million people
or some 10% of the worlds population are living in countries
outside their country of origin. The richer North American and Western
economies have served as a magnet to draw immigration from all over
the world. The USA and Canada have been importing well over one
million people a year as immigrants from overseas for the last 50
years. Further, today the USA has some 50 million Hispanic immigrants,
legal and illegal (the term for the latter is undocumented).
The European Union has served as a draw for immigrants from the
colonies of its imperial countries. Furthermore today it is seeing
a strong flow of people from its Central and Eastern European segments
into its Western regions. Emigration from China and India has been
large over the last 100 years or so.
Increased communication speed and its constantly decreasing costs,
coupled with the Internet highway and the flow of information technology
have resulted in more direct communication between head offices
and subsidiaries, emigrants / immigrants and their original home
bases, and by the flow of global promotion of products and services,
and of global news via established outlets such as CNN and BBC World,
as well as more recent additions, such as Al Jazeera and Russia
Today.
Demand and Supply of Graduates with Multicultural
Expertise
All the above developments have increased
the need for cross-cultural expertise. But the demand for graduates,
trained with the capability of doing well in multicultural environments,
is far greater than the supply.
In a multitudinal world, where issues like sustainable development,
shareholders' value and ethnic-religious conflicts are all 'hot',
and the North-South divide seems to be getting wider by the day,
corporate, technical, political managers and professionals must
become more able to see beyond their own respective area of direct
involvement and responsibility. Future leaders and managers have
a rapidly growing social responsibility to the society their employing
organization operates within - a task that current management training
programs tend to underestimate. An elective course or two on good
governance or socially responsible investments is unlikely to change
the thinking deeply enough, especially as they usually are just
electives rather than high-profile mandatory courses. Moreover,
snapshot courses are no longer enough. One must go deeper and develop
knowledge and thorough understanding of the subjects that are being
learnt.
If future professionals and academics, whether in business, governance
or technology, have to keep pace with todays, and even more so tomorrow's,
development speed, a different approach must be instilled in people
through the educational system. The ambition of a learning program
must be to install a multi-cultural base and a more socio-economic
oriented leadership focus. The graduate with such leadership training
will be able to apply it in a scientific or social environment,
and/or in a corporate or political context. Leaders and managers
who do understand their responsibility in its broadest meaning will
also understand that there is no contradiction between ROI and social
responsibility. A good example of this lies in the industrial tradition
that built most of the companies now considered backbones of the
societies from which they emerged. Had it not been for hardworking
entrepreneurs with very long-term vision and far-reaching social
responsibilities, there would be no Ford Motor Co, no Sony Corporation,
no IKEA and no TSMC (Taiwan's largest chip manufacturer). Only leaders
who can read both the social and the financial sides of the socio-economic
equation will succeed.
Program to Acquire Multicultural Expertise
The overall objective of a multicultural expertise
program for managers across the corporate, political and social
spectra must be to offer a curriculum with a leadership focus that
can be adjusted to the respective cultural and socio-economic environments
in which it is to be consumed. For managers with social or political
ambitions, such cultural sensitivity is already a 'must'. Nevertheless
it is rare to find evidence for development of this insight when
looking at the curricula offered by most business institutions.
Future managers must develop good abilities to see different societies
in different lights. The same goes for social workers, politicians,
and international officials, such as those at the International
Monetary Fund, United Nations, WTO, and the World Bank. It once
took an almost nationwide boycott of McDonalds' hamburgers in India
before McDonald executives realized that their products had to be
diversified for cultural reasons; righteous Hindus found it unacceptable
to eat beef. Nowadays all international fast food chains offer localized
menus. The 2005/06 boycott of Danish products of any sort in many
Muslim markets, as a result of what came to be known as the 'Mohammed-cartoon
incident', indicates how important cultural understanding is in
an increasingly global marketplace.
A program designed to address the need to acquire multicultural
expertise should build on three interrelated cornerstones. Each
one is outlined with its underlying logic.
Corner Stone 1:
Multitude culture-sensitive. It must not assume a global westernized
mono-culture such as most MBA programs tend to do.
Underlying Logic:
The cultural issue will never go away, and multitude culture-sensitive
importance will increase once China, India, Korea and other countries
with different cultures gain fuller influence in global matters.
Corner Stone 2:
Open social platform. Rather than viewing management as a limited
task
Underlying Logic:
The management of just about any entity, whether public or private,
now affects significantly larger circles of society than it used
to do. The Internet as well as other open access platforms also
has dramatically increased the possibility for information-sharing.
This have allowed also participative democracy representatives,
who for long mainly expressed their views and opinions through NGOs
and/or street rallies, access to, and increasingly efficient use
of, the kind of information that was formerly controlled by ´the
establishment elite,
Corner Stone 3:
Future oriented. Rather than business-as-usual.
Underlying Logic:
The speed of development in general and technical development in
particular, is in-creasing. Therefore to be successful a future
orientation in thinking and strategy is necessary.
Rushmore University New P2M Program
The new Rushmore University P2M program emphasizes
the post-modern need for a global horizon with a depth understanding
of cultural silos. . It is worth looking at and can be seen at Rushmore's
website www.rushmore.edu. It consists of 30 credits spread over
the following five courses plus a thesis in your preferred cultural
area.
1. World Religions and Philosophies
Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Judaism,
Christianity, Islam are the six major religions that historically,
as well as in terms of current affairs, have a global impact. Metaphysics,
Ethnocentrism, Relativism, Socio-biology, Individualism, Collectivism,
Utilitarianism and Pacifism are some philosophies that also, with
varying success influenced, or tried to influence, our societies
over time. Students are requested to analyze at least three different
accounts of each one of these.
2. World History as Viewed by the World's
Major -isms
Many ideas have grown so strong over time
so they developed into social and/or political systems, entirely
governing the societies over which they wrestled control. The most
influential ones, here identified as "-isms", are Feudalism,
Capitalism, Imperialism, Nationalism, Colonialism, Modernism, Liberalism,
Post-Modernism, Neo-liberalism, Secularism, Globalism Consensus,
Fundamentalism, and Good Governance-ism. The course will cover all
these, and some others, in depth.
3. A Changing World: Ecology, Anthropology,
Demography and Economic Geography
Climate-change is only the most recent of
many pressing issues showing how interlinked are ecology, anthropology,
demography and economic geography. When the UN's Security Council
finally took this issue on in 2007, it simply confirmed what was
already well known: migration - whether caused by war, economic
inequality or climate-change - is a serious cause of concern, whereas
millions of people are moving, and will continue to move, to new
localities, in turn affecting those millions of people who already
live there. We must learn how to adapt to it, and make good from
the situation it creates. This requires leaders and managers with
the right abilities and a strong social sensitivity. These aspects
will also be discussed in depth.
4. Future-Studies Related to Cross-Cultural
Issues, including Social Research Methodology
Future-studies related to cross-cultural issues
can help predict developments and prevent problems, assuming they
build on a good methodological platform. This course on such future
studies as a means to understand and influence the future, therefore
also includes social research methodology.
5. Cross-cultural / Interdisciplinary Interaction
and Psychology
With globalization comes cultural interaction.
There is very little evidence to say that a homogeneous global culture
will develop. It is more likely that the concept of glocal - a mix
of the two words global and local - will best describe the future
world order.
To understand and facilitate this development
one must understand what constitutes a culture, and how and why
cultures clash. Cultures are however not only social, they can also
be religious, professional, disciplinary or otherwise. By understanding
the psychology and methodology of bridging cultures one can help
not only peoples from different parts of the world to co-habitation,
but also specialists from different disciplines to co-operation.
Using such insights one can also more easily understand how the
world can develop, as development always is a result of such co-habitation
and co-operation.
6. Thesis: Linking directly to a Chosen
Elective
Students are asked to submit a thesis discussing
one of the four electives listed under item 6.1 to 6.4 below. They
are:
6.1 Capacity Building for Diverse
Cultures, focusing on managing
human capacity creation and development, as well as evolutionary
processes and technology transfer on a micro as well as macro level.
6.2 Structures and Systems,
analyzing how institution-building processes take place; how they
are managed and influenced, including not only the processes aimed
at developing a State's administrative and juridical bodies, but
also those developing capital markets and political - as well as
multilateral - institutions.
6.3 Inter-Cultural Leadership,
through (i) case research based on the past, (ii) scenario building
based on the future, communication theory and/or technology, and
(iii) negotiation techniques looking towards the future.
6.4 Western-styled Corporate Philosophy;
intended for those non-westerners who wish to have a thorough introduction
to western corporate philosophy and behaviour. This thesis would
typically focus on similarities and differences between your own
cultural setting and the type of cultural setting that the western-styled
corporate philosophy would assume. It should also discuss how your
own cultural tradition can serve as a platform not only for a local
enterprise, but for an internationally viable business model. Further,
it should identify steps for how western MNEs can adapt to local
conditions, not only in order to respect cultural diversity, but
also to better tap into markets that are culturally sensitive.
Leaders who possess the insights that this program offers will be
better suited to meet the challenges that our future has in store
for us, no matter where we live or in which segment of the society
we wish to succeed.
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.Coming
Clean: The future of coal in the Asia-Pacific region |
By WWF-Australia
Despite Asia-Pacifics
unrestrained use of coal and its contribution to greenhouse
gas emissions a new WWF report finds there is a role
for the fossil fuel in a carbon-constrained energy future.
The report, Coming
Clean: The Truth and Future of Coal in the Asia-Pacific, released
on the eve of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit,
acknowledges that coal will contribute an important part to
the energy supply of the emerging economies in the region, in
particular China and India.
Coal and developing
nations
According to the report, coal has a role to play in meeting
the regions energy demands but that it must be reduced
to no more than 20% of all energy produced; tempered with the
introduction of cleaner coal technologies, specifically carbon
capture and storage, and regulated by government policies designed
to better protect local environments and communities.
With 88% of the
current global increase in coal use coming from the developing
nations of Asia, the report says industrialized nations need
to assist developing economies to implement low emissions technologies
in order to prevent dangerous global climate change.
To do this will
require new forms of technology transfer.
Based on independent
analyses commissioned by WWF from energy experts across the
region, the report finds that the market value of coal does
not reflect its toll on human health and the local and global
environment.
If these factors
were taken into account alternative energy technologies including
low-emission coal technologies would be more economic.
Coal and global
warming
Coals impacts on the region range from the depletion of
arable soil, to diminishing clean water supplies and severe
air pollution to grave respiratory illness and displaced and
disenfranchised communities. But perhaps coals greatest
threat is its significant contributions to global warming, which
stands to unleash potentially cataclysmic environmental impacts.
The Asia-Pacifics
coal use is not just a climate change issue but is also a community
and local environmental issue," said Ina Pozon, WWF Internationals
Asia-Pacific Coal Initiative Coordinator and author of the report.
"Coal currently
plays a dominant role in developing countries, such as China
and India, and it is unrealistic to expect an immediate shift
away from coal."
The report, she
adds, provides parameters that define responsible coal use that
allow developing countries to continue using this fuel to achieve
economic growth, while minimizing its impact on people and the
planet, particularly when it comes to global warming.
Download the report as *.pdf
click
here
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.Agenda |
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September 11
18:00-20:00
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Meetings
in 2020 - A showcase
Location: De
Industrieele Groote Club, Dam 27,
Amsterdam
Free entrance
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The
Season Events are on Thursdays
Registration: 18:30-19:00, Conference: 19:00-21:15
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October
25
18:30 - 21:15 |
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the
future of Google
and its impact on Media & Entertainment
Location:
Info.nl,
Sint Antoniesbreestraat 16, 1011 HB Amsterdam [Next
to Nieuwmarkt]
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November
29
18:30 - 21:15 |
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the
future of Sexuality
Location:
Waag Society, Nieuwmarkt 4, 1012 CR Amsterdam [Center of Nieuwmarkt]
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January
31
18:30 - 21:15 |
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the
future of Fashion
Location:
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February
28
18:30 - 21:15 |
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the
future of Nanotechnology
Location:
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March
27
18:30 - 21:15 |
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the
future of Ecological Architecture
Location:
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April
24
18:30 - 21:15 |
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the
future of Money
Location:
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May
29
18:30 - 21:15 |
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the
future of Children
Location:
Info.nl,
Sint Antoniesbreestraat 16, 1011 HB Amsterdam [Next
to Nieuwmarkt]
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June
26
18:30 - |
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Taste
of Diversity
Location:
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.Club
of Amsterdam Open Business Club |
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Club
of Amsterdam Open Business Club
Are you interested in networking, sharing visions,
ideas about your future, the future of your industry, society, discussing
issues, which are relevant for yourself as well as for the 'global'
community? The future starts now - join our
online platform
...:
http://www.openbc.com/go/invuid/Felix_Bopp2
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.Contact |
Your
comments, ideas, articles are welcome!
Please write to Felix Bopp, Editor-in-Chief:
editor@clubofamsterdam.com
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.Subscribe
& Unsubscribe |
Subscription
http://www.clubofamsterdam.com/subscription.htm
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