Bryan O’Rourke shares his thoughts on technology, business, and consumer trends in health, fitness and more.
The humanization of pets, innovation in a host of businesses, shifts in lifestyles, creation of new cottage industries, and an increasing embracement of what is "real" such as ugly beauty among other trends will become increasingly pervasive in 2009. All of these and other changes are all symptomatic of the convergence of demographic, technological, and global ism. Find out more in this interesting video.
As Andreas Constantineu's presentation below sets forth; megatrands in mobility are contributing to overall macro shifts in a variety of areas. Creation of the prosumer for one and that 25% of all content will be self produced or mashed within a few years for another. That open source will rule and more importantly that the sale value of content is declining rapidly are of great significance to the revolution and directly tied to mobility trends. Check out this vision mobile research presentation and the white paper it refers to in order to learn more.
Jon Radoff's presentation below sets forth insights on what the rapid rise of gaming represents. This trend is symptomatic of technology, demographic shifts and globalisms convergence. What Roadoff alludes to in his presentation is indicative of how institutions and people will increasingly interact and consume content.
Evidence of failing institutions is everywhere: the financial "crisis", for instance, our failing "health care" system, or our crumbling "education" system. These trends are symptomatic and evidence of how many institutions attempt to retain their relevance in the world with a command and control mindset established on 19th century paradigms in which much of the 20th century was spent perfecting. It is this "thinking" that rationalizes technology as a separate piece of the puzzle: a tool that is used to continue the old paradigm and values.
In truth technology is not a choice. It has created another world; a new environment that is rapidly undermining old ways and creating new paradigms. The solution to our many problems is to let go of the past and embrace this new world. The video below addresses how this relates to the education system.
Nowhere is the evidence of institutional breakdown clearer than in education. For the first time in US history, Americans ages 25 to 34 are less likely to be "well-educated" by traditional definition, than the generation that preceded them.
College tuition and fees have risen three times as fast as the median family income. The National Center for Public Policy and Education reported this month that tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007. Median family incomes rose by just 147 percent during the same time. At private universities the price tags and increases are even higher.
Hanging on to all outdated means and methods of "delivering" education, the solution proposed by most educators is to provide even more funding to this broken system. As Greg Whitby notes, educators have spent the 20th century perfecting a 19th century model. The DNA of education is still founded on command and control tactics largely centered on irrelevant assumptions of the industrial revolution. We have to change that DNA and when we witness the disconnect off affordable education, it only proves this point.
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