George Dvorsky has this interesting post about a ~ 7 minute video posted to You Tube called “A Visual Trip Through the 21st Century”. It’s an interesting, optimistic and quick view. And I now know about Les Claypool (they he does the soundtrack, which I actually liked but seemed to annoy my family as they watched TV). The video is based on Peter Pesti.’s Detailed Roadmap of the 21st Century. A neat little production for people or groups interested in thinking about the future, for example teams that are interested in visioning or scenario development.
Archive for February, 2007
A Visual Trip Through the 21st Century
Tuesday, February 27th, 20072006 Presentation at Epsilon Sigma Phi on Technology and Distributed Teams
Tuesday, February 27th, 2007The power point slides for my November, 2006 National ESP presentation “Using Technology to Improve Communications and Develop Collaborative Teams in Geographically Distributed Extension Work Systems” is online at the National ESP website. Use this post and then cruise to the bottom of the page to the hyperlink that opens the graphics. It was a fun hour presentation with a very engaging crowd (here is one of the session photos).
Reading Science Fiction to Learn More About Diversity
Sunday, February 25th, 2007One of the most interesting things about reading science fiction is the continued validity that it often tells us more about our current world than future worlds. It is easy to project current norms, styles and mindsets into the future. Cyberpunk has been a relief in pushing this aside, as has the increase in transhumanist sci-fi (I’m still waiting to listen to the CD version of Richard Clarke’s Breakpoint to see if transhumanism has hit mainstream fiction). I just finished reading John Birmingham’s Weapons of Choice, an alternative history sci-fi book focusing on WWII. It is the first in a trilogy (the other titles can be found here and here).
I’m not big at all on alternative history and there seems to be a fair amount of it addressing WWII. I was drawn to Birmingham’s book by a brief review of the third book in the trilogy in the current issue of Wired magazine. The initial driver in the story is the sudden transformation of a US led allied fleet from the year 2021 back to 1942. Right into the middle of the 1942 US fleet at Midway. You can see the novel for the science behind the transformation (it’s really about multiple universes). The real story line is taking a multinational force from 2021 and dropping it into a very homogeneous 1942 American society.
It is very interesting to read about the relationships. A modern Navy and Marine Corps from 2021 with females and several non-white officers and leaders are not necessarily well accepted by 1942 society (roughly 50% of the 2021 forces are non-white and/or female). Violence occurs, as does a lot of intolerant interactions. It made me think both about the past and the future. It is good to see just how much has changed. It also interesting to think about the future and how much more our society will change. Current demographic trends indicate a very different racial and age make up in America. Our future world will be different.
So what are we doing to prepare our communities and clientele to prepare for this? Most of our Extension systems currently do not reflect this trend. Nor do significant chunks of our current clientele. What about future clientele? What about our youth programs that need to be prepared to work in the future? This just adds to Extensions ongoing struggle of expanding into new clientele bases without disenfranchising important existing bases.
It’s not a quick read, but it is relevant to gaining a better understanding of where we’ve been and where we are going. And to realize social change is possible. We already know what much of the US and the world will look like. We just need to start with changing ourselves. If you’re over 30 you can start by watching bits and pieces of MTV.
The Time Cost of Maintaining Tech
Saturday, February 24th, 2007Kevin Kelly has a post on his Technium site that really got me thinking. Kevin discusses the additional cost of keeping technology and gadgets going after we have purchased them. Kevin calls this the “true cost of ownership”. I first breezed over the article a few days ago, then found myself bouncing back to it. I was subconsciously adding up how much time I’d been spending trying to get a new computer camera working with both AIM and Skype. Kevin estimates that for every $1 you spend on technology, you will spend a $1 of your time (defined as the cost of a tech person’s time) maintaining it. Kevin also shows some data that indicates that the percentage of time that is spent on maintaining software has almost doubled since the 70’s.
There are several important issues from this post for Extension to consider. Here are a few:
- Has the upkeep time came at the cost of other time? Or is it that we have saved time with the technology and that they increased time is really an investment? I think it is the later, but it still illustrates other needs. See below.
- Skills: What kind of continual training do Extension professionals need to keep up with maintaining and enhancing the technology. Just as important, what kind of training do we need in how to use the systems that we create by having the technology. For example, once I get my camera consistently working with Skype how can I better learn to use the system for various work efforts and increase my efficiency and effectiveness?
- Staffing: Who do we need to support us? What is the role of tech support? What additional skills do we need to look for as we hire educators. Can we share support across Extension systems?
- Equipment: What types of equipment and software do we need? If Web 2.0 platforms become a reality will it save us time? Are there standardizations across systems that we can use?
Some things to ponder and think about. It would be an interesting research project to actually track the economic impact and cost of our time.
2007 Farm Bill Updates & Proposals
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007Here is the USDA link to the 2007 Farm Bill Updates and proposals: www.usda.gov/farmbill
Instant Messaging in Extension
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007Our office has incorporated IM into our operations over the last five years or so. This has occurred mainly due to the fact that we are using virtual and distributed office settings. So IM has primarily been an internal tool versus an external tool for us. We use it for our internal operations versus as a means to connect with clientele. Libraries seem to be using it more and more to be more accessible to their clientele. Here is a good post from Bibliotech’s archive about IM use with librarians. It’s from this more recent post that notes:
As of this Fall, 2006, our IM Reference stats at Butler University have surpassed our email Reference stats and are regularly more than half of the number of Reference questions we get by phone. And this is only the second academic year we’ve offered this service.
The first post provides a succinct overview of why libraries need to use IM to connect with their clientele. I’m really uncertain how well (if at all) Extension is using IM. Especially given the changing demographics and technology use of current youth. There appears to be a demand. Any ideas?
Leadership and Management at Proctor and Gamble
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007Ryan Schmiesing sent me this link to a brief interview in USA Today with A.G. Lafley, CEO of Proctor and Gamble. The article provides a good, quick read and a pretty balanced philosophy on leadership and management. It’s worth reading through to get to the last question and answer:
Q: Are leaders born or made?
A: Clearly made. You choose to lead. You choose to want to make a difference, to make the world better in some meaningful way. Until that choice is made, you don’t have a leader. You have a lump of clay.
Extension 2.0?
Sunday, February 18th, 2007Continued light blogging from me as I’ve worked on several projects simultaneously. Several of these are related to Web 2.0, distributed/virtual work systems and Extension futures research. One recurring item that I continue to see related to Web 2.0 is the new (fill in the blank) ___2.0 of everything. Education 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 are current examples. All feature interesting arguments about how Web 2.0 activities are leading to structural changes in organizations and how we work. Hopefully I will post more on all of these soon. I’m hoping to use the upcoming ESP 2007 call for papers as a deadline to put together a proposal and potential JOE article on Extension 2.0. This would include the opportunities (I think they are great) and some of the hype. Any feedback is appreciated or comments are appreciated!
For now, here is a link to an interesting Harvard Business School case study on the debate about having an Enterprise 2.0 post on Wikipedia.