Imagination as a Journey of Survival and Discovery
On April 18 I participated in a TEDx conference at my local community library in Westport, CT. TEDx programs were developed to help independent organizations create their own TED-like events in the...
View ArticleEmbracing Disruptive Change - Why Is it So Difficult?
A few weeks ago I participated in a lunch discussion in New York with a group of around 20 people from a wide range of ages and professions. The theme of the lunch was The Future of Work, but given...
View ArticleReflections on Ten Years of Blogging
The Internet era was born around 20 years ago, when Netscape went public in August of 1995 and caught the world by storm with its highly successful IPO. For many people, myself included, the Netscape...
View ArticleGame-Changing Basic Research: Benefits and Challenges
In April, MIT released The Future Postponed: Why Declining Investment in Basic Research Threatens a U.S. Innovation Deficit, - a report on both the long term benefits of basic research and the impact...
View ArticleThe Datafication of Business and Society
I first encountered the term datafication in The Rise of Big Data: How It’s Changing the Way We Think About the World, by Kenneth Cukier and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger. Their 2013 Foreign Affairs...
View ArticleOpen Letter on the Digital Economy
A few days ago I received an e-mail from MIT professor Erik Brynjolfsson inviting me to consider supporting an Open Letter on the Digital Economy that a small group had recently drafted. As he...
View ArticleThe Future of Financial Services
In 2010, the BBC and the British Museum collaborated in a project called A History of the World, based on one hundred objects from the collection of the British Museum, around which you can tell the...
View ArticleMan, Machine, and Work
The June, 2015 issue of the Harvard Business Review includes a spotlight on Man and Machine: Knowledge Work in the Age of the Algorithm. Another example that, as a recent article observed, “Artificial...
View Article“Flexible Security”: A Sensible Social Policy for our Digital Age
A few years ago I participated in an MIT roundtable that explored where future jobs will likely come from, given our increasingly powerful, inexpensive and smart technologies. Despite the presence of...
View ArticleThe Economic Potential of The Internet of Things
Like many technological advances, the Internet of Things (IoT) has been long in coming. Ubiquitous or Pervasive Computing dates back to the 1990s, when neither the necessary low-cost devices nor...
View ArticleThe Continuing Evolution of the On-Demand Economy
The past few years have seen the rise of what’s been variously referred to as the on-demand, collaborative, sharing, or peer-to-peer economy. Regardless of what we call it, this trend has captured the...
View ArticleBecoming a 21st Century Digital Tinkerer
I like to tell people that the key to being and/or sounding smart is to hang out with smart people. And, one of the names that would quickly comes to mind if asked to recommend who to hang out with is...
View ArticleCould the End of Moore’s Law Be Near? If so, What’s Next?
I recently read The Next Wave: A Conversation with John Markoff in Edge.org. Markoff has been a science and technology writer at the NY Times since 1988, as well as author and co-author of several...
View ArticleIs a Backlash Brewing Against Silicon Valley’s Perceived Insularity?
“Empire of the geeks… and what could wreck it” was the featured cover story of The Economist’s July 25 issue. “Silicon Valley should be celebrated. But its insularity risks a backlash,” reads the tag...
View ArticleTechnology and the Future of Media
Most everyone will agree that advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) are radically transforming the business landscape. But, how are these transformations playing out industry by...
View ArticleThe Digital Evolution Index
Last year, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University published Digital Planet: Readying for the Rise of the e-Consumer. The report, - based on a research study by the Fletcher...
View ArticleReflections on Linux and Mainframes
A year ago, McKinsey Quarterly published a special edition, Management: The next 50 year, to commemorate its 50th anniversary. To illustrate how different the world was 50 years ago, its lead article...
View ArticleRealizing the Potential of the Digital Economy
A few weeks ago I attended the 12th annual Brookings Blum Roundtable on Global Poverty. Organized by the Brookings Institution, the Blum Roundtable brings together policy and technical experts from...
View ArticleCapitalism and Social Issues in the 21st Century
A recent NY Times article, The Sunny Side of Greed by Op-Ed columnist Frank Bruni, argues that corporations may well now be among the strongest socially progressive forces in the country. In issue...
View ArticleThe Evolution of Design Thinking
Design Thinking is the featured topic in the September issue of the Harvard Business Review with four articles on the subject. “It’s no longer just for products. Executives are using this approach to...
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