I have no idea how I managed to miss this incredible video for so long:
Are You Ready for the 21st Century ? from Michel Cartier on Vimeo.
Category: Society
Cities: the real driver of future economic prosperity
Monday, 24 August 2009 20:36
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For the first time ever man is becoming a majority urban creature. It’s hard to overestimate this change. Since the Fertile Crescent in 10,000 B.C., cities were only a fraction of human population, even if they were the centers of technology and culture. Humans throughout history have been mostly villagers, mountain people, hunter/gatherers.
In 1800 only 3% of humans lived in cities. Most people never saw a city, and the vast majority didn’t trust city folk when they came to town. They earned nasty terms like “city slicker” and “vilain,” which is just old French for “city slicker.”
By 1900, in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, only 6% resided in urban areas. Plenty of economic opportunity was to be had in the fields and in the mines of the countryside. Manufacturing and intellectual work still represented a minority of the jobs available.
Now in 2009, more than half of humanity lives in cities. Upward of 88% of all economic activity happens in cities – and this is increasing. Job opportunities in the countryside are disappearing as the knowledge economy makes physical capital less valuable and makes innovation the main driver of competitiveness.
Not all cities are created equal. Amsterdam, San Francisco, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Paris are monuments to culture, economic vitality, and learning, blessed by sufficient infrastructure and social stability. The urban future also means Lagos, Nigeria, Mexico D.F., Cairo, Egypt, Manila, Philippines, Calcutta, India, and more – cities of five, ten and twenty million inhabitants with critical sanitation problems, insufficient water, crumbling roads, and few jobs for the refugees from even deeper rural poverty.
For this reason Competitive Futures took a closer look at the future of what is likely to be our most common environment, the urban area. Enjoy.
Competitive Futures STEEP Report: The Urban Future
View more documents from Eric Garland.
Podcast with Jack Soto – Native Mindsets and the Future
Wednesday, 29 April 2009 09:37
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It is impossible to fix any problem while continuing to use the mindset that created that problem. This is an old saw, used to extoll the virtues of examining your assumptions.
Naturally, if you want the opposite of the Wall Street-speculator-growth-at-all-costs model, you need to talk to people who remember lots of past and have been around to see lots of future – Native Americans. I have the great honor of working with Mr. Jack Soto, director of the Washington Internship for Native Students (WINS) program at American University on issues of tribal leadership and the future. Jack’s program brings native students from around the continent to Washington to connect them with the mechanistic workings of Washington.
In this podcast, we go deep into the difference in perspective between US corporate, suburban culture and the constant rebirth going on in the native communities, what it means for their nations, and what we can learn from each other about the recreation of communities.
And we’re not diving into the typical, “Native Peoples Are More Holistic” claptrap. During the hour, we get into the deep background in complex business transactions that most tribes have, their process of constantly recreating nations and governments to suit evolving reality, casinos and their effect, Jack Abramoff (“Live and Learn“), why natives aren’t really environmentalists, and much more.
Enjoy.
Competitive Futures Podcast with Jack Soto, Washington Internship for Native Students Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
What should come first, marketing or products
Monday, 20 April 2009 19:21
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Seth Godin stands conventional wisdom on its head:
The Prius was developed after the marketing thinking was done. Jones Soda, too. In fact, just about every successful product or service is the result of smart marketing thinking first, followed by a great product that makes the marketing story come true.
This makes quite a statement about the inherent value of products and services. Is something only ever as good as we are convinced it is? Is perception now 110% of reality?