Shift to the Future

I know, quite the title.  I just finished reading The Venetian Betrayal by Steve Berry.  Woven into the story is an interesting history, some true and some dramatically altered, of Alexander the Great.  The author provides enough detail to stimulate your imagination so as to visualize the events, places, and people.  I love reading fiction where the author takes the time to research artifacts, buildings, places, events, and people and through carefully chosen words, brings them to life in my mind. I remember learning history in school… boring!  I hated history.  Maybe it was because I had none myself.  Now in my 40’s, history really interests me.  It certainly doesn’t have to be dull and boring for kids though.  I think an inspired teacher can bring history to life for kids.  But, what if we had a machine that could help? There’s a new show on TV called Caprica .  If you’ve watched the Battlestar Galactica series previously, you’ll know Caprica as the city planet where Battlesta

It’s Sunday, the day after the intense 2010 World Future Society conference and it’s time to reflect.  I bumped into Ken Shepard this morning whom I met on Thursday in Holacracy class and we debriefed for about an hour.  I’ve got to admit, there’s a lot of disturbing aspects to what I heard this week in presentations and conversations.  I am an optimist but am finding the views of others about possible futures to be challenging to accept.  To start off, here’s the titles of the sessions I attended and what has struck me most about this week: Organizing at the Leading Edge: Introducing Holacracy Keynote: Navigating the Future: Moral Machines, Techno Saplens, and the Singularity Sustainable Innovation: A Strategic Road Map to the Future 2010 Humans in 2020: The Next 10 Years of Personal Biotechnology Oceans and Our Global Future Internet Evolution: Where Hyperconnectivity and Ambient Intimacy Take Use Keynote: Building the Human Mind Levers of Change in Higher Education Holi

Day 1 at the World Future Society has come to a close.  Today I attended an all day workshop “Organizing at the Leading Edge: Introducing Holacracy”.  The speaker was Brian Robertson from Holacracy One with the motto, “Liberating the soul of organizations”. You know how after lunch during a full day workshop the afternoon seems to drag on, you get sleepy,…  well that didn’t happen today.  The entire group (12 of us) were totally engaged past 5pm the scheduled end time.  It was really that good. So what is Holacracy.  Disclaimer: my one day exposure to this “movement” doesn’t qualify me to speak intelligently about it but I’ll give you my take on it.  Brian Robertson talks about it using a software engineering metaphor: it is a new operating system for organizations or a fundamental upgrade to the core organization.  The organization gains new capabilities and capacity that all processes can leverage.  It is a practice, not just a model or theory – it is about doing, a new habit. 

Four or five years ago I used the phrase “just like oxygen” in the context of talking about a vision for wireless connectivity in our schools.  Since then I’ve often used this same phrase in conversations about how students and teachers entering our schools shouldn’t have to think to connect just like they don’t have to think to breath.  Well, let me tell you a short story of my journey today to Boston, MA… I got up early (2:30am) to be on the road by 3:30 to YVR (Vancouver Airport).  I got through security – was randomly picked for extra checks – had a choice of full body scan (aka digital strip search) or a pat down check, I opted for the pat down.  Anyway, got seated in the waiting area, popped open my laptop, and connected instantly to free YVR wireless to do so work. Sidebar: last night I got my wife Shelley hooked up for Skype so that we can video talk while I’m in Boston.  We did some trial runs so that she’d be comfortable with IM, Calls, Video calls, etc. Time came to board