“Shift Happens” “Now you know” Presentation
Feb 12th, 2007 | By Gene A. Wright | Category: General, Information Technology, Knowledge Management, Leadership, StrategyThe following link is a WMV file (Windows Media File) that presents a number of very interesting facts an poses some interesting questions. It lasts about six minutes. Much of the content is related to education and technology and the growth of information (content).
What do you think? What should we do? Are we ready?
Gene A. Wright
Amazing facts. To add a few more. Did you know…..
If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
There are already more English speaking people in China than the United States.
China puts out 600,000 engineers/year vs. 70,000/yr in the U.S.
Indeed there is a shift occuring in world power and the speed of technology advancement is mind-boggling.
Are we ready? As ready as any other country. How does one prepare for it?
What should we do? Embrace it……I see no other choice.
Very interesting presentation. With the internet and other technologies the world is becoming flatter. In a long run country borders will no longer be barriers of entry, as a result of that the world economy will be increasingly intertwined – just as it is difficult to say if Toyota Camery (made in Kentucky)is a Japanese car or if a Jeep Grand Cherokee (made in Canada) is a US car……
Personally I think the strength of US is business environment/financial system, and its creative sprits – that why we have the Googles, Yahoos, Microsofts, etc.
On the other hand from a historical point of view, no country/company can stay at its prime forever. Let’s not forget China and India at one time had the leading technology and most developed civilization……
WOW. Definitely thought provoking. Certainly makes a strong
case for the need to participate in professional development
and continnuing education. Also make you wonder if the current
education system is meeting the needs of todays youth.
I think it was interesting. I think China and India are growing too fast as evidenced by their respective birth rates and maybe we are growing too slow, not sure which is right, maybe both, maybe neither. What should we do, vote in to office those that will, at least say, they will stress eduation and not remove programs. What good is it to have elaborate cultural\performing, art centers at the high school level when the grade and middle schools in those communities have nothing? That doesn’t seem to make sense. Are we ready, for what? (How can we move the banner on the right as it covers the text box while writing?
“Shift Happens”, my Mac won’t even play the video…
I’ll have to watch it at school.
I agree with KL – we need to embrace the fact that the world is evolving rapidly around us. From a country and company perspective, we can not rest on our past successes. If we do, we will be left behind.
As the world evolves, we will be (or already are) inundated with data and opportunity. The key will be to mine the right data and opportunities. IT will definitely help us accomplish this – but more importantly how we educate our kids (and adults like us) will determine whether we are able to capitalize on new opportunities. Without a strong educational system, the lack of innovative thinking will lead to missed opportunity. With all the cost cutting going on in our educational systems, one has to wonder whether we are headed in the right direction.
The technology environment of today’s public school should match the tools and approaches of the work and civic life that student will encounter after graduation.This will ensure that schools stay relevent to today’s students, as well as equip them for sucess in life after school.
It is a little scarey, or is it? People can’t even fathom what will happen down the road but the way technology changes at an awe inspiring pace makes the mind go goofy.
The statistics are boggling but you have to take it in a frame of reference. If you were to look at England’s perspective in the beginning of the 20th century, you would probably feel the same way we do now while watching that file. Then consider how quickly things changed each year. It is different to consider how the changes are comprehended as well during those years of change. Try to explain bytes and computers to someone 20 years ago, now everyone who uses them understands, for the most part. I have a feeling that things will go on. The US may no longer be the most powerful country on the planet but it will continue. Life will change and technology will continue to evolve. Everyone will be part of it.
After reading the first two paragraphs, I thought this article would lead into developing the next generation of leaders and managers. It really didn’t but I can’t help but wonder if knowledge management networks and CoP’s will become a major tool used by managers and executives today to decide on who gets promoted to be tomorrow’s leaders. One point the author made is that CoP’s provide recognition which means it must provide visibility.
It is my opinion that all too often, major contributions by employees and managers go unnoticed because they are not formally documented. KM systems and CoP’s provide a mechanism for this documentation.
I’ve found CoP’s to be helpful in solving tough design issues. One of the largest benefits of CoP’s is not so much the information that’s shared, but the name(s) of individuals who may prove helpful. People you can contact to discuss issues with. The goal is problem resolution and CoP’s can help achieve that faster and better.
This was a great visual for stressing the importance of being aware of the changing environment when developing strategies. It has been interesting to watch the advent of rapid prototyping and the reduction of design cycle time. For companies to survive, they must understand changes in the environment and then be able to more quickly adapt than their rivals.
fascinating and sobering – but what does it mean? Means my kids are going to college.
(Aside: In a way it reminded me of Gore’s Inconvenient Truth movie – just a mash-up of carefully selected bits of fact strung together to evoke an emotional response.)
The paperless office was so 1990’s, oh…my bad, I guess it is called “e-paper” now. Futurists also predicted a shorter work week for my generation…well we all know that ain’t true.
Are we ready? Technology will no doubt help solve many of the worlds most challenging problems and create new ones. And “we” will adapt.
My thought is what does this mean for my customers, and how am I going to prepare the company to meet those evolving needs. Seeing as how my clients are schools, hospitals, cultural centers, business offices, etc… what does this mean? Shifting away from bricks and mortar to data centers? New opportunities in the education sector (even though in the short run school referendums are being voted down)? Really don’t know. I would certainly think this needs to be shown at a strategic planning session to start asking those quetions first, even if we don’t have the answers yet.
Additional sobering realities: The world is becoming ever more divided between the have’s and have not’s. Technology has redrawn the lines between the have’s and have not’s and widened the gap even further. I like the idea of the $100 laptop.
Overwhelming Facts. But the the fact-bites don’t tell the whole story and we should not be taken aback by the magnitude of the statistics. The US will continue to compete in an ever shrinking (or flattening) world. We will just need to find a way to compete differently than in the past and I believe in the phrase “necessity is the mother of invention”. Given the necessity of change, we will find a way to compete.
Some may look at this presentation and be afraid….I and my company look at this as an opportunity. In India, we have a relationship with a company that augments our engineering capabilities. In China, we import some products that allow us to be competitive in certain markets we serve, but we also collaborate on design and manufacturing issues as well, all while added jobs here
This presentation does confirm my belief though…..The world is indeed becoming flat, and if you choose to embrace this fact you can benefit from it, if not you may be better off manufacturing typewriters
This is a great pitch, and I have used it several times now, and quoted it on numerous occasions.
The producer is actually a teached (Prof) from Colorado, and his website includes a backup for all the quoted information.
Scarey, inspiring and humbling in the space of a few minutes.
I agree with jmen, and Thoma Friedman …. the World is Flat…. and we need to adapt to stay ahead.
Just showed this to my patents who are in their 60’s and they were enthralled.
I think while they see the progress in computing, it was a shock to understand the scale and pace of the change.
This past weekend I purchased a Mac for them, and tonight we looked at Google Earth, and You Tube …. they were amazed.
Very interesting and shocking video. I have a 1-year old son and it is amazing to think about the world he will live in when he is my age. More importantly, why are the facts in this video so surprising? Why didn’t I know more of this already? It really makes me think!
It is a very interesting presentation, although it stimulate thinking about the future in order to be prepared and ahead of its changes, but I think that there are many other variables that has to be considered to predict more accurately how this future will be, the following are only some thoughts:
1. The trend in population of China and India is a great challenge for theses two countries, especially when considering education, as the number of kids in educational level will be much larger than the working force, does their economy can afford?
2. What are the political and ethical effects of that trend?
3. Does the trend of outsourcing policy, that many of today’s businesses adopt, will increase the same way in the future?
Change is a fact of life; those who are ahead of the current dynamic global business environment could easily win.
Perhaps there might be some advantages to use dicing music or songs to cater to those with a shortened attention span. If there are, I just don’t see them. I welcome anybody to enlighten me.
Some of my favorite songs are those unpopular songs that fill the CD. I never would have discovered them if I had been too busy or too impatient to listen to them. To me, music
I question the reasoning when people have hours of time to spend searching for the latest ringtones or answering machine jingles, but they are too busy to listen to an entire song. A lot of music can be considered “art” and should be enjoyed as such without being tampered with.
all these numbers are pretty amazing but also leave me a frustrating feeling: Technology is going so fast that we will always be behind. From a business point of view it also tell me that you should look at a quick return on investment for IT.
China and India population growth will continue to generate more opportunities than threats – You can look at it as more competitions but I look at it as more consummers.
I am really fascinated by the evolution of new technology but at the end of the day it is going too fast for me and I dont have time to really look at what is going on on a day to day basis. However any business leader have to make sure that he has access to the best technology that will allow him to grow and manage his business.
Willing to be always up to date is fun but in reality it is impossible,just make sure that you have access to the most updated technology that really fit to your business model.
The video is incredibly interesting. So much of the content is so relevant to today. It is amazing how people continue to multi-multi- task and they don’t think twice about doing it. The amount of information in the world is absolutely incredible; it does make you think about spending so much money to pay to get an education that will be out of date before you are done with it.
It is very intriguing to see what is to come.
Amazing!!!! Truly drives home the fact that the world is changing rapidly. If all of the information is correct, what will the world be like in 2, 5 or even 10 years? We need to consistently stay in the know about technology and the world, to stay on top of all the changes that are occuring. I think the first thing I am going to do is sign up for the free subscription to CIO magazine.
Exciting times!!!!
This is a great video. Things are going faster and faster everyday. We all know this but those striking examples tell us how far we are from really understanding how fast things go. This is at the same time exciting and scary ! Are we ready for this ? I think that we are more and more ready for this. Our education is focussing more and more thought process rather than just knowledge. We should be able to think and not just know things. Above all we should be open to new things and embrace technology. My generation has seen recording tapes, VCRs, CDs and DVDs, MP3, streaming … And I am not that old.
With an open mind and a will to continuously learn, we should be able to survive in that exciting ERA.
The old saying goes “the only thing that stays the same is that nothing stays the same.” How long will it be before the next version of “shift happens” is released and China isn’t even mentioned? I am guessing that India will be the largest english speaking country one day.
From a technology standpoint, this is amazing. It is amazing how quickly we forget what has changed. Although laptops seem to have been a part of my life for a long time, when I was 1/2 my current age, I owned a Commidore 64 and was “cutting edge”. It won’t be long before IPOD’s and Iphone’s are ancient technology.
What technology did you embrace 10 years ago that is now obsolete?
Amazing presentation. but also amazing example of “spin”. It seems that a good portion of this data seems to be taken out of context, on purpose to make a point. But having said that was still interesting looking at the different ways of compiling information.
The presentation is definitely eye opening and thought provoking, but I do have to agree with Jack that some of the assertions may be out of context. The predictions about supercomputers in the future seem a tad grandiose, although the presentation does acknowledge that predictions further out than 15 years are hard to make. Despite that, it is something that I think should be shared with others.