PortalToYourDreams

Smart in the City

2011-02-16T08:48:00.000-08:00

Scenarios for connected urban life.

Local social, economic, and political forces will shape the urban information explosion in every city over the next decade. Five technologies that matter—broadband connectivity, smart personal devices, open data infrastructures, public interfaces, and cloud computing—will lay the foundation for urban development and inclusion in the years ahead. The scenarios to come illustrate the challenges and opportunities for global cities in both Northern and Southern regions when urban information becomes accessible to city dwellers. On the one hand, smart devices extend information and democratize municipal decision making. On the other hand, there will be an intense centralization of data, most likely consolidated by a private company deploying cloud services and the devices to access it. The question becomes, who will hold the key to enter this data?

Smart cities are wired with IT infrastructure that can report, filter analyze and share urban information. Information can be of a municipal quality like energy consumption and transportation routes that greatly improve efficiency and sustainability issues. Corporations pioneering smart infrastructures are IBM's Smarter Planet and Cisco's Connected Urban Development. Smart cities also integrate real-time social media functionality that will increasingly be used by local government to crowd source civic projects. The UK's G-Cloud estimates a 3 billion Pound savings between 2014 and 2020 with it's cloud infrastructure, and over 100 municipalities in the USA have open data sharing structures for solving civic issues. And finally, from a business perspective, smart cities will enhance what business networks do best: deepening trusted relationships, expanding business opportunities and reducing costs with collective buying.

The driving force shaping smart cities is the access to infrastructure, both in terms of laying down the connections and launching satellites as well as how the end user experiences and pays for the data. Globally, video communications will drive an exponential growth in bandwidth consumption. A new round of investment in long-haul fiber optic networks will bring the needed capacity to cities in the Global North. The linking of coastal cities in the Global South into undersea fiber grids will reinforce their integration into the global economy.There will be cultural, economic and political differences between Northern and Southern cities.

When there is an open social agenda communities will leverage urban information to improve service delivery, transparency, and citizen engagement. This sounds optimistic, but in reality the realization of government cloud services is in reaction to national debt and shifting costs to the citizen in the name of community engagement. What will emerge is that micro enterprises and activities will be super local: day care, rooftop gardens and car pooling today; rapid prototyping, green energy and device manipulation tomorrow. In turn the city block or neighborhood maybe fall into the hands of a local strong man characterize by patronage and extortionary practices. Lets not forget that policing will also be increasingly a Do It Yourself (DIY) civic responsibility.

Building the smartest cities of tomorrow will be financed by partnerships between municipal and corporate stakeholders. In many cases the corporate stake will outweigh the municipality and therefore having ultimate decision making power. When the commercial agenda takes the foreground there will be price exclusion for poorer groups, but for those who are able to pay, wow. Greener, effcient and instant access to data from anywhere. In fact, geopolitical borders will become less import than network connections. Within cities themselves, smart networks will resemble castles, with defenses, exclusive trading partners and a unique culture.

Smartest of the smart cities will be able to make sense of all this new data. Already today, the Watson supercomputer by IBM is able to answer any question asked to it in normal language in a few seconds. What's so amazing about this is that the entire human wealth of knowledge can be articulated and given to you within a few seconds in conversational english. More powerful that Google's algorithms, Watson like supercomputers that sit on top of centralized data can revolutionize industries flooded by information such as medical, finance and surveillance; further polarizing those who are not connected. In the scenarios that follow, try imagine which direction your city will go and consider how emerging cities will handle things differently. According to leading world economic reports, all of the major cities in the next decade will be in the southern hemisphere, let's ask Watson what to do about that.

If you want to know more about IT integration in urban development here in Amsterdam and across Europe visit New Urban Media at www.studionum.com

e-Commerce will capture 15% of all retail sales in 2011

2011-01-03T07:12:00.000-08:00

The recession is over, if your in business with eCommerce. Online shopping figures have been consistently rising over the last decade reaching 8% of all retail sales in America and Asia, Europe is at 5%.° The Internet Retailer Online Retail Index of 25 eCommerce stocks on NASDAQ from 2009 to 2010 have soared up 91%. 2011 is going to be the transition for online retail from toddler to teener- the internet is maturing. And what makes 2011 the difference? Three things: frugality, ease of use and cloud computing are the driving forces will shape the scenarios for eCommerce this year. How can ERP solution providers play into this trend? This article explores the merging shopping dynamics that are increasingly happening online, by recommendation and via a mobile device. What's relevant for ERP solution providers is how to enhance integrating the supply chain with a
retail solution.
°Retail v e-tail in America Bleak Friday Nov 26th 2009 | NEW YORK the Economist

MILLENIALS are FRUGAL

ERP solutions providers, and particularly those with a vertical focus in retail, warehouse management and food should be aware of how the consumer will increasingly be making purchases online in 2011. And leading the way is the demographic group the Millennials, who are ages 10-28, and they make a $200 billion contribution to the economy each year. They have become the largest generation, bigger than the baby boomers; there are about 82,900,000 Millennials. Resource Interactive has researched Millennials since 2006 and has uncovered key defining traits of Millennials, notably is an aversion to credit. Having grown up in wealthy times and then seen their parents struggle with towering credit card debt Millennials have developed a genuine reluctancy to spending more than they have°. Further more, they are always online. Have you been to a lecture theatre in a university lately, well when the lecture hall lights go down the glow of Facebook blue is readily seen across many connected faces.

The fact is, this the generation that is born with internet and mobile phones-one interpretation you can take out of that is that they are not inhibited by the notion of purchasing directly online or via the mobile because they haven't built a pre-internet shopping history. In fact, in pre-internet times just as now, a personal recommendation was the driving factor in making a purchase. In an average smart phone there are 50 contacts, and those contacts of contacts have another 50 contacts each. That implies that there is a significantly larger amount of consumer recommendations in our pockets where ever we are. This is changing shopping dynamics.

°Get Them Talking: How Growing Participation Chanis Will Grow Sales, Nov 17, 2009 , Sam Decker and Ze Frank. Bazaarvoic.

RECOMMENDED by WOMEN

Sellers in the retail space know that recommendations from friends or autonomous consumer groups are the ultimate sweet spot for sales. 77% of women are influenced by peer recommendations and about half (51%) of female shoppers are already following their favorite brands through social networks like Facebook and Twitter. But the figures from a recent study by SheSpeaks has uncovered what my mother and her friends did back when I was a kid- cut out coupons. They all used to pull them out of the purses at the till, often mixed with cash and plastic. Coupons still have their sway, they're just not cut our of the newspapers on saturday morning anymore. Women are less likely to make a purchase because of a social product page. Instead, women are looking for coupons (68%), online product reviews (61%) and company emails (45%) to help them make purchasing decisions.
"When it comes to building preference and motivating in-store sales, digital is emerging as a strong contender. If brands can motivate trusted customer recommendations and couple them with a 'call to action' such as a coupon, it's a powerful one-two punch that drives sales and advocacy," said Aliza Freud, CEO of SheSpeaks.

Coupons and grocery shopping go hand in hand. It's not new news - but how can coupons find it's way into a Food industry solution, an obvious place is in the CRM. Microsoft's role center approach focuses on customer centricity, well coupons certainly put the customer first. Coupons nowadays can be electronic pulling data from our loyalty cards and appearing in our smart phones. We scan them at the resister for our rebate, build up loyalty points and be inclined to utilize my local supermarket's mobile food application. Over time, the coupons i receive are quite personalized by an algorithm not so far off Google adds. Think of the "deal of the day" that is fine tuned to purchasing habits. And more interestingly for the supermarket, my purchases and coupons can be linked to the consumer's social graph - the network of friends spun on social networks that turn purely transactional interactions into personal recommendations. That means that my friends know when I bought something and saved money. Maybe it's just me, but growing up as a New Yorker conversations among my mom and her friends on saturday afternoon often mentioned the best deals and coupons that week.

MOBILE MAKES it EASY

So far the smart phone is getting allot of attention in terms of game changing consumer habits, lets have a look at what Google has found out. Organizing the World’s Information for Shoppers Sameer Samat, Director of Product Management, Google, at the Social Commerce Trends Report Summit 2010 highlighted three industry trends that drive Google’s strategy: online-to-store shopping, mobile, and social. Samat suggests making these trends part of a company’s operational plans. For example, retailers should make sure they have 3G mobile coverage in all stores, making it easy for customers to bring information from the web directly into store aisles. He also suggests that UPC codes for products be prominently displayed, so people with mobile phones can easily scan them to get online information with new smart phone applications. However, Mitch Joel author of Six Pixels of Separation, believes that, with the increasing connectedness of everyone, search will actually be less pervasive in shopping. He believes people will get information from friends, then purchase immediately, such as through their smart phones. Currently two thirds of the world’s population have mobile phones, and smart phones are expected to eclipse PC sales by 2012. Samat tells that Google’s internal data has shown a 3000%+ growth in mobile “shopping” queries in the 3rd quarter of 2010; mobile queries to Google now exceed online queries in some geographies, and the number of queries issued to Google Maps products has grown substantially°. Layering the internet on top of your real-time experience is why Augmented Reality has tremendous potential, as long as our smart phone batteries can keep up.
°Social Commerce Trends Report Summit 2010 April 19-21, 2010

Augmented Reality (AR) will redefine 'pop op' stores and guerilla marketing. Layar, announced at Picnic 2010 that they will be able to provide 'branded' apps on their AR platform which, until now was a horizontal platform open to the public. With an AR app in the retail industry, effectively one person can hold an entire store inventory in a portable device and open it to reveal all the products in an immersive environment. This could range from an AR car dealership, fashion show to a Tupperware party. Right now viewers will need to have an app on their smart phone to see the projection, in 2011 you'll start to see AR glasses entering a price range that would constitute a consumer product. Either way, with the phone or glasses you'll see celebrities and brand champions walking down the street or into select events and pop-up an AR store. The right product at the right place in the right time. Think about it, retailers will need dramatically less retail space driving down price and shifting budgets to customer relationships. In an uncertain economic climate a major strategy for retailers is to keep supply chains as lean as possible to reduce costs associated with storage. AR might be a big jump for some traditional retailer but times are changing. Even the fashion industry is shifting from the traditional 4 season cycle to 16 cycles per year. Uncertainty and volatility in the consumer market demands on a flexible supply chain, by having 16 cycles a retailer dramatically reduces the risk of picking the wrong trend while simultaneously reducing storage costs. Five years ago only Zara, a Spanish clothes retailer, followed such a strategy, but firms such as J.C. Penney, Saks and Macy’s have since adopted it too.°

° In The May 27th 2010 issue of the Economist “America’s Shoppers” Paul Leinwand, a consultant at Booz & Company

LUXURY ONLINE

Partners in the retail industry should be angling their ERP strategy for retail to embrace web shops, it's not just airplane tickets and car rentals anymore. Luxury brands will eventually be the new gated communities online with waiting lists to get in, but for now, they are content with growing sales. Prada now says that within five years, some 40% of its revenues in America will come from the internet. Prada currently sells only bags, wallets and other accessories online, not its main clothing and footwear collections. Louis Vuitton, a maker of leather goods and clothes, is one of the few luxury brands to have prospered online. Unlike many of its peers, it offers nearly all its products on the web. The internet brings in as much money as one of its biggest bricks-and-mortar shops, says Antoine Arnault, the firm’s communications director°. However Louis Vuitton’s parent, LVMH, was forced to shut down eLuxury in 2009, a website founded in 2000 that sold a wide variety of luxury brands, because it lost money by the suitcase-full. According to insiders, it failed mainly because it lacked focus: it sold expensive products alongside relatively cheap ones. 2011 is the year eCommerce matures and retailers start treating commerce electronic terms instead of bricks and mortar. The first commercial on TV was a minute long still image with a product name and address of where to buy it, more or less a newspaper add on TV. This analogy applies to the last decade of eCommerce, retailers have been approaching online shopping in traditional terms and have now finally started losing their milk teeth, watch out for a big bite in retail sales online. A strong selling point for wholesale distribution and automated warehouses will be how they can quickly process online orders and handle huge spikes and dips in orders. Because online purchasing can happen at home after watching TV , or during a conversation with a friend or at an event with a smart phone emotional and spontaneous purchasing will increase. Supply chains need to be able to turn on a dime and a connected ERP solution is best situated to maximize opportunities.

°Luxury firms are digital laggards, but some are catching up Jul 22nd 2010 | berlin and paris. Economist Intelligence Unit

COCOONING VS GOING OUT
Going to an online shop versus purchasing out of a conversation in the real world.

When there is a vertical integration in the back end one can start Imagining buying strategically placed products on online TV, during sports matches and movies in the cinema- or even offer a gaming experience on top of the live sports event. The idea is layering the online world via smart phones on to our experiences and integrating online shopping functionality in our TV programs and movies. And one can't speak of online integration not see the significance of Augmented Realty's ability to enhance or public experiences. Like the famous cafe scene where women gather round over cafe and cake to talk about life experiences and consumer products, in 2011 with tablets and smart phones in the mix we will start seeing that this is the place where a majority of online purchases take place, amount friends and in public. Men not excluded of course- lets just shift the apple pie with cream to a beer and a big screen TV.

CLOUD VS BATTERY
eCommerce from home or on location.

All online shopping and gaming has to deal with data transfer, accessibility and scalability. This is where cloud computing and battery life will be a practical determinant in how far this online world will take us out of our homes and emerge our public experiences. We all have had a regular sense of urgency regarding our smart phones and laptop's battery life, well guess what- our apps our out passing our battery life technology. Not an issue when at home but in terms of mobility there is only so much cloud computing can to do shift the computing demands of our phones to the virtual server in the sky.

Going up on the vertical axis in 2011 means that battery power can't deliver more than 20 minutes of quality AR shopping or online gaming interaction from our smart phones, hence it won't be a major factor in retail purchases. Going up on the axis means we are using our laptops and tablets more for online retail than phones. In this reality sales and product configurators will make a big bag in 2011 - the ultimate answer to customizable products at a mass scale. Now with touch screen technology consumers can slide their outfits, home furnishings, bike, computer and car parts together to make their own creations. How does it work? Components are represented as a graphical interface and are linked to a table that has product information like price, availability and compatibility. Affectively what's happening is as you slide pieces together, the software is computing the order and contacting all logistic and external vendors needed to get your creation home. In the moment you press: send, buy, compose, create or build the product order has been processed. Respectively, if the combination you put together wasn't possible or out of stock you would know instantly. Don't try this on your mobile, yet.

In 2011 the battery issue will not be solved, but that doesn't stop retails and hospitality from catering to customer battery needs. Like airports in the last few year, why shouldn't stores and cafes instal charging islands for our smart devices. It makes business sense because it keeps us in the retail space longer and connects us to added value and peer recommendations. As we move down the vertical axis and shift away from online at home to online on location it will be social media that makes a big impact on retail, yes AR pop up shops hovering around celebrities is wow, but still niche. Online shops and consumer groups will increasingly be using twitter and Facebook to drive sales, elect brand champions and push personal recommendations. And our older population will join in heavily because lets face it, unlike tiny mobile phones they can actually see what's written on a tablet.

Cloud Mrkt

2010-05-03T12:15:00.000-07:00

CloudMrkt
The Digital Skyline Meets the Built-landscape

It has been over a decade now that Internet and Mobile have been integrated into our daily lives… we are now approaching the reality where information technology embeds itself into urban planning and architecture. Beyond laying fiber optics underground and building communication towers how will new media evolve with urbanism?

Internet and Mobile bring people and ideas together. Email, Twitter, social media and gaming celebrate the sharing of knowledge and experience. This share-care communication is a human quality that will be enhanced when digital media has a physical meeting point. In other words can there be a physical manifestation of the web like data dynamics associated with the web. How will crowd sourcing, open source software, social media, and desktop widgets look like as a physical extension of their digital interface? There is a structure that resembles this dynamic, airports.

Airports are nods in a network and manage flow digitally, on the ground and in the air. We walk into an airport and look up on the screens to see real time arrivals and departures. The waiting rooms have news broadcasts, refreshments and entertainment. Likewise, our urban landscape today is a juxtaposition of digital and telecommunication flows that are co-existing and interacting with the built environment. When these flows become visible in a value added way we are beginning to realize the concept of CloudMrkt.

Airports manage flows and connections. Global office networks like the Hub and Spaces create flexible working environments based on time sharing and like mindedness. Usually part of a global network, one's rent is valid in any building that is part of that network. Furthermore, there is a corresponding digital network that is a desktop widget facilitating resource sharing and job hunting. This can be seen as select form of crowd sourcing. Finally, the workspaces and digital networks come together in a branded and hosted place experience.

CloudMrkt takes the flow management of an airport and the spatial / network community element of the flexible work space and scales it up to a much larger urban district. The area being explored for such an intervention in Amsterdam is Westpoort-Oost; an industrial / business region with 350 companies and a logistical infrastructure for freight and commerce. What CloudMrkt proposes is a local area enhanced with a crowd sourcing toolkit that proliferates economies of scale and quality of life. This becomes evident the moment a company begins renting and turns on its computers and mobile devices to find software tool kit and a desktop messaging platform called Exchange. The software tool kit would have office / data management / and design tools supported by a private server. The idea is that the unit cost of licensing and purchasing software gets reduced by opportunities of scale. Think of what currently happens with collective insurance and savings plans, the same clubbing together is appropriated in CloudMrkt. Linking all the companies together requires an appreciation for transparency and an open source mentality. For those companies that can embody the network society will find that cutting costs will find it's way into other services like legal and accounting. And even more significant, finding the right people skills in the process of creating project teams will be made easier with Exchange.

Exchange is a real time supply and demand messaging board that lists the activities of all the companies in the CloudMrkt. You see it on your devices and in screens installed in each CloudMrkt building. By the entrance of the building or next to the coffee machine the screens posts business activities, news flashes, requests for help and job offers. The value here is that your company is not alone anymore and is just as applicable to freelancers as it is to small medium and large sized companies. Each CloudMrkt member can sea each other, like in gmail or Facebook you see a list of friends and people on line. It's the same idea, except for a fundamental difference that here there is a physical place where people can meet. Coming face to face with your client, partner and friend is a key ingredient to relationship building and trust. Considering that science has shown that words are only 7% of communication leaving the vocal variety at 38% and non-verbal communication at 55% shows that the majority of how we receive messages from each other is intuitive. The physical meeting place is also practical in terms proximity and credibility, promotes accountability and increases serendipity. It's convenient for conversations, deal making, a barter transaction or simply drop something off.

Each region will have a centrally located building hosting the Cloud Café and Cloud Conference Center. Interviews, brainstorms, barter transactions, lunches and networking activities can all find there place here. Just ask the crowd, this is your community. The Cloud Café his will include three digital walls: the Dream Wall, Data Wall and the Exchange. The Dream Wall is where members can share ideas they are passionate about like Google's 20% time policy or what traditionally happened on a bulletin board. The difference now is that everyone can share and build on it, this is where innovation can happen. The Data Wall measures energy use, carbon emission, heat loss and data analytics. This feature empowers residents and companies to see exactly where energy is being used and therefore enabling the possibility to make efficiency and sustainability amendments based on that real time data. In addition to eco tracking, analytic data provides CloudCafé with a real time digital ambiance reminiscent of the stock exchange trading floor.

And the Exchange Wall is the real time supply and demand messaging board that everybody has on their desktops and mobile devices. Companies who are open will find that they will share talents, barter goods and services, do collaborative projects, grow faster and realize that resources are much closer. The ability to professionally crowd source promotes efficiency in terms of finding talent but also in terms of reducing transportation costs and licensing fees. The way the city is set up now, one doesn't know their neighbor let alone the staff, resources and business visions of the company across the street. CloudMrkt is proposing that it's possible to build in networking and resource sharing capabilities.

The Cloud Conference Center is a flexible meeting / conference space that is self organized by the business community. Their is a host and a system manager but ultimately this space is there for when a company needs to make presentations, hold conferences and form larger teams that expand beyond their walls at home. When connectivity is increased in a business region specialities will emerge. Diverse CloudMrkt regions will develop their own specialities that are industry specific like a creative hub full of marketing and media companies versus a logistical region with freight and global commerce and or an engineering market that has a speciality in design and software. Over time, multiple CloudMrkts in a city will form the way districts have organized themselves in the past like a China Town, Banking District or Art Quarter. The difference now being that new media facilitates this self organizing dynamic. It will even be possible that a CloudMrkt, which is a collection of companies and professionals, will receive project opportunities that are offered to the area as a whole. It's scaling up the dynamic that appears at a company level into a multiple company districts.

Lets get real. This ambition isn't a far fetched scenario for Star Trek, it's a bottom line consideration that any property developer has had since the invention of stones. How does a developer make an area interesting to move into too, hence increasing it's attraction power and ultimately it's property value. Simply put, why should I move here and will my property gain value overtime. Today, like never before, it's fundamentally possible to view planning from a combined perspective that includes digital media and physical space. What's on offer is instant networking, a digital tool kit and a place to meet and make it all happen. It's up to the people to create there dreams and organize themselves, New Urban Media provides the infrastructure to that more efficiently.

Written and concept by Carl William Kerchmar, www.portaltoyourdreams.com
Visualization and concept by Jesse Lavalaye, noolio+ www.noolioplus.com
Special thanks to Placemakers

Cyborg

2010-03-08T09:34:00.000-08:00

CYBORG
Ask yourself, on average how far is your mobile phone from your body?

It's difficult to talk about society nowadays and not mention Information Communication Technology and social media. Even Queen Beatrix during her Kerstrede 2009 remarked on how she perceived technology was individualizing society. Her statement expresses a perspective that technology can actually influence behavior and culture. Such a perspective could imply that society is malleable by technological intervention. Then again, was a society ever a fixed state of being? Since emergence is a natural state of being, lets explore how the proliferation of social media networks and the ever increasing computer power of mobile devices will influence society.

What kinds of changes are in store for us thanks to social media networks and mobile phones:

Agelessness

A phenomenon that throws demographics out [of] the window. It means exactly what it says, age doesn't matter. Rather, it puts emphasis on your lifestyle choices and 'tribal' behavior. There are quite a few factors involved to be able to suggest we might be moving into an ageless society. They include health, wealth and access to information. For one, humans are living longer, healthier and wealthier. Lets not forget vergrijzing majorly affects North America, Europe, Japan and China. So when the wealthiest populations are also the oldest they don't want to be seen as old, hence avoiding the demographic stereotypes. They rather categorize themselves in terms of consumption habits and lifestyle choices. At the same time the youth today is growing up in a time of prosperity with access to worlds of information at their finger tips. We all have access to information and the fact that information doesn't discriminate on age means that 8 year olds and 80 year olds might find themselves having common reference points. Especially if we consider that human contact is increasingly mediated by a digital layer either by email, sms, chat, video conference or augmented reality. Have a look at Linkedin and Facebook statistics, and you'll find that the average person is logged in about an hour a day to social media networks. Facebook alone has 350 million users plus another 55 million on linkedIn, and yes they are going mobile.

Augmented reality

Will be as common as writing an email in the near future. In short, AR is a mobile application that triangulates information on the web with GPS, the compass and the video camera. What this effectively can do is layer information posted on the web over your physical experience. Layar and Wikitude are free AR apps you can download to your smart phone right now. Having such an app on your phone means you can get tagged information from geo-locations like opening times and web pages. You can also follow twitter messages, just pluck them out of the air, see who sent it and from where. The Nederlandse Architecture Institute has an app that shows you a street view from the past, like 1890, and also street views that showcase architectural plans of buildings yet to come like the new Market Hall in Blaak, Rotterdam. AR also has massive implications for technique, take for example BMW's AR glasses that once on, lead you step by step with audio visual instructions on how to repair the engine. Literally the nuts and bolts are highlighted and voice guides you through the process, check it out on you tube. What happens to society when people can put on the right glasses and become proficient in a technique they never did before?

What does it mean for our society if the vast amounts of information online can be layered and filtered on demand with our mobile devices? In terms of social media, all those millions of Facebook and Linkedin users may choose to have their profiles and updates floating around them with an AR app on the smart phone. I don't believe that communication technology is a substitute for face to face interaction, but rather will stimulate it. It will create more opportunities to trade, barter and find like minded people. Ironically that may make life a bit boring if you're always guided by your preferences, but then who says you can't make another profile or two or three. With the touch of a button I could change from an ICT creative working in the WTC with AR links to sushi bars and the Mac store to a punker who has a star floating over all the buildings with illegal parties going on underground.

What may arise is a digital divide between those who are constantly logged in and those who are not. Or a divide between exclusive networks and filters keeping people in the know. But whoever thinks that society isn't going to increasingly intertwine with ICT needs only to look at Africa and their explosion of mobile use. Or even closer to home, when was the last time your mobile phone was more that 10 meters from your body? We may not all be using AR regularly this year but we will be online and there will be a device near us. These are the first steps towards a cybernetic organism; cyborg.

RFID Biometrics

It seems alien now, but I bet in the next decade people will be asking to be implanted with RFID tags. Medical records, passports, security access and even as banal as brand loyalty schemes. I mean if you're already implanted why not put all of your credit cards, bonus cards and membership cards on it. Radio Frequency Identification Technology has been around since the 1940's and is already integrated into supply chains by the U.S. Department of Defense and Wal-Mart. And yes, they are already being embedded into people. Already in 2004 Barcelona clubbers at the VIP Baja Beach Club voluntarily got themselves chipped. A tiny 1 mm glass capsule with their account information was injected just under the skin giving them access to the VIP and area and hands free payments on the bar.

Let's face it, it's not that bad being a cyborg if it increases my human condition with the stimulation of our senses, love, camaraderie and the host of emotions good and bad. The technology in itself is helpful and neutral. What we need to really watch out for is human intervention. Hackers, security issues, invasion of privacy and what ever mass controlling darkness our minds can come up with and so cleanly apply to technology. What's out there in our cybernetic society? Will legislation be for or against? If we consider the Netherlands we might say pro cyborg considering the pioneering role Schiphol Group has made in biometric passport controls that lead European and world standards. On the intrusive side of security the American Homeland Security Act has a plethora of programs that will fill your google search results in a hurry. Who will monitor the monitors?

In a scenario axis we can map out four future contexts for our increasingly cyborg like society. A noticeable issue will be visibility which is placed on the vertical axis. Visibility measures the appearance of the ICT gadgets themselves and the manifestation of people activity. Will we see the technology be on us and in the streets in the form of hand held devices and public infrastructure. Or will technology go under our skin, wireless, kinetic and in contact lenses. An in terms of social networks / media will there be reasons to remain hidden and exclusive; or will ICT bring a return of the Forum Romani?

The horizontal axis will measure the governments role or lack there of in the evolution of cyborg society. A weak role means that the commercial sector will be developing the legacy of the cyborg, thus consumer oriented. On the far right where government takes a leading role and perhaps monopolizes certain aspects of the technology because they simply own the satellites and rig the legislation we could see gross infringements on privacy and a deep consolidation of global systems like police records, immigration, banking and anything they might feel like calling a threat to national security. Terrorists, from their perspective, might become social media networks that oppose unbridled monitoring.

V2_ AR Ecosystem Hosting Team

2009-12-03T05:45:00.000-08:00

Meet your hosting team for tomorrow!
These are the people that have helped make this event happen. Tomorrow they will contribute to V2_ AR Ecosystem by presenting & hosting you throughout the program.
Speakers & hosts will participate in and/or facilitate the interactive parts & harvests of our gathering.

Christina Rittchen is Communications Manager at Mobilizy, the original AR visionaries who developed Wikitude. At V2_ AR Ecosystem we may get an exclusive glimpse at the brand-new Wikitude 4 and first-hand insights into how Austria is pushing AR forward.

http://www.wikitude.org/

Claire Boonstra hardly needs any introduction. But if you are new to AR: Claire is co-founder of Layar, the latest success story from the Netherlands and its pioneer in AR. Layar offer the first global mobile augmented reality browser and have so far inspired some 1200 active developers, some of whom we expect to have with us on Friday. Layar won the Vodafone Mobile Start-Up Challenge at Picnic 09 and have this week hit the headlines once again:

http://layar.com/layar-wins-vodafone-mobile-startup-challenge-video/

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/layar_tells_cnn_augmented_reality_will_be_second_o.php

http://layar.eu/

Truus Dokter of ItFits will share latest developments on how the fashion industry is being impacted by wearable technology and AR. She also represents Second Sight trend magazine and will review V2_ AR Ecosystem for trend & ideas leaders PSK platform.

http://freshviews-itfits.blogspot.com/
http://www.peclersparis.com
http://www.psk.com

http://www.secondsight.nl

Willi Schroll is a futurologist from Berlin and manager at Strategic Labs. His talk for V2_ AR Ecosystem is likely to focus on "AR Citizenship". In July 2008 Willi predicted 'mixed reality' as a future iphone standard.

http://blog.futurefacts.net/2008/07/12/iphone-2010-bet-on-mixed-reality-apps-as-a-standard/

http://www.strategiclabs.de

Jan Misker is project manager for V2_ AR at V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media.
He will welcome you and give an overview of V2_'s activities and the state of AR.

http://www.v2.nl

Artm Baguinski is a software engineer at V2_ Lab and co-organiser for V2_ AR Ecosystem. He will contribute to the interactivity at the event.

AR+RFID Lab & The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague will share AR examples, including a recently exhibited piece by Ferenc Molnar entitled Disturbing Foresights, in collaboration with TU Delft. Contributors include Wim van Eck, Melissa Coleman, Jachim Rotteveel and Yolande Kolstee.

Carl William Kerchmar is a trend analyst, scenario planner & concept visualiser who co-organised V2_ AR Ecosystem and will give a short inspirational talk about the future of AR.

www.portaltoyourdreams.com/

Kim van Rijt is a recent student of KaosPilots Netherlands and Social Work graduate. An accomplished process facilitator, she will support the V2_ AR team in hosting our guests. Her focus is now on bringing her talents and passion for learning into the field of Interior Design.

Kwela Sabine Hermanns graduated with an MA in HyperMedia Studies at University of Westminster in London and co-organised V2_ AR Ecosystem. She will stage-manage the event, shout out instructions and generally do whatever she can to make you happy & make this event historic :-)

V2_ Volunteers will help put food in your stomach and serve you drinks at the bar, amongst other appreciated help.

Special thanks to MultimediaN who has been part of the V2_ AR Ecosystem from the beginning.

And those I forgot ... or any incorrect / incomplete information will be mentioned / rectified tomorrow! We look forwARd to hosting you!

V2_ Augmented Reality Ecosystem Program

2009-12-02T03:17:00.000-08:00

The AR ecosystem is emerging this Friday at the V2_ Institute. Exploring AR has become a hype with leading developers Layar all over the press: Hyped NL and CNN Wikitude will also give Holland it's first look at the new 4.0 version. The interactive program is bellow followed by a guest list visualization arranged by industry:
• Commercial • Technology • Education • Culture & Heritage •
• Design & Architecture • City & Planning •

V2_ AR Ecosystem Program Outline

Date: Friday, 4th Dec 2009
Time: 13:00 - 18:00
Venue: V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam
10 Eendrachtstraat (off Witte de Witstraat; tram 20; or 10 mins by foot from Central Station)

13:00 Welcome & ARegistration & ARtworks

13.30 V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media: Introduction to V2_ AR Ecosystem

13.45 Presentations
Claire Boonstra (Co-Founder at Layar, Amsterdam)
Truus Dokter (ItFits / PSK)
Christina Rittchen (Director at Mobilizy / Wikitude, Salzburg),
Willi Schroll (Owner at Strategic Labs, Berlin)

Plus: Surprise Skype contributions if time zones & diaries allow

14.45 dReAming the future together:
Break-out session in ecosystem niches; with participation from speakers & host team
(Coffee)

15.30 Panel of dReAms: Feedback from speakers, discussions, questions on YOUR ideas

16.30 PortalToYourdReAms: Inspiration for the Future of AR

16.45 Break: AR Cocktails for Her & Him

17.00 Projecting the dReAms: Into collaboration & strategic partnerships

17.30 Final Harvest Panel: Invited guests, hosts & audience

18.15 Drinks

19.00 Leave the building / go on to a nearby bar for after-drinks for those who wish

V2_ Augmented Reality Ecosystem Program

2009-11-29T08:54:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Augmented Reality (V2_ AR Ecosystem Event 2009)

It is predicted to become a mass phenomenon by 2014. This month's US ESQUIRE magazine features AR-enriched pages. The City of Amsterdam is using AR for a new travel-to-work initiative, and if you have seen videos of The Fun Theory (an initiative of Volkswagen) you know that AR can be used to promote public health and better waste management. Most importantly, Dutch company Layar this year won a prize at Picnic for its AR browser tool for mobile phones. This morning I used my iPhone to scan the Twitter messages people had sent in my immediate neighbourhood, and could see their profiles. At a recent summit I attended for Deutsche Telekom in Berlin someone said to me: "With Layar, Europe has for once scored a point before and ahead of the US!"

It's an honor to have Layar with us this coming Friday at V2_ Institute, along with Wikitude from Salzburg and award-winning Clanmo from Munich in Germany are planning to join us live on skype.

What is AR?
How could AR impact on your field, your sector, your industry and your projects? That's what we will explore at our V2_ AR Ecosystem event for which you have signed up. Welcome to all our 70+ registered guests! Read on in order to get a better idea and feeling for this strange new thing called Augmented Reality.

What is it, you want to know? Augmented Reality means to add layars onto our reality. Often these extra layers come from databases like Wikipedia and others, the internet, social media and other available data that can make the world around us more vibrant, more complex, more informative. Read the Economist article on AR for an overview.

Examples
But that's not all. Accessing deeper layers of information through intelligent, self-aware mobile phones is just one way to use (and abuse?) Augmented Reality as the links below this text show for BMW, AR in the City, Online Shopping, Culture & Heritage, Education and Entertainment.

AR RFID Lab (ARLAB) from Den Hague will join us on Friday to show how else AR can be explored and used. You will see Ferenc Molnar awesome play with AR in public spaces, and Truus Dokter of ItFits will share with you AR's implications for the fashion industry; also represent Second Sight Trend magazine and reviewing the event for hotter-than-hot PSFK.

Who you will meet on Friday ...
We are joined by visionaries from Tom Tom, Dell, Diageo, Vodafone, and 180/RIOT all of whom are either interested in AR developments or pioneering them already. The innovations director at Swiss Com is expected to join us to share how she is driving AR forward in Zurich. Architects and interior designers will be with us, as will be Mediamatic, Tedx Amsterdam, Creative Machinery, Digital Pioneers and many more.
We also welcome the City of Utrecht, TU Delft, The Future Institute and many more educational institutes with both teachers and students. And not to forget a fantastic selection of artists who are pushing the boundaries of AR in their fields and the entrepreneurs who should be looking in their direction for the next insights. We also plan to have two surprise Skype guests virtually join us on Friday, and a performance from a Canadian artist recently chosen as one of 30 young thought leaders at Palomar 5 in Berlin. There to spot such diverse talent will be Young Executive Recruitment.

Get ready for your date with the future!
To build on this enormous diversity and make the most of our time together on Friday we want to ask you to prepare yourselves!

* Please join our Ning social network ahead of the event to get to know your ecosystem. If you haven't received an invitation please email us at events@ .... For every participant who joins the Ning network before the event we have a special offer from Boom Chicago's brand-new show "Upgrade or Die" - a hilariously funny and intelligent look at how new media, social media, and new technology are affecting our lives ... not to be missed.

* Have a look at the Prezi link below and ask yourself which of the four (future) worlds you and your industry are in at the moment. We created these scenarios together with V2_ in the preparation for the event using the Scenario Planning tool PortalToYourDreams builds to market strategies and for mobile technology and urban issues.

http://prezi.com/lbhgwhl529xj/

* Bring questions, examples, ideas, problems with you on Friday. Maybe you're worried about privacy, intellectual property, or other issues surrounding new technology in general? Perhaps you think that AR is overblown? Your concerns are welcome on Friday.

* Follow us on Twitter (twitter/KwelaHermanns) for daily news and updates on Friday and Portal2Dreams for image rich analysis on AR trends.

* Get involved on Friday. We don't just want to see you, we want to hear you! Your opinions, your questions, your reservations and your potential for future projects and collaborations. We see this emerging ecosystem growing (up) ... with you.

PortalToYourDreams is delighted to host this event on behalf of all of you and V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media. We thank everyone who continues to help make this event the first of its kind in The Netherlands. Special thanks to MultimediaN who are sponsoring this unique event. Post your reactions on Ning and / or LinkedIN by following the links below to find out how AR effects your industry:

Real Time Seamless Data Navigation
The Sixth Sense, AR presented by Fontanel at TED
http://www.fontanel.nl/artikelen/the-sixth-sense

Education
Beyond Tomorrow, how Augmented Reality will transform education.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKw_Mp5YkaE

Transportation
BMW Augmented Reality glasses for engine repair, anyone can become an automotive technician by wearing them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UA_PgBpiws

Entertainment
Sony Playstation
http://vimeo.com/1599344

Culture & Heritage
AR Library VFX Breakdown, links books with multimedia allowing serendipity in both digital and physical realms.
http://vimeo.com/2486581

Online Shopping
Zugara web cam social AR shopping, they want to increase online shopping.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxQZuo6pFUw&feature=PlayList&p=64584AC6FD1EE047&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2

Online Shopping
Ray Ban Augmented Mirror for trying out shades online.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag7H4YScqZs

Sport
3D Live Baseball Cards, sport stats just came to life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAjEGqGnpFI&feature=PlayList&p=64584AC6FD1EE047&index=3&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL

Interface
Multi Touch Interaction with Augmented Reality
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDBZULMwj08&feature=player_embedded

Architecture
Architecture books, renderings and plans become 3D
http://www.vimeo.com/5821492

Entertainment
First Person Shooter Game with AR.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNu4CluFOcw&feature=player_embedded#

Palomar5 Summit

2009-11-24T05:21:00.000-08:00

From last minute preparations to on stage elations Palomar 5 showed Berlin and the World Innovation, Digital Native Style.

Deautsche Telecom helped give birth to an innovation camp of 30 brilliant, lets make the world a better place, innovators under thirty from across the globe.

Palomar5

2009-11-21T03:29:00.000-08:00

The digital generation at work on the question of 'how will we work in the future?'

These images capture a slice of the innovative life happening in Berlin's innovation camp Palomar5. Collaboration, Creativity and Scenario Planning back in week 1... we are now a few hours from the end of week 6. Reality Check for us all this Monday and Tuesday at the Palomar 5 summit. How will a generation born with Internet, Mobile and share-care communication frame the future?

Zoom through the project scenarios in an image/content rich flash presentation:
http://prezi.com/b21en0agcjat/

Read about participant's profiles and the amazing vision of P5:
http://palomar5.org/the-big-picture/

V2_ Augmented Reality Ecosystem

2009-11-12T05:56:00.000-08:00

V2_Centre for the Unstable Media in Rotterdam on V2_Centre for the Unstable Media in Rotterdam on December 4th invites you to the platform for conversations and opportunities in the Augmented Reality ecosystem. The event brings together the (emerging) ecosystem around AR in the Netherlands and beyond in the following sectors:

• public/governmental • technology • commercial
• education • culture & heritage • artists

Augmented Reality is capable of bringing our online life and layering it into and onto our physical lives. And that is just the beginning of "mixed" reality. Find out how Augmented Reality could work for you. Meet people from different fields and tell them how you are using, developing, integrating AR. Make new contacts, have new insights, strike up new collaborations at this conversation-changing event hosted by the
V2_ Institute which is at the forefront of artistic/technological exploration in the heart of Rotterdam.

The idea is to experience a small number of AR applications, but mainly to have personal interactions and dialogue around how this "new" medium - which is expected to have mass impact on society by 2014 - might develop and how useful collaborations between the sectors might evolve.

To reserve your place RSVP at ar-ecosystem@v2.nl

If you get in touch with us we will send you more information on programming and guests. We will also send you an invitation to a Ning social network we have created around this event which we hope you will connect to and see contents updates and interesting links.

Confirmed and invited special guests currently include prize-winning Dutch Layar, the brand-new Second Life Europe, ARLAB, RFID Lab Den Hague, a Munich based company's prize-winning AR based campaign for IKEA, Marcel Wanders Studio and Wikitude from Salzberg.

The event is free but invite-only. Tell us who we should not miss out on from your network!

We look forward to your response, comments, questions. Below is a list of inspirational links which we will update here and on Ning regularly in the run-up to the event

For further questions contact the organisation & host team at PortalToYourDreams:

Best wishes,

Kwela Sabine Hermanns
kwela.hermanns@portaltoyourdreams.com

Links
Augmented Reality explained by Dutch expert
http://www.jeroenmirck.nl/2009/06/david-polinchock-explains-augmented-reality/

Dutch company Layar win Picnic prize 2009
http://www.amsterdamcitymarketing.com/?tag=augmented-reality

Augmented Reality Network: Examples & Videos
http://www.augmented-reality.net/?gclid=CNHlldqS4p0CFQ003godKC4bLg

How will Augmented Reality affect your business by Havard Business Review
http://bit.ly/elC20#harvaard#business@re..http://bit.ly/3MsE8e

The respected Economist on AR
www.economist.com/search/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14299602

For serious fun: The Fun Theory using AR for social impact
www.thefuntheory.com

AR in the City
www.spotterdbylocals.com/ar-in-the-city

Back to Barter

2009-09-01T05:10:00.000-07:00

City landscapes and tax structures influence the barter economy's evolution.

The current economic transition has reduced personal wealth, world trade and access to loans across the world. Furthermore, national debt has been increased with various forms of fiscal policy called bailouts or stimulus packages. It’s safe to say that on average overall disposable income is down. In Holland, the Centrale Bureau voor Statistiek reports that consumer confidence is down 24% and turnover is down from 2008. How can we overcome our losses? Some speak of a shifting paradigm in the business model and leadership while others advocate innovation. In the economy today many organizations, particularly banks, have returned to jargon that refer to going back to basics, trusted and well established methods. Well how about going way back, like back to barter?

Barter diminished with the emergence of money, the symbolic value of goods and service, which made dragging a pile of exchangeable goods long distances to a marketplace as simple as a promissory note in a wallet. With money, one always can trade. Money also brought lending and speculation to the marketplace which, ironically put us in this financial situation. But now with information technology can we find what we want when we want it? What if Internet and mobile phones could empower people to barter for their goods and services as easily and effectively as money? What if barter could shift the loss in income by substituting cash purchases with reciprocal exchange?

“Bartering is the new currency in economic recession” -ABC news

It’s difficult to measure the volume of barter but estimates indicate 3 billion in bartering in the USA alone where barter postings on Craig’s list have doubled in 2009. The International Reciprocal Trade Organization posted a global study in 2004 releasing an $8.25 billion exchange value just with businesses dealing with barter. A new census is do this year with experts expecting substantial growth. However that figure will be limited, and does not take into account micro bartering activities that are not recorded as part of income tax or facilitated via bartering websites.

Barter is not free. Since 1979 the International Monetary System is largest online platform for bartering. Here goods and services are exchanged for barter dollars that are registered as income tax and levy a 6% charged per transaction. A similar platform has been created in 1983 in the Netherlands called Bartering Nederland that also guarantees a safe exchange platform with a slightly more complex membership and commission structure.

MACRO MICRO

Perhaps large barter transactions between companies via B to B arrangements have a preference for a high profile and tax audibility. Trust and or accountability is a factor in barter’s continued growth. However, I suspect that vast numbers of barter activity will continue to grow unregistered. Professor Roger Stager for the John Hopkins Business School comments earlier this year in the USA Today on this underground economy by saying,

“Barter absolutely thrives in bad times.”

How much barter activity is happening in local communities both on and offline that never makes it to the tax form and aggregate economic activity measure like Gross Domestic Product? In 2006 Alvin en Heidi Toffler published Revolutionaire Rijkdom that highlights this emerging paradigm of value exchange outside the money system that is strongly supported by Internet, open source software and what they refer to in het Nederlands ‘prosumeren,’ the combination of product producer and consumer. Prosumeren is also low tech and community building. The NRC Next on 27th of July reported the re-emergence of urban gardens. A trend also to be found in North America and draws parallels with this activity to the community building of the 60’s and 30’s when sticking together was a priority. Urban garden is also a step in the sustainable direction by reducing transportation costs. It also improves health by decreasing the quantity of synthetics ingested that we find in so many of our supermarket foods.

The scope of barter is two fold. On a macro level large scale business trades are moving millions of units of value between each other. This activity is often via online networks and is accounted for like money so it can be taxed and added to traditional economic indicators. On the micro level, the barter activity is so intimate and local that it remains unexposed to tax and does not generate recordable data for economic measures. Both levels show signs of continued growth.

Does barter value simply substitute money’s function in society? Maybe it will be business as usual for high rollers in multi-nationals who are trading at the level of container ships for airplanes. Although bartering leaves cash in our hands it may end up reducing the money supply. Essentially in today’s banking systems money equals debt, so if increasing percentages of economic activity is without money then we could start reducing debt. In turn, interest rates and savings plans will also adjust.

BARTER IN THE CITY

How will an increase in bartering effect economies and societies? Is there anything that can hold it back and who will have a comparative advantage? Government, or specifically the tax department could play a dynamic role in promoting or distorting reciprocal trade. A proactive approach can be noted by Trade Sheffield in the UK. Here local government has supports barter between businesses as a way to stimulate economic activity. Trade Sheffield's currently has 394 members, with an estimated combined annual turnover of £251million. For a city that has slightly over a half a million residents that is a spectacular percentage of overall economic activity. Imagine what the numbers could be like if a large city like London, a cluster of cities like in the Randstad or even a region like Benelux would embrace a public private partnership endorsing barter.

The more a city government aligns itself with barter networks the more likely barter will begin to manifest itself in physical form. Cities and regions could build market places and or forum like exchange halls to create a centralized meeting point for barterers. These economic exchange points would be less abstract than a stock exchange and more advanced than medieval markets filled with chaos and haggling. Today communication technology will take out the guesswork of finding what you need and where to get it. In fact, urban planning will also cater to enhancing barter potential directly in architectural coding and in mixing uses. Over time, cities will develop specialties. For example bartering in Rotterdam is known for its commodity and logistics where as Amsterdam offers services in advertising and product development. Demographically speaking, how will formalized barter networks empower immigrants, in particular the entrepreneurial Turkish community? Will the increasing grey population also find economic / social livelihood through barter?

Cities will be interested in harboring barter. Sustainability, community building and economic growth will most likely be the communication language. But deep down inside I think controlling the volume of income tax will be the driving motivation. If barter achieves an increasing level of frequency per person that could come at the cost of reported income tax, in an era of massive national debt losing out on more tax could mean closing down departments and cutting public services. By embracing barter, and therefore promoting it with an open infrastructure than can be monitored, licensed and taxed seems like a win-win situation.

BARTER vs. MONEY as STATUS SYMBOL

There is a special social element to bartering that differs between online communities and a face-to-face interaction. Somehow the sense of value for a good or service when equated outside the realm of money becomes personalized in a local setting. Baking an extra loaf of bread for my neighbor in exchange for tomatoes from his/her rooftop garden has a grounded intimacy that instills a sense of community. Or watching the neighbor’s kids since I work from home in exchange for use of their car on my next holiday always ends in a handshake and smile. In this way bartering seems more than maximizing economic activity but has something community building about it.

In fact the perspective of money status might alter when juxtaposed to barter status. Many people around the world share the mentality that money is cold and heartless. Currently barter is not in everyday conversations by most of us so its global perception is in the making. Until now barter is still that quirky thing of the past, novel and a thrifty way to share resources. Having loads of money equals bling bling, and maybe having loads of barter could develop another connotation, something more social and trustable. What would a barter rich person look like? Will they show up to an opening event in a limo wearing a tuxedo with beautiful people hanging off their arms? Appearances can be deceiving but what can be expected from a barter rich person is large number of trusted contacts and networks. They may also be tribe specific, or in other words specialized in a context of goods and services for a particular industry. Tribal characteristics will appear in the clothes and technological accessories they wear, it will also underpin language and place logic. Knowing the write slangs and expressions plus the places to meet and the culture of approaching barter are part of tribal dynamics.

WHAT DRIVES the BARTER SCENARIO

The coming transition years are marked with an economic sentiment of doing more with less. Bartering can fulfill this gap but it could also attribute increasing instability to the establishment. We are in a time when the Dollar as a global currency is questioned and where increased national debt has discounted pensions and future generations. Will barter improve sustainability and strength community involvement or further polarize society between the haves and have not’s. Barter happens at all levels, between my neighbors and neighboring nation states. It’s just as possible that I will trade bread with my neighbor for tomatoes as Russia could trade nuclear secrets for carbon credits with Iran.

As bartering grows, it will be interesting to see how Internet influences both global and local networks. The horizontal axis measures barter communities in terms of physicality versus virtuality. The vertical axis explores how cities and regions will develop a pro-active relationship with barter economy and where underground barter networks challenge the establishment.

MYSTERY: Every generation has it's own

2009-07-22T01:20:00.000-07:00

How has mystery changed over the years; where is our attention?

In early human history, mystery was embedded in the natural condition. We were awed by the spirit of creation and were at weather’s mercy. Our creation stories shifted from the earth and to the sky as religion’s miracles began to hold our mysteries. In time, political society and trade shifted out the attention towards abstract systems and conspiracy. We have been in search of trade secrets, cracking military codes and exploiting nature with science.

You could point towards a paradigm shift in mystery once humans began to control nature with machines and science. Another shift in the context of spiritual mystery can be observed when spirituality in itself became a choice, an element of consumer culture. Mystery has moved from the world of nature to the world of human creation. In other words, where does the source of our knowledge come from; how can we trust abstract systems like money, food industry and energy? Who is really in control and can we ever find out?

The question, “How much are we allowed to know?” is a reflection of conspiracy thought. In our time of information overload we are able to ask more questions and raise more doubts. Did we really land on the moon, did you see it? In the early 60’s video manipulation was unknown to the masses but maybe not to governments. Maybe the whole event was made in a studio. And whatever happened to the eminent visit / invasion by aliens? What are our governments testing: genetics, propaganda or weapons? Is there a secret society like the Free Masons that can save us? But maybe governments aren’t even in control; it’s the multinational corporations. How many life and energy saving patents have been bought up and hidden away by large corporations interested in extending their profit margins at the expense of our wellbeing. How thick is the wool over our eyes?

Mystery evolves as the quality of our attention shifts with new priorities. Our attention is related to zeitgeist and therefore a process. We could say every generation and culture has its own set of mysteries. I suppose some fundamental questions like where did we come from and where are we going will always be there but the context with which they are asked changes. By creating a scenario axis derived from the driving forces in our world it is possible to envision where mystery will hold our attention.

Our relationship with nature has been in flux for centuries but never so dramatically as the last 100 years. Our planet is approaching an exhaustion of resource and a climate change. Or is it, and can we do anything about it? The vertical axis measures our relationship with nature. Political stability is the horizontal axis and measures the rate of change in the world order. Are there wars or cooperation; are we democratic, anarchistic or lead by dictators. The axis crosses the environments made by nature and that of humans… the two being the source of all mysteries.

Published in the Dutch leading consumer trends journal SecondSight

The Party Continues

2009-06-26T04:44:00.001-07:00

The opening of the Hermitage Amsterdam resurrects the Tzarist gala tradition. An experience monument dedicated to the lavish craftmanship of hosting social extravagance.

The 31 hour opening weekend party began Friday night with a multimedia tribute to Russian cultural heritage. Queen Beatrix and President Medvedev celebrated with Amsterdam on the banks of the Amstel. The massive floating stage garnished with red carpet and royal pomp embraced performances from Russian ballet, piano, orchestra and historical images from St. Petersburg. The Queen and President entered amidst a twilight sky dazzled with fireworks.

Navigational Vista

The museum is a masterful architectural achievement in managing flow. Architects Hans van Heeswijk and Merkx+Giord have created an organic interior spacial design. The heart of the Hermitage experience is the stairwell situated in the entrance. It gracefully connects four floors including lounge, restaurant Neva, meeting rooms, elevator shaft and the exhibition halls. The weekend attracted thousands of visitors and the building handled the masses comfortably.

The building structure itself is circular and the the architects added to this fluidity by cutting out lookout points and adding windows in tight corners. Navigating through the museum space never feels clusterphobic because of the vantage points from each floor and the lighting. Visitors can focus on the detailed ornamentation on the gala dresses while the building's tasteful minimalism guides you to the next Tzarist wonder.

Boxy but Good

The interior design may be circular in its movement and the gala dresses are glamorous, but the functional installations are decidedly square. In fact, just about ever cut-out form of the square has been utilized from the ticket desk to the wall. And it has been done well because these square shapes are always highlighted with lights and or highly reflective materials like bronze. The sensation is floating. Corners are rounded off by the haze of irradiance. Light is often cast from the ground up, which makes waiting in line dreamy and reduces glare on glass.

More to Come

The 50 million euro museum was financed by Bank Giro Loterij. We can expect the Hermitage Amsterdam to set a new standards in the museum experience through it's architectural achievement and cultural programming. We will find that the Hermitage is a place that we associate with going out, having dinner, attending meetings, dancing a silent disco, attending concerts and oh yeah... it's also a world class museum.

Read the published Dutch version in STYLINK
http://www.stylink.nl/Feestelijke-Rijkdom-beeldreportage-Hermitage.html

Future Scenarios For Science

2009-06-17T02:39:00.000-07:00

Modern Western culture respects science. We tend to trust the ethical process of the scientific method and often hope that science will bring us a better life. For how long have we felt this way about science and can our perspective on science change as our world view changes? Our planet’s natural and human environments are approaching a paradigm shift. As we watch economies, societies and ecosystems deteriorate we are at a point of re-evaluation. Can demographic change; economic downturn and natural disasters encourage new perspectives on how we view science?

How rigid is the definition of the scientific method, why has knowledge sharing across diverse scientific organizations been limited, and how do Intellectual Property Laws determine the course of scientific development? These questions lead us to examine the driving forces behind the scientific industry and give us insight into how science could unfold in the future. What scenarios can we construct to give us an idea of what kind of world science will inhabit? By thinking in terms of scenarios we shift the focus from how science influences us but on how macro trends will shape the world that science will operate in.

Scenario Planning is a positioning model that is designed to map out long term changes based on macro trends. It is used in both commercial (Shell) and governmental (South Africa) contexts.

By using a scenario planning model made of two axis we can organize four possible future contexts. The driving forces make the axis in our socio-economic reality enabling overview and mapping out dynamic changes. For the future of science I have chosen to label the axis with the terms Participation and Icons:

Participation: is a measure of the number of voices/perspectives and the frequency of cross-disciplinary sharing of information and expertise. Participation is the amount of scientists involved in research and also includes the emergence of Brazil, Russia, India and China as significant economic contributors. Furthermore, the maturity of Internet and its influence on education and business system structures correlates with participation. Take for example the opening of the Singularity University on the NASA campus in California that offers post-graduate courses in how to innovate by linking diverse sectors of knowledge. Or how TED.com broadcasts inspire as well as create a global platform for sharing knowledge. Moving left and right on the horizontal participation axis decreases or increases the magnitude of the characteristics.

Icons: are recognizable figure heads which, can be individuals like Einstein or Da Vinci, institutions like NASA or TU Delft, brands like Bayer or Phillips and or a methodology like stem cell research, nanotechnology, spirituality, alternative medicine or robots. This year marked the first scientific discovery made by a robot called Adam in Wales, UK. Imagine a future where scientific discovery is lead by artificial intelligence. Icons are significant because they rally a collective movement or fragment public opinion. Ironically, stronger Icons have more power to help or hurt humanity. Moving up and down the vertical icon axis changes the level of strength icons have.

By looking at the results of the chart you can see the scenarios do not predict scientific discoveries but rather showcase the kind of world where science will make its discoveries. I suspect we are in the upper left hand corner now where science itself has reached Iconic proportions.

Although information sharing technology is at a human high point participation remains low. The entry into science remains elite while; IP law inhibits knowledge sharing. Ironically it’s the instrument designed to stimulate scientific discovery but only in terms of profit seeking theory. On the one hand, patents and investment capital are making green technology grow but other industries like pharmaceuticals cater to the rich. Furthermore, there are countless missed opportunities caused by our educational system that compartmentalizes knowledge. Physics for example is stagnant because research outside of string theory will not get published forcing physicists not to consider their careers if deviating from the norm.

If we are now positioned in the upper left my intuition says we will move to the right side as macro forces indicate an approaching crisis.

On the forefront are major macro influences like the quest for sustainable energy solutions, water conservation, economic recession and climate change. The question then arises if we will collaborate or fragment.

If the G20 summit was any indication there seems to be a collective dialogue against protectionism while remaining transparent. China also begins to increase its global political presence by significantly financing the IMF. But as the recession deepens where will science find it’s funding and outside of the market do we as democratic society have anything to say about its development? Is science a purely profit seeking enterprise only to be supported up by the military when and the supper rich when times are tough? Maybe the scenario science needs a makeover in the bottom left hand corner isn’t so far off after all.

Written by Carl William Kerchmar
Scenario Planning is service offered by PortalToYourDreams

Fluid Leadership: Style Traits for Today's Empowering Leaders

2009-05-04T00:21:00.000-07:00

WHO’S THE MAN?

Crisis is all over the media. Losing jobs, deficits and bankruptcy cast an ominous shadow on our economic future. We will need leaders to help us move back into prosperity, but has leadership changed? And are there differences between so-called male / female leadership traits – as opposed to masculine leadership styles that might be displayed by women and men alike? This article explores the changing role of men’s leadership and asks “Who’s the man?”

The man and leadership is not about one person but what it means to be a ‘manly’ or ‘masculine’ leader. Traditionally, the man has taken on the role as hunter and defender of the home. It’s in our DNA to take risks and fight for our own. Then why did the “Metro Man” emerge? Are skin creams and sharing emotions the new sword and shield?

Perhaps this particular change in ammunition is more about how women have increasingly played a larger role as both economic and social leaders. Men have learnt from the affective female presence as power structures have increasingly been shared by both genders. But not driving too deeply into gender differences – nor without giving credit to women leaders - let’s elaborate on how the current business environment will fertilize tomorrow’s male leaders. Let’s see what spring 2009 will sprout up in terms of men’s leadership.

Men have a historical advantage of having “the leading role”. For us, gender has not been an issue when given a leadership position. At the same time our current crisis, as well as most economic and military conflicts, are results of masculine types of leadership decisions. So we have some reforming to do. Fortunately for us men in need of rebranding have been given President Obama whose election represents justified hope for change as an almost overnight image transformation of a very unpopular Bush-led American administration. From a wider perspective America’s new President and his global popularity reflects new characteristics of male leadership. Dogmatic, elite secrecy is being replaced by an empowering transparent potential.

“The Man” today is confident and self-assured enough to allow constructive feedback. He is willing to challenge himself as well as others. He does this at work and at home. In so doing he is increasing his leadership prestige by empowering his constituents. The man today is also more fluid in his capacity for role-changing. Fluid leadership forms itself to a situation whereas solid leadership implies force-fitting. Taking advice from colleagues and friends is not a threat. At management level, diverse situations may call for different leadership styles. More radically even, the same leader is today increasingly expected to master and display different styles of leadership simultaneously or successively within one and the same organization to resolve changing challenges in complex, evolving needs environments.

This calls for a heightened level of transparency and trust. A ‘real man’ led by a ‘changing leadership roles’ approach would not see this as a threat and instead embrace performance over ego. Dogmatic leaders finish the tasks of others and have hierarchical communication lines. Today’s male leaders, both at home and at work are delegating tasks in a way that gives ownership to those carrying out the tasks. The realization here is that when employees and / or family members can see their fingerprints on a task they are being entrusted with – and its results - will take a greater interest in the task because it is their own. Leaders that foster trust build stronger teams and families.

Taking action is a classic manly characteristic and will continue more than ever in our current “crisis” period. But the kind of actions being taken by our manly leaders now are decidedly different from those by the classic man. The image of the icon chiseled out of steel with obedient followers marching through disaster to a happy Hollywood ending is now dated - like black and white TV.

Not only is the physical look of manly leaders more open than ever, but so are their leadership styles. In our time of change and restructuring, being dynamic becomes a key character trait. The ability to find new connections and ask new questions is part of an empowering process that will be championed by successful leaders. And in this sense, successful leadership – fluid, adaptive, transparent and trusting – is not gender specific. It is the choice made by a person choosing a certain type of personal leadership.

Where does it come from, this new breed of leadership, and how can we harvest it? In general, we are a product of our times relative to our sense of place. Crises, technology environments, politics and the whole range of human complexities have all brought us here. We agree it’s time to take a fresh look at what works and doesn’t work. Change management emphasizes new questions and process orientations. What crisis-ridden firms are learning now about leadership innovation is mirrored in new educational approaches to entrepreneurship. Take the KaosPilots Netherlands who are featured in Jan den Breejen’s forthcoming book High Performance Organisations. They champion a value-based approach to personal and organizational leadership in their business education. Studying social entrepreneurship and learning leadership the KaosPilots way is to focus on a person’s internal condition and sense of responsibility but also on what can be achieved with and as a team. Crisis and chaos are taken as a given, leadership is seen as dynamic. Likewise, for those managers and parents looking to find a change in leadership style, self-improvement training like Essence fortify leadership from the inside-out. Essence helps the leader ask novel questions while confronting assumptions that limit experiences and, therefore, growth.

Fluid leadership also has a collaborative approach where multiple leadership styles can co-exist under one roof. The worldwide growing phenomenon of the HUB-like work space is an example of this. Economics must manage change in diverse contexts including weeding out inefficient business practices. HUBs across the globe explore how moral and environmental issues bridge cultural differences creating better managed partnerships. In short, the new fluid leaders are best dressed when they dress down – a theme we explore in PORTAL’s forthcoming event Dressing Up The Leaders.

This article can be found published this month in SecondSight and in the Dutch language.
PORTAL is a regular contributor to Hollands leading publication on consumer trends: SecondSight

Twestival Scenarios: An open invitation for co-creation

2009-02-16T09:26:00.000-08:00

The Scenario Planning Workshop by PORTAL hosted a panel of highly motivated fast thinkers who created four future worlds that project tomorrow's context of social / business networking and beyond. The two axis they chose in Phase 3 of the scenario planning exercise turned out to be connectivity and visibility. For the panel, connectivity was a measure of ICT, speed of information flows, infrastructure, travel and in general terms, freedom. Moving to the right of the horizontal axis strengthens these characteristics, to the left it weakens them. The vertical axis was called visibility and measured transparency, security, motives, scope, privacy and customization. Moving up as the axis increases magnifies the implications. The four quadrants created by the axis have the story telling power to create scenarios based on the combination of the definitions assigned to the axis. This process normally takes several days, however with the limited time at Twestival our talented participants were able to make a significant prognosis in an afternoon.
The names given to each quadrant summarize the general atmosphere and feeling of how social / business networking will evolve given the axis characteristics.
"Follow the Leader" is a future where iconic leaders, organizations and / or corporations have a greater manipulation power. A highly visible figurehead is able to herd unorganized masses where freedom of movement and expression are inhibited by authority figures. Polarity of income and opportunities emerge."Open Source" is a plurality of contexts, highly pro-active, customized and competitive. Outsourcing, 3-D printers and business models are pressured to innovate. Complexity will be managed by simple solutions and global power has less influence than local initiatives."Hidden Agenda" is a world without transparency. Increasing technological innovation empowers Tribes and interest groups. Ironically, both borders and collectivity increase as motives remain underground. "Secret Service" is like an archipelago landscape. Great and sinister minds can develop behind the scenes. Role- shifting becomes easier in both business and social contexts.

Scenario planning is dynamic; the observer of this model can use it as a positioning tool. Furthermore, its story-telling power needs constant retelling to stay ahead of the times. Twestival started a process and through this blog and supported platforms the future prognosis of social / business networking will continue. Where are there dangers to freedom? How will our bodies integrate technology? Will an oncoming recession give us more free time to think, rethink and network new futures? Twitterers, lets co-create new future contexts before someone else does it for us. Images, thoughts and comments are welcome.

InterNations Amsterdam Social

2009-02-13T06:22:00.000-08:00

TWESTIVAL: Twitter Festival Premier. Featuring Scenario Planning Workshop

2009-01-28T02:57:00.000-08:00

The first ever Twitter Festival takes place in Amsterdam on February 12th. 80+ similar events happen globally on that date. Be the first to connect with Twitters you know or to catch up on the most cutting-edge developments in social networks futures!

For event information, reservations or a chance to participate in the PORTAL workshop on the night, email us at kwela.hermanns@portaltyourdreams.com or connect to us at:

www.twitter.com/twestivalamsterdam
www.twitter.com/portal2dreams

More info updates on this blog as the event takes shape.

For sponsor information, email kwela.hermanns@portaltoyourdreams.com

PortalToYourDreams will be hosting a scenario planning workshop that helps this exciting new technology application position itself in the greater context of "social/professional networking."

The Scenario Planning process will be a co-creation from this industry's pioneers and sponsors where participants will construct an axis based on the most influential driving forces in society and economy. Forces that effect us all will be fine tuned into an industry specific positioning model with four possible future scenarios.

Where does status seeking theory fuel technological innovation, how do issues of political and financial mobility play a role, how cultural specific should networking be, which business alliances and moral values should be explored? Will an economic recession transform the office space and help re-invent business activity?

Based on facts, intuitions and collective metaphor created with images, statistics and keywords this workshop is an experience to build on. Twitter is part of the emerging zeitgeist that embraces an increasing openness in business, social and political contexts. Let's invent the future together.

The Co-Created Scenario Planning Workshop in the Hub, Amsterdam

2009-01-19T02:12:00.000-08:00

You were "inspired"! You felt "energised", "intrigued" and even "illuminated". You wanted more: more time, more theory on methodology and more on the impact and application of Scenario Planning!

PORTAL's taster on Scenario Planning as a tool for business innovation which officially launched our "21 Gifts Initiative" (read details below) was a great way for us to usher in 2009 at the HUB Amsterdam.

We were joined by a high quality group of participants coming from the worlds of management consultancy, economic strategy, NGO's, the fashion, media and entrepreneurship industries, as well as artists and freelancers. Do visit some of our audience's websites listed below to get a feeling for the mix of brains and hearts that rubbed shoulders last week at the PORTAL workshop.

At the start of a new year in which seasoned investment commentator Tom Stevenson for Fidelity International already urged the world to consider "what can be done in the longer term to create a better, more equitable and sustainable economic landscape" (Daily Telegraph 15.01.09), "Ethics" and "Harmony" ranked high on this diverse group's priority list, and so we had serious fun mapping out future worlds based on these two main axis.

The wealth of backgrounds and sectors represented at the workshop were also reflected in the first round of nominations for 21 Gifts we received on the night. They include:

AIESEC, GreenDesk, FLP Plower Label, EcoVillage Alminde, Young Sietar, Melika, MultiMediaLab and many others.

Would you or your organisation like to be on this list of nominations to receive a FREE Scenario Planning workshop in 2009? Please take a minute to read up on PORTAL's "21 Gifts Initiative" and send us a message: kwela.hermanns@portaltoyourdreams.com

Those of you who give us permission to stay in touch will receive updates on PORTAL's activities from time to time.

Welcome to (y)our dreams!

Drs. Carl Kerchmar
Kwela Sabine Hermanns

Links of participants' websites:

www.vandebunt.nl
www.solidaridad-businessconcepts.com
www.futureconsiderations.com
www.seedfoundation.eu
www.bewuste-evolutie.net
www.greenconcepts.nl
www.syntens.nl
www.vonwinckelmann.com
www.stylink.nl
www.valentinepeaceproject.org

Letter from the Moderator:

From an open invitation to help promote social and business innovation we created four future scenarios. Beginnings can be a bit confusing and vague and our start was no exception as we began to explore words and ideas that link our 'tijdsgeest' to the driving forces in our socio-economic reality. From a wide open start we pooled our ambitions and intuitions into some concrete perspectives on how to gauge our collective futures.

Ranging from strong to weak, an ethical / value oriented horizontal axis including key terms like sustainability, collective awareness, social agenda was co-created. This line was characterized by activities that we as a people can influence, in turn, the vertical axis had an externality emphasis. Coined as paradise, which measured the harmony of our relationship with nature and our also our neighbors, in terms of politics and war.

We are optimistic souls, and the plus plus scenario of high harmony and ethics was easiest to fill with adjectives and images. How can this experience remain useful after the workshop? I feel that our efforts created a a realistic framework for viewing the worlds flux into the future at large. Our axis were general yet detailed enough to be specific. We can now cut and paste our experiences into these imaged futures. When you hear the news, see images in magazines and catch headlines in the papers relate them back to the axis of ethics /values and paradise / harmony and try and place them... the placement is relative to our time so the more we monitor the more we contextualize the meaning in a reference point. Where we are heading as a society becomes monitorable and your position within that flux becomes navigatable.

Fashion 2People in the BitterZoet

2009-01-18T03:16:00.000-08:00

F2P had a glamorous opening in Club BitterZoet, Amsterdam.

This collective of fashion designers link up their runway exposure with a business model that includes communication and marketing. Their event produced a full turnout with an energetic atmosphere. These young fashion entrepreneurs have had conceptual development from Andrea Wiegman, chief editor of Second Sight. To learn more about F2P and the designers involved check out:
www.fashion2people.nl

FREE Scenario Planning Workshop taster in the HUB Amsterdam

2009-01-08T01:45:00.000-08:00

What does the deepening financial crisis mean for your business, do environmental changes effect real time planning, how can sustainability be the low cost alternative, and where is the role for corporate social responsibility? Scenario Planning gives your product/service a positioning model in uncertain times. This Free workshop taster is recognition of the 21st anniversary of Fair Trade and launches a series of 21 gifts that will be awarded to companies and initiatives that champion social business innovation and sustainability.

Portal To Your Dreams welcome's you in the Hub to get a co-creative experience into this powerful tool, scenario planning. Come get a taste in how to create the future and help Portal empower companies that can make our world more socially innovative and environmentally sustainable.

www.the-hub.net
www.portaltoyourdreams.com

Creativity Goes Through the Stomach at PICNIC 08

2008-09-30T13:56:00.000-07:00

We had a nibble. We got our teeth right into it. A few pieces got stuck in our throats. A lot of it went down a treat. And here and there some real magic happened. Everyone loved Aaron Koblin. Everyone talked about the Green Challenge award and the Hot 100 list.
But what else was delicious / a little off-taste at this year's PICNIC and its theme of Collaboarive Creativity? Here's the PORTAL list of Pics'n Nics that tickled our taste buds, got our creative juices flowing and made us have seconds or second thoughts ...

· Soocial · Green Graffiti · Formula Zero · KaosPilots · Coolpolitcs · MYC4 · Itay Talgam · OpenAd · Ubercool · Artmiks · Month of Design · Marcel Wanders · Orange Contest · Sandbox

Soocial PICNIC
Take two wooden carts. Park them on the grass outside the main conference hall. Fill the wooden carts with the finest Choriso, mozzarella cheese, hummous and fresh bread. Install a couple of comfy armchairs. Get people to sit, laze in the sun, have a free picnic and beer with you. Invite them to ask why you're wearing T-shirts with a picture of David Hasselhoff and the slogan: "Hassle Free Networking". After all your name is Soocial and you'd rather spend your PR money on sharing food and ideas with other creative start-ups than on expensive delegate passes. People will remember you fondly and longer. They might even include you in their PICNIC review blog. Hands up for Sociaal – you guys made our day!!

While picnicking with the social Sociaal crowd one could wag tails with a couple of Green inititiatives and get a whole new perspective on why the grass could indeed be greener elsewhere. We loved PICNIC partner Green Graffiti. And Formula Zero. Okay, so we're already working with the latter and can't wait to get to work with the former. But imagine. Imagine zero emission race cars powered on hydrogen. Imagine paper-less advertising. Oh yes. It can be done. Heck, it is being done. If you don't want to be left out, check it out. And if we failed to mention your green initiative here, let us know. We might even be able to put you in touch with a serious broker who specialises in raising money for green projects. Though he might be busy playing slow-motion collaboration games with the KaosPilots (Michael, you're our suited hero!!).

Kaos Navigation Recipe
Mix 13 passionate warm hearts with 13 pairs of street-wise feet and 13 balanced but risk-taking minds. Add a keen interest in business, a good dose of playfulness and a generous portion of new business design. Put in the oven of action learning and allow to simmer until reduced to real-life projects smelling of social entrepreneurship roses. When ready to taste, notice the unique flavour of authenticity ... Team 2 of the KaosPilots Rotterdam landed at PICNIC and gave away free samples of their irresistible energy to change the game. By actually playing games. Unsuspecting delegates leaving sessions on social networking and new technology platforms were treated to challenging pyhsical interactive game scenarios exploring collaboration and teamwork outside the main conference hall (where all the interesting stuff at PICNIC seemed to be happening; see above, Soocial). No wonder the KaosPilots made it into the next day's edition of the PICNIC newspaper.

Kaos Pilots Check-In

Power Food
Coolpolitcs had invited for lunch. Alas!, finally an interactive session that arranged participants from different industries and backgrounds around eight tables and asked them to brainstorm the relationship between democracy, crowds, and technology. But first we were treated to a starter of MYC4 which struck us as a truly interesting, innovative way to auction for and invest in African business start-ups with a future. Coolpolitics deserve a massive tip for organising this session which I am inclined to spend directly on MYC4. Is it possible to end poverty by 2015? Judge for yourself and send us your thoughts. [picture]

CoolPolitics Power Lunch

Musical Main Course
He showed us Karajan. Bernstein. All the great conducters at work. And through careful and amusing examples and illustrations he took his audience on an exploration of leadership styles that is sure to trouble some managers for some time to come as their employees secretly glance at them, asking: Which one is she? The autocrat? The one who lifts a mere finger to lead? Or the one who truly makes music with us? Itay Talgam received a standing ovation for this sensitive and uplifting teaser from his "Maestro program". Lead less = dance more!

Cool Dessert
So what if it was forbidden to drink coffee during the break of this very last PICNIC panel Design on Demand? So what if the camera girl fainted soon after the "coffee break"? She was probably as desperate as the rest of us to make it to the after-party after three days of non-stop action. What persuaded us all to hold out a little longer were presentations by charming and articulate Katarina Skoberne of OpenAd and Michael Tchong's sardonic contemporary trend analysis. Ubercool indeed!

Calorie Cocktails
No PICNIC is complete without the hedonistic dancing that follows gluttonous feasts of collaborative creativity. The fuckin' groovin crowd totally delighted us on Thursday night with their secret invite-only shannanigans courtesy of Artmiks. Wherever people are spotted playing tennis with magazines crunched up into balls or visitors from Month of Design in Lubliana are persuaded to sing karaoke ... the hosts must be doing something right! In a similar vein we were astonished at the sheer quantity of cherry pickers at the PICNIC final party where we also bumped into some quality faces. One VIP who wishes to remain anonymous wisely provided me with free prosecco all night. My heart belongs to you, dear stranger! Marcel Wanders – chairman of the exciting Paint The World Orange branding competition - was there with his inimitable crowd of creatives, as were the people from Sandbox in the UK who informed us they'd just hired a KaosPilot graduate from Denmark, hurray!!

Cherry on the Cake
That's you. So if you'd like a link here drop us a line and tell us your dream.

The Future Design Of Media Retail Stores: Negotiating Between Downloads And The Experience Economy

2008-09-12T07:24:00.000-07:00

THE FUTURE DESIGN OF MEDIA RETAIL STORES:
Negotiating Between Downloads And The Experience Economy

© Carl William Kerchmar: All Rights Reserved www.portaltoyourdreams.com
Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike (by-nc-sa)

Media retail stores selling music, movies and games are rapidly approaching a critical point of existence and need to re-invent themselves in the Internet social-networking period. That means their business models need to embrace the Internet, not fight it. But also realize what the Internet can never offer, and that is physical space. Here is where industrial designers, architects and identity engineers will help this industry evolve. It’s too little and too late to jump on the download services bandwagon that is dominated by iTunes™ and Sony™. Designing media retail space will have to negotiate between downloads and the experience economy. Selling data is out, memberships to experiences is in; where design promotes co-creation and engagement. This new frontier of commercial space will strengthen the link between virtual and real while creating new place logic opportunities for designers and architects.

Understanding how the virtual and real intertwine is an exploration in the interface between the two. The keywords in this evolutionary shift in media retail space include: experience economy, pro-active, lounging, tribes, triding*and typo-morphology*

The flow of Internet networking and purchases eventually have interface with reality, a place logic and semiotic code that signifies the tipping point between the virtual and real. This interface is what designing space will increasingly be involved with. The place where Internet and reality integrate can be computer screens and mice that reflect ergonomic and style considerations. But won’t the virtual and the real start influencing each other, where needs and habits in one realm will begin to emerge in the other? The virtual boasts seamless navigation and the search engine while reality engages our physical senses. GPS navigation systems guide us through reality with the help of the virtual. The Nintendo™ Wii™ lets us sweat and swing while moving through virtual space. But what happens when the entire data selling industry has evolved into downloads via computers and mobiles? The design of media retail space will change forever. Media retail space needs to model itself after an airport like a hub to the music, film and gaming worlds.

Media retail can transform into a hub, a node in a network and / or an umbrella organization that offers distribution channels in exchange for content and service fees from smaller niche producers who are rapidly increasing in numbers. This is evidence of our need to differentiate as consumers and the pure increase in supply of media as a result of lower production costs. However as the Long Tail Theory has proven, media retail sales still cash in on blockbusters (Chris Anderson 2006). Even more so than before, mainstream titles in music, film and games represent the vast majority of retail revenues. Why then invest in niches? Maybe it’s time for media retail stores to go extinct, but how can that be if our demand for music is as high as ever? The multinational has become the multi-niche*. In this way, mainstream media retail stays close to underground cultures which in turn can be seen as a floating research and development department. The underground is a multi-national’s R&D. The next top hits have to come form somewhere. Furthermore, the shop space becomes a platform for brand sponsorships where musicians, gamers and spectators can lounge and use the newest technologies in co-creative software. This pro-activeness is a key element in the future of how experience economy will merge into to retail space.

Walking into a media store doesn’t necessarily imply an opportunity to buy media, but rather engage with creating and participating with other media creatives. Shelves of music CD’s and DVD’s become walk-in recording studios where music generating software applications use the retail space as a commercial platform to promote their products. The retail store sells licenses to software producers on the supply side while the customers on the demand side are buying memberships to access the facilities. In the same pro-active experience logic, gamers can come to the media store and find a structure similar to an IMAX™ theatre with the latest game consoles and accessories. Here there is a LAN (Local Area Network) party; with each gamer having his own chair, screen and console. Above them all there is a meta-projection of all the online games being played simultaneously. The LAN party room is also a product placement sponsorship strategy like Living Tomorrow™ concept exhibition spaces; who host the forefront of consumer electronics by top global producers. This gamers’ playground is both a testing ground and source of revenue for the games industry, which is rapidly growing to challenge the size of Hollywood. For example, the new release of Grand Theft Auto 4™ sold 3.6 million copies in the first day and grossed $500 million in the first week (Herald Tribune 2008). But why leave your cocoon and come out to a media experience store if the software and games can be downloaded at home anyway? Aren’t we connected online; is the added value of physical proximity worth it? The difference and incentive will be the crucial moment for designers. In the middle of the musicians’ walk-in studios and gamers’ LAN party there is a café lounge and / or meeting / networking point. In addition to relaxing and being part of the creative space of flows, the media lounge café has tribal guides: Trides*.

The challenge of design in this respect will be to cater to a flexible user oriented space that can bridge both mainstream and underground semiotic coding. Designers will need to consider functionality and user friendliness complimented with the right look. Functionality implies a hands-on and / or proactive interface where users can exchange and produce data. As technology giant Phillips claims,
“We must now enter the era of designing equipment that adapts to users. The user is placed the center of the design process.” The right look has to do with fashion and tribal coding. Tribes are social / special interests groups who are ageless*, organized via psychographics* and have both a language and dress code. In relation to the tribes associated with media retail, think of how every music genre has a different look and feel and how the lovers of that music dress and experience their favorite concerts. Consider the diversity in film audiences and the types of gamers who play online Texas Hold’em versus the newest gruesome first person shooter. And how certain types of video games correspond better to specific genres of music. Tribes are not mutually exclusive and we can be members of more than one tribe simultaneously.

The ability to recognize and codify tribes is of increasing importance since age, gender and race are of less importance in Western societies. Understanding tribal groups is what marketeers need for their advertising campaigns and what designers need when considering the typo-morphology*of space. Keeping our attention on how real and virtual spaces intertwine, how has the Internet altered our needs for real space? What does access to information and facilitated communication mean for commercial and public spaces? Manuel Castells points out that,
“Ironically the Internet has given individuals more freedom to chose their own reference persons, but evidence shows that at the same time there is a stronger collective behavior than before.” Carl Rhode explains further by saying,
“Hyper-individualism is out. Finding a place where you really feel at home, with your types of people, is cool.” Trides* are cool, and represent the physical manifestation of a personalized search engine. They are knowledgeable and personal in way that a virtual personal brand agent cannot be: there is a pulse. This is not an attack on the virtual, it’s about learning from it.

Imagine sitting in the media store café-lounge, a wall of real-time gaming worlds projected on the right, and to the left there are aspiring musicians making recordings. There is a stage for concerts and a people’s choice award for top ten hits. The sitting area has a console that lets guests get online, download, interact and maybe even listen in on the musicians or have a peak at a gamer’s action. There is spectacle, interaction and an opportunity to find like- mindedness. Find and meet other music talents, brainstorm script ideas and organize a massive LAN event between two rival cities in the hottest current first person shooter, sport or strategy game. How will designers meet the technical and fashion challenges? Can the space be a flexible template for constantly updating new technologies? How can the interiors codify the look to be inclusive yet give a feel of customization? In essence this type of structure is a multi-media playground. How will its typo-morphology* fit into the current built and virtual landscape?

Recognizing the appropriate look for the target group in the new media retail store will be paramount. Designers will have to stylize the atmosphere to bridge the gap between generations, in fact, agelessness*. The mature population doesn’t want design to emphasize that they need special attention: think of the failed NextStage™ stores in America offering design-technology for seniors. The youth of today is so much more exposed to information than in former generations that they are increasingly discerning: Note their data transfer savviness with iPOD™’s, PSP™’s and mobiles. Finally traditions, gender roles and cultures have become blurred and often times a choice. Music is for everyone and gaming audiences are expanding into new frontiers. What does this all imply, what kind of existing space can reference that as an appropriate departure point? Airports manage flows, commerce and connectivity very well, especially Schiphol, Amsterdam. Imax theatres have strong visual and audio technology but how about the café-lounge feel? Is there a global branded space out there that we can feel cozy in, Starbucks™, Barnes & Nobles™ or a hotel chain? Is this the wrong approach entirely, perhaps the media retail space has to have a branded template or philosophy that makes each location unique while distinctly recognizable? The posterity of media retail space will be achieved once it can offer a framework that is open to the speed of change in both technology and fashion.

* Concepts by Carl William Kerchmar for www.portaltoyourdreams.com and Trend-Portal seminars.

# Concept Visualizations co-produced by www.pholt.net

Formula Zero: World's First Hydrogen Fuel Cell Race

2008-08-25T05:36:00.000-07:00

August 23-24, 2008, Rotterdam hosted the world's first zero emission racing event with fuel cells and hydrogen. Formula Zero is a Fourth Sector business initiative that has organized universities from N. America and Europe to engineer an effective way to use hydrogen technology. FZ's event in Rotterdam is a compliment to both the city's willingness to host green technology and FZ'z founders Godert van Hardenbroek and Eelco Rietveld to really commit to alternative Fuel / Environment / Mobility (FEM) solutions. Drivers reached speeds of over 80 km per hour with half a glass of water as waste. The only sound was that of the friction between tires and race track. Although the engineering was not flawless causing some fuel cells to stall, every car that got on the race track finished. However, sportsmanship and an underlying current of green ideology raced on without fail. A hallmark presentation of engineering and social character as diverse nationalities, business organizations and municipalities pulled together to make the theory reality. The sun was even shinning that day. European cities have taken the first initiative to cooperate with FZ's zero emission promotion vehicle. After this gorgeous event, American cities plan to follow; how about Asia and are there other forms of clean propulsion that could fit into a similar event formula? Not a single oil or auto manufacturer was seen as a sponsor even though hydrogen can also be used in a combustion engine technology, unlike the fuel cells showcased here which run on a thermodynamic principles. It will be interesting to see how FZ'z PR Kim Taylor and North American Sponsorship Representative Lief A. Gruenberg will project zero emission racing into the future.

www.formulazero.nl

Me and My Virtual Self

2008-06-16T06:00:00.001-07:00

We are increasingly living in a space of flows...where networking has taken on a virtual character. There is real power in it and I myself am part of three social / business networks, or is it 4, well actually five. I find them important and I do sometimes feel guilty about not giving them the prompt personal attention that they deserve. I could spend half a day maintaining my virtual self so I too frequently put it off. Are virtual contacts worth less...can you even put it in those terms? A contact is a contact; it's only the platform and frequency that has changed. I need a virtual Personal Assistant. Someone who can administer and maintain my virtual networks, answer social messages and update my blogs with wit and images. Someone like a secretary of the last century who gives me a smile and a coffee and goes off into the virtual sea of networking to flag down the ships and contacts of information that I find valuable. Someone I can trust, how much of myself should I turn over, could I even learn from myself? Will my PA know what's better for me? And could I even have virtual representatives (VR's) of myself that go out into the physical world to meet my virtual friends who, virtually speaking, don't know me physically. It would be the physical manifestation of the cut and paste function. Could trusted agencies of virtual PA's develop from this new communication model? Is there something ethically wrong about this? In a way I am my own brand, and my PA and or VR's are my brand champions and that makes me a brand manager. I think for our generation this will remain controversial. But the kids coming up and their kids will be honored if they could come as far to meet a level three VR, that could be one brand champion before the brand him or herself. It could be like in the mid-evil days, you can't just meet the king outright, you'd have to lobby and build up prestige in the courts and salons. Instead today's society is a space of flows: a phantasmoria of collage identities, temporary and fluid into our own de-traditionalized personal culture.