Batteries Not Included.

MikroKopter - HexaKopter from Holger Buss on Vimeo.

Yo, seriously! Did you ever see that movie Batteries Not Included? Because fore $1600, you can practically live it. Imagine a future where this is figured out and put to good use.

Factoid City: Social Media & Technology

The Internet Has Eyes

Chatroulette.com lets you see what the internet sees. It is the mirror of our collected mind and puts faces on the nodes of our human superorganism.

Basically, how it works is that the site connects you to video/audio/text chat with a "random stranger. Both parties have the option to hit "next" and move on to a new "random stranger."

People don't seem to know what to do with this site yet, how to act, or what new possibilities this opens up to us. While there are definitely some dicks out there (literally and figuratively), mostly people just stare at the person on the other end and hit 'next'. Flipping through humans like you would flip through channels on television. What are they looking for? How do they decide who to give time to... and how do you get somebody to give time to you? The funny thing is that people get really excited when they land on someone they recognize, and the ultimate is spotting a celebrity.

Entire websites are being devoted to chat roulette screenshots. These mostly display the funny/weird chat moments. (guy dressed like cat, scary clown mask, etc.) There are also regular people out there who are connecting and having conversations across the globe with people they might have never interacted with. They get less attention from the blogs, but these interactions are probably more meaningful as they spread information, stories, and culture in a whole new way. We can learn about people's aspriations in a new way too. Yesterday i spoke with a group of engineering students in Ranchi, India who were mostly interested in what kind of car i drove and the sports i played. Now, you probably think i left them completely disappointed, but my explanation of laser tag left them wide-eyed.

Also, hung out with my friend Tom the other night checking out chatroulette. see our misadventures HERE

The Future of the Workplace

Emcees of Innovation: The Rise of a New Discipline

There is no doubt that collaboration, or the romanticized ideal thereof, is intrinsic to the success of the modern organization. The idea makes logical sense; people working together should produce more than the contribution of any individual. And collaboration is not just an ideal, it is a functional necessity; people need to work together across geographies. However, in reality, the dynamics and tools of working together are often stumbling blocks.

Today, without easy and open communication, ideas can erode, and resources are wasted. Skilled specialists are being asked to take time away from their core capabilities in order to wrangle video-conferencing units. This can cause personal and professional difficulties, the detritus of which is dealt with by current HR and IT capabilities. We don’t need collaboration; we need fluent collaborators.

The Future:

As we come out of the recession we hang onto the dream that partnership will make a more productive and efficient workplace, the landscape of which is changing. Enter Gen Y flexing their technological and relationship-building muscles. They will appear to be excellent collaborators-they have the functional skills (see hours spent on Facebook). However, in a friction-filled committee setting, they are neither experienced nor self-directed enough in their fields to know what to do next. A backlash against the inefficiencies of collaboration is seeded.

Specialization regains popularity in the workplace, and along with it a new field of specialists is born- “Project Emcees”. These skilled middlemen help multidisciplinary teams communicate and understand each other, across the globe to facilitate progress towards common goals. This new function represents a paradigm shift in the way we work. Once again, employees in the workforce will be encouraged to do what they do best including Gen Y, who is poised to lead this emerging field and its supporting industries. The new workplace can have it all with collaborators helping specialists become more than the sum of their parts.

This new professional field will have social, technological, and market implications. Emphasis on the specialization of skills will return identity and pride in the workplace. Architectures and technologies will be reevaluated and designed for seamless group sharing. New corporate metrics and reward systems will be established for highly collaborative teams. The workplace that makes room for collaboration facilitators early will have a competitive edge by allowing for the connections that drive innovation and growth.



-Team Death Squad

Thinking about the future.

What I Do All Day Long.

A good video by Hosmer:

Resonance from Continuum on Vimeo.