The End or just a BEGINNING...

Thank you all for being here with us in this enlightening journey towards future. I am the captain of this BLOG ship. Through out the journey with this blog you will get more knowledgeable, excited, bored and at the same time a lot of fun. I can't say for sure after this blog it will change your life or not, but if this blog for anyone become even a single source of inspiration, my purpose will be served; my writing will have a meaning.

Right now, at this moment of self-awareness, I see the whole course as a long journey. A journey where you can actually introduce someone inside you to your own self. Let’s start our journey with this beautiful quote by Erich Fromm,

“Let your mind start a journey thru a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be...Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar, and you'll live as you've never lived before.”

So fasten your seat belt and don't loose it until I say...

Open Up U'r MIND, A Story

toDay, I'd like to start by telling you an interesting yet very moral story. Long ago, there was great scholar living in China. He was famous for his wisdoms and thoughts. He had many students. One day a young fellow came to him and asked for permission to stay with him to learn from some of his great thoughts. The scholar agreed upon his enthusiasm.

One year had past but the young student found that he had learnt nothing from the scholar. He waited for another one year but still the knowledge was not coming to him. One morning he got very impatient and angry and went strait to the scholar and asked that why he didn't learn anything. The scholar looked into his face, smiled and asked him to pour some coffee into the cup in front of him. The student started to pour coffee into the cup and stopped when it was almost full.

The scholar asked him why he stopped? The student replied that if he droped any more coffee into the cup it would be overflowed. The scholar smiled again and said observe the situation carefully. He said, "if the cup is full it is not possible to fill it up with any more coffee. When you came here to learn wisdom, you came with a heart full of your thoughts and ideas and kept it that way for so long. That is why you haven't learnt a single thing. Open up your mind and let the knowledge come to you; only then you will be able to receive wisdom".

I heard this story arond 5 years back in a seminar. I believe a future thinker should not be so up-tight with his or her limited knowledge and should welcome any source of information. Some times you need to see beyond your own judgment and rationallity and believe in what your are dreaming about the future...

your daily tech use in future

The most interesting class so far. Sven Tollmien has totally taken over the room atmosphere. I enjoyed from the beginning till the end of the class. The entire was divided into 3 parts. At first the guest lecture took place. Through out the lecture a case study was developed. It was about a little girl named Li and her younger brother. Along with her growth what technology she will be using in her daily life was the focus of discussion.

- She will talk to the web like a friend
- She will be playing virtual football games like akaaki
- Her communication will be faster
- Her mobile phone will be very knowledgeable and can tell her what to do It will control her house. It will be the source of her entertainment
- Her fashion will be easier from virtual models on the web
- Virtual twinity will be a new place to live
- Her 5th screen will be in her contact lance or in her retina.
- She will be able to speak from her mind or brain without using her mouth or actually speaking.

- and so many

After this analysis and before the 2nd part started we were offered Magic Chewing Gum that immediately burst inside your mouth when you take them. Tollmien claimed that chewing gums were not like the ordinary gum; those actually could open our mind and help us think more creatively. Saying that he gave use some slides where we were supposed to draw our future. It was a nice experience, as for the first time I get to know how creative our sketches and ideas were. Tollmien also came with a software that detects peoples emotion reading their face expression specially from the eyes and lips. I must appreciate Tollmien’s preparation for the evening. The good news is Magnus said Tollmien considered us as one of the best creative audiences he has ever come in contact with.

The class actually was full of creativity, entertainment and enthusiasm. Probably the best among all the lectures held in this course. Finally, when Magnus said today was the last class of the course I instantly thought what could be a better ending than this one?

Self-Assembling Bionic Eyes Coming Soon: Any self-respecting child of the late 20th century would jump at the chance to overlay an electronic stream of information on their field of vision -- but when the idea's gone from science fiction to science, it's usually been more A/V club than Snow Crash.

Computer Program Could Translate Dog Barks Into Human Speech: Hungarian researchers have written a program that explains the meaning of dogs' barks. The software is still a bit buggy, but it's promising enough to suggest that computers could one day translate not only between humans, but between species.

Read more of this scince stories at http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/webtech/index.html

WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class)

It is a story of WALL-E a garbage collecting robot. The story takes place In a distant future, where mankind has abandoned earth because it has become covered with trash from the products sold by the powerful multi-national Buy N Large corporation, WALL-E has been left to clean up the mess. The story moves forward with WALL-E’s regular garbage collecting activities with his a sprightly pet cockroach unit, One day, a sleek and advanced robot called Eve is sent to find earth’s livable condition.

WALL-E totally falls in love with Eve and there are couples of romantic scenes like saving Eve from dust storm and rain and showing her the special stuffs that he found out of the garbage including a green plant for which Eve was sent on Earth. Then there is a chase for both WALL-E and Eve across the galaxy that revealed many undesirable issues. Joining WALL-E on his journey across the universe is a cast of characters including fat sluggish human and a heroic team of malfunctioning misfit robots.

Watching our future world and human race in this way is definitely not charming at all. Couple of scenes in the movie really stuck me. For instance, riding around the space resort on hovering chairs and drinking all of their meals through a straw out of laziness and they are all so fat that they can barely move. And how would you feel when you see that the only livable planet discovered so far has turned into a big trash? However, the movie concluded with a hope that the earth actually will never give up on creating the atmosphere where life will be once again sustainable. I kinda liked this movie I think in this movie there is a message for anyone irrespective of gender and age.

Questions that you can't answer (try it out, challenge yourself)

1. The maker doesn't want it; the buyer doesn't use it; and the user doesn't see it. What is it?
2. A child is born in Boston , Massachusetts to parents who were both born in Boston , Massachusetts . The child is not a United States citizen. How is this possible?
3. Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain on Earth?
4. Clara Clatter was born on December 27th, yet her birthday is always in the summer. How is this possible?
5. Captain Frank and some of the boys were exchanging old war stories. Art Bragg offered one about how his grandfather led a battalion against a German division during World War I. Through brilliant maneuvers, he defeated them and captured valuable territory. After the battle he was presented with a sword bearing the inscription "To Captain Bragg for Bravery, Daring and Leadership. World War I. From the Men of Battalion "Captain Frank looked at Art and said, "You really don't expect anyone to believe that yarn, do you?" What's wrong with the story?
6. What is one thing that all wise men, regardless of their religion or politics, agree is between heaven and earth?
7. In what year did Christmas and New Year's fall in the same year?
8. Why are 1990 American dollar bills worth more than 1989 American dollar bills?
9. A farmer has 17 sheep and all but 9 die. How many are left?
10. How many times can you subtract the number 5 from 25?
11. How could you rearrange the letters in the words "new door" to make one word? Note: There is only one correct answer.
12. Even if they are starving, natives living in the Arctic will never eat a penguin's egg. Why not?
13. Which is correct to say, "The yolk of the egg are white" or "The yolk of the egg is white"?
14. In Okmulgee , Oklahoma , you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why not?
15. There were an electrician and a plumber waiting in line for admission to the International Home Show," One of them was the father of the other's son. How could this be possible?
16. A clerk in the butcher shop is 5' 10" tall. What does he weigh?

*ANSWERS*

1. A coffin.
2. The child was born before 1776.
3. Mount Everest (it just hadn't been discovered).
4. Clara lives in the southern hemisphere.
5. World War I wasn't called "World War I" until World War II.
6. The word "and".
7. They fall in the same year every year. New Year's Day just arrives very early in the year and Christmas arrives very late in the same year.
8. One thousand nine hundred and ninety dollar bills are worth one dollar more than one thousand nine
hundred and eighty-nine dollar bills.
9. Nine.
10. Only once, and then you are subtracting it from 20.
11. "One word"
12. Penguins live in the Antarctic.
13. Neither. The yolk of the egg is yellow.
14. You have to take a picture of a man with a camera, not with a wooden leg.
15. They were husband and wife.
16. Meat.

Did you succeed?

Our American Guest, PSFK

Once again the course revealed glorious its atmosphere performance with Piers Fawkes, A successful and famous blogger and trend spotter. I kinda enjoyed today’s class. The whole class was very interactive. After the class of Christina Cheng who is also a trendspotter and a successful entrepreneur, this class one hand clarified and strengthen my thoughts behind trend spotting as carrier. From the following slide you can also have a clear idea:

From the above snap shot what PFSK is doing as trendspotter company is quite strait forward. PFSK has a good trend spotting team whose job is to check newspapers headlines and RSS links on the co-relation among creators, communities and companies. Based on this research they blog and publish bulk of articles.

Throughout the whole lecture Piers Fawkes set examples to present the big OOO. He mentioned creatOrs are like the individuals and small groups intent on creating art & culture often leveraging digital tools. Fon instance Blu’s Stop Motion Video or
LocoMatix game where the end user are actually creating the concept. Whereas cOmmunities are larger groups who are interacting with art & culture to evolve it. Examples came like sleeveface, music riff sharing, etc. Finally the third O is the cOmpanies who are working with creators and the community to develop new products and services. Etsy.com, Threadless, 20x200.com are some of the names that appeared. If you see the connection among these O’s you will be able to identify the practical implication of trend spotting practice in daily life to make a better world.

At last after the lecture ended, snacks were there and all FREE. May be I should not call it as snacks; I could see it as a full meal as it was quite heavy and delicious. I looked around and felt the whole class turned into a party like atmosphere. So, today we had a great class and a short party and the thanks goes to Magnus and Caroline for such an wonderful evening.

For those of you didn’t know about his background, what kind of work he does, you can check this short video where he talks briefly on what kind of work he does.

You can also check "The Trend In Trendspotting" in PFSK website. There are couple of popular articles like;

Start Your Own TrendWatching Unit - The TrendWatching team seem to be more content in encouraging you folk to do the trend spotting yourselves rather than find trends themselves.
10 Rules For Trend Watching - Grant McCracken directs his weighty thinking to Trend Watching and defines 10 rules for trend watching.
List Of Trend Aggregators - Over on IF! Ozgur Alaz has kindly created a list of trend aggregators showing what's hot on media, shopping trends, lifestyle and changes in digital lifestyle.
more at http://www.psfk.com/2007/08/the-trend-in-trendspotting.html

Trend Spotting for a better world.

What a promising clause. In fact this is the first time I have been aquiented with the possibility of a pure trendspotter as a career or as an entrepreneur. Christina Cheng is I found a genuine trendspotter. Interestingly she was asked quite of ethical question where she actully could not convinced the audience with her answers. Finally, Magnus had to stop the debate. Here comes some of the tips from Christina for the readers which is
a bit different than Magnus proposed for the way to tredspot (See the blog at the bottom)

1. Start on familiar ground
...then blow them away
2. Make it their Business
Translate trends into everyday action models.
3. Go practical
Hands-on examples and stomach knowledge.
4. Inspire to change
Good examples makes change appealing.
5. So-what analysis
Takes trend spotting from entertainment to powertool
Be niceTrend spotting challenges, be kind.

Ride green with smart simplicity

Westfalias were associated with the Sixties and hippie culture. Today's Westfalia Verdier Solar Power van espouses the same spirit of independence, but now it is steeped in green energy, with a built-in solar panel, and a constantly growing list of new features: The latest an energy consumption gauge. Specifications for the van include 4 sleeping berths and spots for cooking which makes it the perfect camper for a weekend trip.

You can find many more of these trends stories in this cool website. http://trendspotting.com.au/

In this portal you'll find interesting stories online, in magazines, and on the street and only good stories and trends that are inspired to make things better towards a promising world. Here you'll be in touch with the latest trends in art, music, culture, hottest desingn and eco-friendly innovations from around the globe. Don't delay; just go click on it. I know you'll love it :)

Ethnography ^_^ ?

Sorry folks, interesting lecture was just made difficult to understand...

It might be my fault. Couldn’t actually find much interest on it. My body was there in the class but I was somewhere else. Yeah, I somehow found this lecture difficult to understand when I sort of tried to get The Ethno Way - Using Ethnography to make insights”. To me, Katarina could have made it more easier while keeeping her focus on the topic.

However couple of good stuffs were took place; for instance, it was good to analyze the trends passing through various subgroups. It is revealed from the analysis that any subgroup can actually create a new trend. One example came as there is this subgroup who only use Internet for one application. It is a community thing. They don’t even know how to browse other websites properly. This group doesn’t believe any one outside the community and most of the time when they are not using internet, the feel bored.

Brand Marketers aim to receive digital expertise from their advertising and marketing agencies: Sapient recently sponsored a national online survey polled more than 200 chief marketing officers (CMOs).

Two points can be derived out of this survey:I. Traditional advertising agencies are now at risk of losing their clients.II. Agencies should acquire Social Media expertise.
more at http://www.trendsspotting.com/blog/

trendsspotting.com is portal where you can get professional observations of trends and their prospect related to marketing, Web and technology by two experts in market research, product and strategy development. I would suggest this website if you want to keep yourself updated on trends in these areas specially marketing research.

Pre-Contemplation > Contemplation > Preparation > Action > Maintenance => Behavioural Change

What a nice formula to bring the desired chages in your SELF. This success formula is given at SingSing which was a seminer-cum-class type atmosphere. Food was served in the beginning. Throughout the class the audiences shared their personal experiences and participated in group discussion. There was a virtual guest from Africa who took his speech through video conferrencing. The event ended with a simple but powerful suggestion:

Think Big
Act Small
Start Now!

I looked into my past and tried to identify how I have used the above mentioned formula. I found that most of the time I was in contemplation stage. After this lecture I know why it was so and next time I will apply the forumla as suggested during the lecture.

about MEGAtrends...

What I liked? Our guest lecturer Henrik Blomgren once mentioned in his lecture that to know the future we need to look behind the past. Yeah, I am with him. That is probably the Feasibility Study for the Future Plan. For instance, looking behind the new paper headlines of 5 years back and then reading articles in front 5+ about common future thinking. Here comes one good example which will give you a clearer view about the megatrends. Following two megatrends are spotted by the renowned author and trend spotter John Naisbitt whose book is considered to be one of the biggest successes in the publishing world sold more than 9 million copies in 57 countries. Compare what megatrends he documented for 1983 and 2000.

Because we are now in 2008 Blomgren had a chance to criticize such a famous future thinker like John Naisbitt. He analyzed the matches and mismatches of Naisbitt’s thought with today’s megatrends. Interestingly, couple of mismatches were found. One or two from the audience also took the opportunity to criticize Naisbitt but could not actually succeed. I don't know why the class today was not quite interactive like the previous lectures.

Here is one useful article for you from Harvard Business School.

Low-Cost Methods For Spotting Customer Trends -
You don't need—and, these days, likely don't have—a big budget to figure out what your customers need...Here's a guide to low-cost trendspotting—ten ideas for where to look for the next big thing. more at http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/2737.html

The Art of the Long View

In the class today we had a prolonged debate; in future will there be use of paper for instance newspapers. People kept arguing from their various perspectives. The guest lecturer proposed that the things will be digitized and probably there will no newspaper in future like we have in today. Well, some of the argument was good but some I would call as "blind argument". They just want to hold the newspaper by their hands and try to get the feelings of touching it. The guest put forward many examples where the electronic papers will feel like today’s paper and it will be very interactive and also argued that the choice will possibly change in coming generations. The answer from those groups of audience was "Still, we want the paper based newspaper". That's why I called it as "blind argument". I think people in 30 years back from now had different demands than today’s young generation holding iPhones. So may be in couple of generations paper based newspaper sensation may not be the truth. I have seen in the movie "Harry Porter - prisoner of Azkaban"; newspapers look a lot like we have now but instead of still pictures there are animated pictures or video clips under the news headlines. What a wonderful concept of Live News Headlines… I am open to any of these positive changes that science should bring to us.

"Why the future doesn't need us" is an article written by Bill Joy, Chief Scientist at Sun Microsystems. In this article, he argues (quoting the sub title) that "Our most powerful 21st-century technologies — robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech — are threatening to make humans an endangered species." The article was published in the April 2000 issue of Wired magazine. Joy warns:

"The experiences of the atomic scientists clearly show the need to take personal responsibility, the danger that things will move too fast, and the way in which a process can take on a life of its own. We can, as they did, create insurmountable problems in almost no time flat. We must do more thinking up front if we are not to be similarly surprised and shocked by the consequences of our inventions."

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html

first theory lecture - DJ of ideas

I liked couple of things in our last class. I kinda agree with what Magnus said about The Future is a story of where we think/ hope/believe we are heading. Because we make the future. The control is in our hand. If we think and believe in a better future and work towards that, a better world will be for us in the near future.

But the most dashing thing in the class was “Be a DJ of Ideas” – totally cool. Magnus innovatively came with this beautiful quote. You let ideas come into your brain then you sort of play around with your ideas, establish the connection among them, make a new one or make something else.

There are several tips given in the lecture which I would like to include here for my readers who might miss those if I don't include. It is about how to trendspot:

Tip #1 Look back at least as far as you’re trying to look forward
(I.e. 10-15 year predictions into the future should start somewhere around 1995)
Tip #2 Don’t be afraid of uncomfortable ideas
(Truly revolutionizing new ideas should, at first, provoke)
Tip #3 Accept contradictions!
(For every movement a counter-movement)
Tip #4 Trust your instincts, but don’t follow them blindly!
(You can shape the future but you are not alone in doing so)
Tip #5 Dare to change your mind (preferably often)!
(Hard, messy and uncomfortable - yes! But you will be on the path to genius)
Tip #6 Challenge everything! (Today’s truths and facts are tomorrow’s lies and superstitions)

The Journey Begins...

So, we had this quite interesting class on the 2nd of September in the course Trendspotting & Future Thinking. The name of the course says quite a bit about itself, what will be taught through out the course. In fact I was first attracted to the course when I saw the name. The atmosphere was totally unexpected for a class but hopeful in a positive way. I don't know if should call the attendees as students or as audience; let me call audience as there was laughing, shouting, sharing, clapping. Magnus promised that he would give this course as many direction as possible and it will be our job to get on to those tracks and may be make a new one.

In the class, some promises are made:

Couple of books are suggested:


Well, I will be posting many things documents, pictures, audios, videos, web links and of course my valuable thoughts and reflections related or unrelated to the course and all with my horrible knowledge in English. If you have read so far, you have proved yourself to be one of the top patient person on this earth. CONGRATs!!! But don’t go away now as I would often try to include some interesting stuffs for you so that you don't leave me before the actual fun begins. Because I might move in many direction pleae do not get confused, just focus on what you are doing, remember what Don Williams says,

“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”