The road to knowledge begins and ends with data.
Data is the starting point. Analysis brings language, definition, context and understanding.
Story connects us.
Together, analysis and story unlock the meaning of data.
Once we have meaning we return to our data with a new understanding of its value; the data is realized.

On May31, 2014 I participated in the National Day of Hacking in Seattle.

The Seattle event was organized through a Code for Seattle Meetup.

This documentary highlights a hack team who volunteered for a Seattle Neighborhood Greenways project. The project uses sensor and camera hardware combined with software to measure bike and pedestrian traffic in neighborhoods. The information gathered will help to determine neighborhood greenway needs.

Working on the Microsoft Home, we designed scenarios and prototypes with suppositions based on technology trajectories 3-15 years ahead. Our assumptions of what would be possible evolved as technology advanced and society adapted/changed. We told stories that either solved a problem or enhanced experiences through technology. Our job was to engage people emotionally and expand their perceptions of what was possible… to suspend disbelief.

When joining the team in 2000, our technology baseline for the envisioned future was: smart connected devices with software and services running between them. Because this was relatively uncharted territory in the consumer space the potential scenarios were endless. This made for a very easy entry into the field of theoretical futurism. Technology was king; and we knew being connected was an integral step to giving users the best experiences. We also knew that for us to tell a story about this possible future we had to be sure we knew how this could be accomplished technologically. One of the first scenarios I worked on centered around my music, anywhere, on any device. Of course this seems very basic now, but at the time we were still analog and unconnected for the most part.

As smart connected devices became a given, we moved on to devices working better together to provide richer experiences. Working with user centered design principles we had to think about the right combinations of devices and software to deliver enhancements people wanted. An early “watching TV scenario” had wall speakers play the audio as they were a higher quality than those in the TV; also the room lights dimmed for better viewing as well as providing ambience.

Then we brought together intelligent systems facilitating experiences* based on software discovering and making connections with all available resources (devices, sensors, services, or other technologies).  We aimed to keep the user at the center, being conscious to address what was integral to being human. We designed interfaces that would surface suggestions to provide the best potential experience given the resources and preferences.

The above video shows multiple examples of facilitated experiences within the Microsoft Home.

That was then. As time went on, the future caught up with us. There became an app for everything and we were wowed daily by all the technological advancements.  This continues to be true and while our connected world still isn’t seamless we are starting to see that almost anything is going to become possible.

So what’s next, what will enhance our lives further yet?

……

*An earlier post discusses a patent that centers on technology facilitating experiences.

Subject: I see the future too
Time: Now

Dear Leadership,

Future profiting businesses will include social accountability at their center. The forcing function- evolution happened. Sometime in the last 10 or so years we crossed a threshold where amazement for the future turned to expectation for the present. This was driven mostly by technological innovations.

The ability to have connection to our social networks wherever we are has changed our relationship with work and each other. We have new dependencies that have us reevaluating what matters and redefining our needs in both our personal and professional lives as the evolution continues.

At first our relationship with the amazing present was all about keeping up with trends; having the latest and greatest gave us desired status.

We’ve matured a bit and technology is no longer just a means to an end, it is an integral partnership. This partnership empowers us with potential and has us reeling from the cascading effects of seemingly unlimited information, innovations and choice.

Ultimately we are social before we are business people. Our new empowerment guides us to align with like-minded businesses* as we continue to be more impressed by meaningful work rather than status.  Meaningful work comes from the clarity of knowing what is valued and acting in accordance. Addressing and improving the problems of our world through our work is part of that action.

Improving the world isn’t just about putting out great products; it’s also about how we engage with each other and the greater world as we create. By placing social accountability at the center of our business strategies we have 360 degrees from which to engage the world meaningfully.
From here we profit.

“Work is love made visible.”- Kahlil Gibran

I look forward to our future collaborations.

Sincerely.
……………………………
*Note- The Haas business school investment fund has achieved a 50% return over six year through socially responsible investing.

Whose idea was it to ship our shit out to sea and dump it?
Clearly we’re idiots.

The encountering of our trash is a huge inconvenience in the search for the recent missing Malaysian air flight. Not to downplay the tragedy of the flights disappearance, however the islands of trash are bringing much needed awareness to the cost of our lifestyles. Let’s look at this inconvenience in the long run.

“Everything that humanity does is reflected in the debris out there,” – Seattle oceanographer Curtis Ebbsmeyer said in this Christian Science Monitor article.

The economist article “Picking over the traces” talks about the evolution of Technofossils – which is basically the trash we leave behind. “The immense diversity of human artefacts, the vast acceleration in that rate during the past 60 or so years is without precedent in the Earth’s geological record”.

We’ve transitioned into the Anthropocene where our activities have a significant global impact on the Earth’s ecosystems….Which leads to this cheery Guardian story “Nasa-funded study: industrial civilisation headed for ‘irreversible collapse’?” The story sites how civilization could collapse in coming decades due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution.

Unfortunately issues like trash, resources and inequality are so big it’s extremely hard to wrap our heads around it all. Frankly it’s just easier to be in denial because the small instant gratification we get from buying something takes our minds off the bigger issues.

Sadly those of us who create the most of the garbage don’t have to live with our own garbage. It’s our gift to the poor.

The next time you go to Costco to buy that double pack of whatever, ask yourself … Do I really need this? If yes then ask … Is the cost of the trash created from the packaging alone worth the small monetary discount?

Just follow the data and it’s easy to see we are barreling off a cliff here.

My current top 10 list for society’s biggest problems.

1. Apathy::: We have the technology to solve most of society’s big problems; we’re missing the will.
2. Our Environment::: Climate change, pollution, destruction of natural habitats, diminishing resources… exasperated by  politics.
3. Disconnect::: From our moral centers, what brings us meaning and what drives our actions.
4. Education::: Archaic systems, cultural irrelevancy, cost, accessibility, differing expectations…
5. Inequality::: Ageism, civil rights, classism, consumption/lifestyle, elitism, education, gender, income/pay, poverty, race/ethnicity, reproductive rights, sexual orientation, wealth…
6. Greed::: We don’t know when enough is enough and its killing us.
7. Poverty::: Poverty slows human advancement.
8. Healthcare::: Cost, access, for profit systems… We need to take better care of our ill.
9. Overpopulation:: Too many people eating up too few resources.
10. Fear::: Fear is a strategy and tactic. Fear takes us off course.

What are yours?

A lot of these problems could be solved if we consistently acted from love and compassion.
We need to act on #2 immediately, but it won’t happen without #1 or #3.