The World Future Society has compiled their 2007 and 2008 trends into great U-Tube videos. I have embedded them below. They are eye opening and provide a real sense of long term view and long term importance of considering ecological impacts on business and our lives.
Earlier this month I wrote about Duke University using virtual worlds for therapy, and not I see that another University, UT Dallas, is following suit. UT Dallas is using the virtual world experience to help individuals with Asperger's syndrome.
Unlike other models of intervention, virtual world experiences provide a powerful way to learn new and more appropriate ways to respond to people in scenarios similar to those faced everyday," said Dr. Sandra Chapman, director of the Center for Brain Health.
The virtual environment replicates real world social situations with greater accuracy and realism than staged encounters because in the virtual space the social interactions are real and not scripted. Moreover the virtual nature and visual interface helps individuals interact without fear or concerns of rejection.
Here is a great article in Government Health IT that profiles the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's activities in Second Life. I can not laud my friend John Aderton enough for being a pioneer in one of the biggest government agencies.
I just saw an amazing website called whoissick.org. The system essentially allows anyone to upload, using their cellphone, information about their illness anonymously. Whoisisck.org has a few major categories and I believe that it is meant to track flu and cold outbreaks in certain areas. The one thing I do not like is the meter that shows number of illnesses in the last 8 weeks. As more people learn about this more will post and we will see an artificial jump in number o reports. Once there is a stable user base the numbers will be accurate. I think if there is a sufficient adoption you could have on heck of an epidemiological tool. Moreover a real powerful product delivery / placement tool. If you see a jump in cough and muscle ache make sure you are distributing extra Tamiflu and cough medicine to that locale's pharmacy.
Institute For The Future and Knowledgeworks Foundation have pieced together an amazing, mind-blowing scenario map 'Map of Future Forces Affecting Public Education 2006-2016'. They have created an extraordinary set of drivers and impacts as well as very through out hotspots, trends, and dilemmas. IFTF always seems to be putting out exceptional research that is written in straight forward language. From Knowledgeworks Foundation:
The map is intended to help you think about the future of education in the United States in an engaging and constructive way. The map presents a forecast of external forces that are important in shaping the context for the future of public education and learning in the next decade. It is an outside-in perspective that will help reframe current critical challenges related to education in a broader, longer-term context of change. Your task is to use the map to create compelling stories about how education may evolve in this future context.
This is a pertinent and timely post considering my current revelations courtesy of Richard Florida and company. The fact that some of the top minds in the world are working on the future of the US educational system gives me some comfort, but the fact that those minds are not running the educational system scares me to death.
Human resources should be looked at as a commodity. Universities and Technical Schools grow and develop the resources, harvest (graduate)them, and then set them out on the market for employers to purchase (hire). If this were the case our educational system is General Motors in the 1970's; producing an insufficient number of defective goods. And in turn we see production and consumption of said goods go elsewhere.
The US education system is producing students who are not prepared for the working world. Worse the consumers are not communicating the defects back to the factory. The end result is specific needs are not being filled, and there is surplus in other areas. Worse it is surplus of 3/4 capable new employees. It is no fault of the students, they are simply not being taught what they need to know to be competitive.
To rub salt in the wounds the US government has erected tariffs (limiting the number of education and employment visas, regulating foreign employees access to specific projects) further exacerbating the problem of having too few skilled employees to fill the positions that keep the US economy moving forward. The isolationists will save us from terrorism by strangulating our economy.
As with the implementation of all new systems there are going to be some setbacks. Slashdot reports on a serious setback to the Kaiser Permanente health care company. The origin of the problem is their electronic patient record system. Slash dot writes that Kaiser has spent about $4 billion dollars on an unreliable electronic medical record system that is impacting patient care, according to a 722-page internal report revealed by Computerworld. Not a terribly good thing.
Thanks to CorpHQ for the note as well as bringing to light the 'dumping issue'. Although secondary it is clearly not a good thing.
Sermo.com is a social space for practicing physicians to share personal experiential information with each other. As far as a community of practice model goes it is highly technical and niche to a degree. In the world of long tail and niche content sites this one could be a real good place for those who need that kind of information. Sermo is a company though and they have a business model based on allowing research on the community determined best practices. Moreover they are looking to offer financial incentives physicians who contribute the 'best' information as determined by the community. I do not share Andrew's excitement about the business model of poaching the wisdom of the crowds.
As a patient I sure hope my physician uses this - what could be better than the wisdom of a very intelligent crowd? The one thing that erks me though is that I know physicians are pressed for time, and the thought of some physicians actively profiteering to me seems odd. I love the concept of communal sharing but hesitate a the incentive directly to contributors.
Sermo, I anticipate, will busing monetization strategy #3 from my play book. Open the community to observers and marketers and let them learn from the conversation ... for a very hefty price. Certainly it will be a gold mine for the right industry (paharma, med tech, literature developers) and I can bet they will pay for the access to license the content.
I know I have not posted in a few days and it is because I had a bum reaction to a tetanus shot. I was due for my 10 year booster and I am just not feeling great at all. On that note I will point to a wired magazine article called Well Worth The Cost that equates the lost productivity due to the major diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and infectious diseases. They provide a chart that shows the benefit of a 10% reduction in mortality in terms of financial gain in the national economy. Hope that is enough for people to start to take preventive medicine seriously and go get a check-up!
The Exergaming and Exertainmnet components of health care could be a new model to help get youth active. At a recent conference US Surgeon General Dr. Carbona said, "The greatest threat o our national security is pediatric obesity". They psychological impacts of obesity are equally as damaging as the physical. Pediatric cancer patients have a better quality of life than obese kids. Physical activity being boring is one of the biggest oppositions to regular exercise. The creation of exertainment and exergaming as a medium to reach youth could hold the answer. Using gaming technology and virtual worlds to make physical activity fun and engaging for youth. One model is the Exertainment Zone. Tools such as the Sony eye-toy and Dance Dance Revolution are two great examples. Basketball originally was designed as a way to help athletes stay active during the winter months in Massachusets. The digital gamespace may soon have a fuul-body engagement game that breaks out.
