Speaker – Thomas Frey, Senior Futurist at the DaVinci Institute
Planning the future is all about epiphanies – Frey is describing an epiphany he had
He used Shazam on his iPhone to figure out what song was playing in a restaurant, then was able to download the song right then. It was a transaction that happened right where he was at
Then he thought about the camera on his iPhone… why can’t you point your phone at something you want, take a pic of it, and buy it? Talking about the future of retail
Someone walking by – if you like his manbag, you can point and click your camera at it, then buy one for yourself
Showing pictures of different innovative library buildings
Now showing pics of Jay Walker’s private library
Showing pics of futuristic, robotic vending machines
another question – what music do we listen to now that we sill still be listening to in 100 years? The more important question is HOW will we be listening to it?
Talking about a variety of “ultimate future things” like vending machines, music players, drink dispensers, etc.
System thinking – what systems are we using today that are the equivalent of roman numerals and are holding us back?
Also technologies – roman numerals were a technology
Older vs newer synthesizer/piano keyboards (not sure I agree with him here, but I get the point)
slide rule
discussing the time between the end of an era and the beginning of a new one – lots of chaos lives there!
what’s in this era that’s going away? Fax, paper checks, keyboards, computer monitors, computer hardware, TV, sign language, invasive surgery, etc…
The end of wires! Yay. telephone, cable tv, internet, power… Frey thinks we’ll see wireless power within our lifetime
Evolution of Books: in what year will the last printed book be published?
Gutenberg press… showing the development of the printing press… Expresso Book Machine…
Amazon Kindle – it’s possible that within 5 years, something like this will cost about $20. Will libraries start handing out these things?
Books might become conversation – much more active… we ultimately don’t know
10 Global Trends
- 2007 more people lived in urban areas than rural areas
- more people cross country borders – more mobile
- more new product launches
- 2007 – over 550,000 new businesses being created in the US
- 2005 – more women reported being single – over 50%
- people working through and past retirement – more than doubled
- minorities will become the majority in 2042
- smaller families, bigger houses
- coming boom in data centers – youtube adds 50,000 clips or more to its library every week, etc…
- most educated country in the world is shifting – right now, it’s Canada
question – how long before you can get a PhD without being literate?
however you get the info into your head really shouldn’t matter – ebook, audio book, etc are all good
Socrates – never wrote anything.
Future of Education
they did an 18-month study
transition from teaching to learning… teaching requires experts.
Open Education Movement. Example – MIT videos all courses, you can you can take them for free
Wikiversity, Moodle, Curriki – similar idea
Learning drivers – what’s the most important thing students need to learn today?
12 dimensions of the future courseware architecture
modally agnostic, language agnostic… courses from everywhere, managed online
smart profiler & recommendation engine – finds what the person’s most interested in, etc
truch and accuracy – most of what’s being taught is theoretical
certification inputs… how much learning/classes do you need to do this job
official record-keeping system…
Basically more personal control, less control by institutions and teachers
Libraries will become the working laboratories for the creation of innovative new courses in this new, more independent education model
Starbucks. Commodit level is buying your coffee anywhere
Starbucks focuses on the experience level
New relevancy test – sorta like google’s pagerank, but in real life. People determine how relevant something is (ie., a library)
Library building – important still
8 recommendations of the library of the future
- create a search command center – people come because they’re searching for information. Help people conduct searches. Thinks future search attributes will include things like smell and taste. Why don’t we have search for the physical world?
- remote office space – [aside – how does that work with the physical library as important?] – Empire of One (one-person, highly outsourced, business). Cloud computing. “business colonies” – groups of people coming together for a project (like how movies are made now). Frey says the heart of every business colony will be the library. Hmm…
- production studios. people now want to help create information… have a blogging station. podcast studios.
- band practice studios.
- entertainment studios… gaming. Virtual world stations. mini theaters. exercise areas!
- The Expert Series. many people feel uncomfortable with new & changing tech.
- Time Capsule Room – archiving the history of the community. let the public decide what it should be… maybe local companies will want their history archived…
- poetry park. a public park that allows community members add inscriptions… “electronic outposts” (sort of a digital branch library). Libraries need to extend their influence so we’re always in front of the community…
Libraries need to become Epiphany centers for their communities.