Transformation in Cologne

Tomorrow I am speaking at a Nokia Siemens event in Cologne on Transformation

Transformation, what is transformation? Transformation represents change and change is the means, by which the future enters our lives. It doesn’t knock or ring the doorbell. It simply, irrevocably arrives. Or as Alvin Toffler said the future is already here its just that its not very well distributed at the moment.

Transformation overturns old ways of doing things, it overturns old institutions and it creates new ones, and this is met with a great deal of resistance in the broadest sense of the word. As the old saying goes I embrace progress but I hate change, and one might add and nor can I comprehend it.

New technologies do not come out of nowhere. As both William Powers, and Carlota Perez argue. They are indeed human creations in the first place and they succeed, or not, to the extent that they meet human needs. In other words, as much as communications media influence the way people of a particular time and place live, the reverse is also true: People have tremendous influence over how technologies evolve.

Perez points out that at a certain point in a technology life cycle, we the people take that technology and direct it towards very specific goals and purposes, like the tools of web 2.0 and its moniker social media. Marshall McLuhan argues in the Gutenberg Galaxy that technologies are not simply inventions which people employ but are the means by which people are re-invented. The invention of movable type was the decisive moment in the process of re-invention from feudal man to reformation man.

Once again we stand on the doorstep of a new era, and one that requires us to ask and answer as best we can, many questions. Questions about ourselves, and our identity, questions about society and what type of society we want. Questions about what does “more” exactly mean when we start to think about the economics of a crowded planet, and the tail end of the industrial society. Because all these issues and more are up for grabs.

So why not come along to the event and you can register here

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Posted in: Alan Moore Speaking, Economics, Engagement Civil Society, Engagement Education, Engagement Marketing, Engagement Mobile, Generation C, Government & Politics, Health, Marketing, Media, Social Marketing Intelligence, Society, Strategy, Trends

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