Morgan Stanley: Digital trends 2010

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9 iPad learnings gathered on Sanoma's journey

The year 2010 is the year of Touch & Tablets.... and the year of the unfolding Marketing Eco System. Although the ultimate media-format has not been invented yet, Sanoma gathered some learnings on the 'multitouch'-journey.

But first two beliefs:
1. There are no magazine-apps, but mediabrand-apps;
2. In the end there won't be 1 perfect universal Autoweek-app, but many perfect Autoweek-apps.

In this unfolding Marketing Eco System all content goes digital AND goes mobile. New media-formats will emerge. Everything gets tagged and walled gardens open up. Lot's of (formerly) bundled content breaks free of old trapped business models and will be further atomized online.

Atomized mobile digital content drive micro-payments, which move from niche to mainstream payment models.

Don't build pay walls for your readers around the bundle, but activate people to give permission for a micro-payment for each atom that engages them to see, or read, or play, or listen a bit more of it. Monetize the instant gratification need.

Conclusion: Find out how to activate people to give as many micropayment-permissions as possible from the moment they jump into the real-time river of emerging media-formats; formats 'stuffed' with branded content & affiliate marketing deals.



David de Boer, Manager Marketing Intelligence Sales, Sanoma

Moving beyond the business model of pushing ads; the art of commercial conversations

The effort and attention of marketing has always been focused on one aspect of marketing (pushing ads). We have to get used to leave this one dimensional view behind us, when one begins to realize that pushing ads is not a future proof business model. A more data-driven approach can transform - push-driven - advertising into more relevant - pull driven - sparkling (commercial) conversations.

As your mobile device becomes more and more the remote control for your daily live, you provide Sanoma - with your approval - the necessary data to improve our competence to serve you relevant and useful content, services, answers, solutions or utilities at the right time and the right place.

Do you belief in what we - Sanoma - belief in? Will you allow us to master the art of sparkling (commercial) conversations?

David de Boer, Head of Marketing Intelligence Sales, Sanoma

Aggregate content for individuals in ways that matter to them

How do I keep up with all the new sources of information?
How do I find the right file?
How do you integrate data?

The powers in the unfolding Marketing Eco System; building the internet Operation System

The internet is becoming an operating system that manages access by mobile devices to cloud subsystems ranging from computation, storage, and communications to location, identity, social graph, search, and payment. There are five main competing contenders: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. Those 'big five' all have credible platforms with strong developer eco systems.

In the unfolding marketing eco system, the key question is

Will a single company put together a single, vertically-integrated platform? Or will we see services from multiple providers horizontally integrated via open standards?

In the short term, we'll see heightened competition, shifting alliances, and a wave of innovation, as companies fight for advantage in delivering next generation applications, and then use those applications to drive adoption of their respective platforms.

How long will it take before the big five (Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook) will realize that it is in their interest to work together.....and make a start to adopt the horizontal, open strategy? And, last but not least, what will be the unique 'added value role' of the 'other' media companies, on top of the building blocks of the big five?'




David de Boer, Head of Marketing Intelligence Sales, Sanoma


(Source: Tim O'Reilly, State of the internet Operating System, part 1 and part 2)

Building brands while improving marketing ROI

Today's mass marketing model needs to evolve or marketeers will erode their ability to build brands, which is critical to avoid commodization. Today's media measurement systems needs to evolve to facilitate the marketer building brands while improving the marketing ROI.

Improving the marketing ROI starts with understanding how to improve the personal relevance at receptive key touch points with the consumer; at the moments that most influence their decisions.
(Source: Future of Advertising Project, Y. Wind)
Which moments most influence purchase decisions?
Digital technology is fundamentally transforming (1) consumer purchase behaviour and (2) media consumption habits. Gaining superior insights on media consumption behaviour - from a better understanding of the relationship between changing shopping and media usage - is necessary to improve the marketing ROI.

New technologies are changing consumer purchase behavior
Consumers are increasingly adopting new behaviours when it comes to researching and buying products. Traditionally, marketers' view of the purchase process has been based on a "funnel" with five successive stages:

1. awareness
2. familiarity
3. consideration
4. purchase
5. loyalty
   

This model is becoming increasingly outdated, as consumers much more activily reach out to the recommendations of their (online) peers to understand their options. "The real new medium is the voice of the consumer"(Peter ter Kulve, CEO Unilever Benelux).

New technologies are changing media consumption habits
Truly understanding the increasingly complex media consumption behavior of consumers allows marketers to more accurately anticipate on the impact and synergistic effects of media; to reach (or better, touch) their target consumers more effectively and efficiently at receptive moments, via relevant content that serves consumers' interests.



Media & Marketing measurement systems must leave their single media silo approaches and accomodate multi-media measurement. Unduplicated reach across different media will become a necessity, engagement and relevance will need to be researched too....to make the next step in improving the marketing ROI.



David de Boer, Manager Marketing Intelligence Sales, Sanoma

Managing Media Companies • time to shift from Advertising Sales to a true B2B Marketing approach

Only a few TV channels apply sophisticated yield management techniques for the sales of scarce time-slots, similar to the techniques used by airlines when selling airline seats. Most advertising sales forces are managed traditionally, that is they are often organized by B2B customer size and region and selling only one type of media. The sales approach is mostly push, that is sell the available products, with little room left for the advertiser to shape the proposition.

Revision of advertising sales
The digital transition will foster traditional media companies to fundamentally revise their approach to advertising sales and implement sophisticated B2B marketing strategies. An aggressive sales force on its own will not suffice. The advertising sales process should be transformed into B2B marketing with a focus on targetability and measurability. For this, media companies will have to develop a much deeper understanding of their B2B customers' needs. With these deeper B2B customer insights, a value-added proposition has to be developed, based not only on strategically designed (crossmedia) advertising products, but also on a service offering along the whole advertising value chain.

(Source: Future of Advertising Project, Y. Wind)
Media companies have the unique chance to interact with advertisers in the concept phase, based on their understanding of target groups and storytelling abilities; in the media selection phase, based on their knowledge of media-usage patterns; and finally in the measurement phase, by providing consumer-usage data.

Tying this all together into a coherent approach will make the media company a strategic partner for advertisers/brand marketeers.....rather than suppliers of ad inventory.

Integrating sales forces
In many media companies the sales forces for offline and online are still separated. With the growth of online media and the increased need for integrated offerings, this approach will have to be revised.

Traditional media companies will have to manage the transition from price-based to value-based competition in advertising sales. This will entail a fundamental shift in mindset and innovative approaches in creating value for customers. Managing the complexity of more differentiated offerings, ensuring an effective use of resources and securing a constructive cooperation with the media agencies will be the main challenge in implementing this strategy.

David de Boer, Manager Marketing Intelligence Sales, Sanoma

(Source 1: Managing Media Companies, A. Aris and J. Bughin)

(Source 2: The basics of B2B sales succes, McKinsey)

Exploring to understand

A scientific and technological revolution: exponentiele wetenschappelijke en technologische vooruitgang én convergentie verandert ons en de maatschappij. Wereldwijd wordt ons universum door wetenschappers zowel steeds gedetailleerder ontrafeld, alswel steeds meer voortgang gemaakt met 'connecting the world of atoms and bits'.

NBIC, of 'NewBic', staat voor het samenkomen (convergeren) van meerdere stromingen:

Ontwikkeling 1. INFO: Informatie- en Communicatietechnologie / Sensors /Robotics
Ontwikkeling 2. BIO: Biotechnologie / Biochemistry / Synthetic biology / BioInformatics / Ecology / Eco system / Genomics / Synthetic Genomics / Epigenetics
Ontwikkeling 3. COGNO; Cognitieve hersenwetenschap / Neurotechnologie / Neuroscience / Intuition / Learning
Ontwikkeling 4. NANO: Nanotechnologie / Nanobots / Molecular manufacturing / Nano medicine
Ontwikkeling 5. Artificial Intelligence
Ontwikkeling 6. Linqistics en semantics
Ontwikkeling 7. Connectonomics (efficiency of organization)
Ontwikkeling 8. Mathematics


Ontwikkeling 1 - De informatie-technologie fuseerde aan het einde van afgelopen eeuw met de communicatie-technologie tot één geheel.

1a. Uitbreiding van ingebouwde sensoren. Bijv. In het lijf ingebouwde chips om continue alles te monitoren. Nu al is het mogelijk om onder meer hartslag en bloedsuikerspiegel te meten door middel van een in het lichaam ingebrachte chip.
1b. Verbetering van de betrouwbaarheid van ingebouwde sensoren
1c. Methoden en technieken om de sensor-data op grote afstand af te lezen
1d. Ontwikkeling van computerprogramma's die de sensor-data goed en snel kunnen interpreteren en kunnen omzetten in nuttige informatie voor de dragers van de sensoren (en hun artsen).


Ontwikkeling 2 - Halverwege de jaren negentig convergeerde de informatie-technologie ook met de biotechnologie.

Biotech houdt zich bezig met met de werking van genen en eiwitten in de mens. Door de toegenomen rekenkracht van computers is het mogelijk geworden om statistische verbanden te leggen tussen miljarden genetische gegevens en de oorzaken van menselijke eigenschappen en ziekten. Dankzij deze convergentie wordt steeds meer bekend over de biologische mechanismen van gezondheid en ziekte.

Life = a chemical phenomen = a chemical process = a set of molecules and chemical reactions = biochemistry.

Is Biochemistry universal? Or is it different per planet?

Geknutsel aan de genen. Due to molecular biology we are getting close understanding the code of life (DNA)


Ontwikkeling 3 - Neuro-wetenschap (manipuleren van neuronen om ons gedrag te verklaren aan de hand van de activiteit in onze hersenen) is als gevolg van technologische ontwikkelingen m.b.t. meettechnieken in een stroomversnelling geraakt.

All our emotions are made up out of chemical processes. Our subjective perception of the world is the result of billions of neurons giving each other tiny electric shocks. Ons eigen bewustzijn is het resultaat van miljarden neuronen die elkaar kleine stroomstoten geven.

Dankzij de ontwikkelingen op gebied van informatietechnologie krijgen hersenwetenschappers in toenemende mate:
1. de beschikking over Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI-scanners). Een fMRI-scanner registreert met behulp van radiogolven de doorbloeding van de hersenen en daarmee de activiteit in de verschillende delen. Met fMRI-scanners kunnen hersenwetenschappers voor het eerst in de geschiedenis onderzoeken wat er in het levende brein gebeurt, zonder dat brein te hoeven beschadigen.
2. de beschikking over Positron Emission Tomography (PET); een scanmethode die de straling van geinjecteerde radioactieve stoffen meet. Kan bijvoorbeeld het glucoseverbruik van de hersenen meten als indirecte indicatie van de mate van activiteit.
3. de beschikking over Electo Encephalo Graphy (EEG); meet via electroden buiten op de schedel elektrische ontladingen van grotere groepen hersencellen of gebieden binnen de hersenen.
4. de mogelijkeid om een enorme hoeveelheid aan data te genereren, op te slaan en te analyseren.

Toepassing 1: Het is al enige tijd mogelijk om bij patiënten met de ziekte van Parkinson een elektrode met stimulatiepunten diep in de hersenen in te bouwen. Die elektrode is verbonden met een onder het sleutelbeen geplaatste neurosimulator, die de patiënt zelf kan bedienen. Deze 'pacemaker van het brein' stuurt elekrische impulsen naar die hersengebieden waarvan wordt aangenomen dat ze een rol spelen bij de onwillekeurige spierbewegingen (Deep Brain Stimulation, DBS). De bijwerkingen van DBS (ongewenste gevoelens van despressie en manie, en explosief en agressief gedrag) bewijzen dat de DBS-techniek ook kan worden ingezet om gevoel en gedrag te veranderen.
Toepassing 2: Electroden in het brein om de stemming te verbeteren. Het is heel aannemelijk dat in de toekomst DBS zal worden ingezet om ernstige psychische kwalen, verslavingen, eetstoornissen en agressief gedrag aan te pakken.

Next step in neuro-research: Understanding the connectome. A connectome would provide a far more detailed look at the brain’s inner workings than current techniques that measure blood flow in certain regions.


Ontwikkeling 4 - Nano-technologie, die zich bezighoudt met het manipuleren van atomen en moleculen, begint intussen steeds belangrijker te worden binnen de biotechnologie en hersenwetenschap.

Met bijvoorbeeld 'Lab-on-a-chip': de kleinst mogelijke versie van allerlei medische apparaten en de integratie daarvan met draadloze ICT. Diagnose en behandeling kunnen daarmee buiten het ziekenhuis en laboratorium gebeuren, op elke gewenste plek, door de patient zelf.

Wemelt het straks van de in elkaar geknutselde mensen? Opgebouwd uit atomen (nano), genen (bio), bits (info) en neuronen (cogno).

Het zal tot gevolg hebben dat wij voortaan het vanzelfsprekende onderscheid moeten loslaten tussen zaken als mens en machine, gevoel en verstand, schuld en onschuld.

Want stel je voor dat het ooit mogelijk wordt om met behulp van geïmplementeerde elektroden in de hersenen, aangestuurd met een uitwendige zapper, aanvallen van agressief gedrag onmiddelijk af te breken. Agressieve mannen zijn voortaan poeslief, als zijn vrouw de zapper mag bedienen. Is deze man zichzelf, of een machine. En als zijn vrouw de knop iets lang ingedrukt houdt en hij héél lief wordt, is het dan liefde? En als zijn vrouw de zapper kwijtraakt en haar man in een aanval van razernij de buurman doodslaat, wie heeft dan schuld?

"De nieuwe neurotechnologische revolutie zal het de mens mogelijk maken om zijn emotionele stabiliteit, zijn verstandelijke vermogens en zijn zintuigelijke waarnemingen te verbeteren. Dat zal leiden tot een nieuw soort mens in een veranderde samenleving. Noem het maar een neuromaatschappij". (The Neuro Revolution, Zack Lynch)


Op zoek naar meer inzicht in het oriëntatie- en (aankoop)beslissingsproces van een persoon (zie: Read Montague).

Er zijn verschillende wetenschappelijke methoden en measures om meer inzicht te krijgen in het oriëntatie- en (aankoop) beslissingsproces. Niet elke methode en measure op zichzelf is zaligmakend. Een combinatie van methodes en measures levert de het meeste inzicht op.

1. Verbal measures
Veel onderzoek laat zien dat (aankoop)beslissingen die mensen nemen, slecht worden voorspeld door wat ze daarover van tevoren zeggen. Niet omdat de respondent liegt, maar omdat de respondent domweg niet bewust is van wat hij/zij echt van dat product vindt. Consumentengedrag wordt voor 95 procent gestuurd door onbewuste drijfveren en voorkeuren. Mensen zijn (verbaal) nauwelijks in staat om hun eigen (aankoop)beslissingen te voorspellen. Dat maakt enquetes onbetrouwbaar.

2. Non-verbal measures
2a. Eye-tracking: Registreren of iemand's eye focus projected is on fovea = condition for info to be processed in the brain




Met Eye-tracking is te registreren:
1. Wanneer iemand's eye focus is projected on fovea = condition for info to be processed in the brain

2b. EEG: registreren van iemand's huidtemperatuur en transpiratie
Met een EEG is te registreren:
2. Wanneer iemand emotioneel wordt geraakt

2c. fMRI: registreren van iemand's bloedstroom naar actieve hersendelen
Met een fMRI (een hersenscan) is te registreren:
3. Wanneer iemand positief of negatief emotioneel wordt geraakt op een product/dienst/beeld)
4. Wanneer iemand goed oplet
5. Wanneer iemand informatie in het brein opslaat.

Door van te voren in de fMRI scan plaatjes van konijntjes en afgehakte handen te laten zien wordt:
1. de locatie van positieve en negatieve emotie in iemand's brein achterhaald
2. de invloed van ingesleten gewoonten vastgesteld (zodat daarop is te corrigeren)
3. de invloed van sociale druk vastgesteld (zodat daarop is te corrigeren)

Onze hersenen nemen (aankoop) beslissingen, gebaseerd op verschillende overwegingen. Van zo'n 95% van die overwegingen zijn wij ons niet bewust. Sinds kort is het technologisch en financieel mogelijk te testen welke 'signalen' welke emoties losmaken en hoeveel hersenactiviteit een persoon vertoont in de hippocampus, het deel van ons brein dat herinneringen aanmaakt. De hippocampus slaat niet alleen herinneringen op; de volgende keer dat je met het product in aanraking komt dat de eerste keer een positieve indruk maakte op je brein, komen er hormonen los die dat prettige gevoel van toen weer opnieuw creëren.

Niet de consument zelf, maar het brein van de consument heeft de touwtjes in handen als het op kopen aankomt. Dus kan je beter m.b.t. neuro-technologie naar de 'koopknop' zoeken door het brein op te delen in voxels. Een voxel is de driedimensionale variant van een pixel. De kern is dat het brein verdeeld wordt in tienduizenden blokjes van 3 kubieke millimeter. Sinds kort is het technisch mogelijk om de activiteit in de hersenen blokje voor blokje (voxels van 3 bij 3 millimeter) door te meten als iemand naar plaatjes of filmpjes kijkt, en dat patroon vergelijken met eerdere ijkpatronen. Op deze wijze wordt per persoon gemeten welke blokjes van zijn/haar brein met bloed doorstroomd raken als deze persoon negatieve of positieve emoties voelt. Door puppy's en gezichten van mensen te tonen wordt gemeten of de persoon ergens vertrouwen in heeft. Het zien van gezichten wekt bij mensen meestal vertrouwen. Het zien van spinnen wekt bij mensen meestal wantrouwen. Daarin is van elk hersendeeltje vastgesteld of die positieve (het oplichten van de nucleus accumbens) dan wel negatieve emoties weergeeft.

De drie 'variabelen' in de hersenen:
1. De limbic brains(responsible for all of our feelings, like trust and loyalty. It's also responsible for all human behavior, all decision-making, and it has no capacity for language. This part of the brain that controls decision making, does not control languare)
2. De mediale prefrontale cortex (responsible for all of our rational and analytical thought and language; het deel van de hersenen waarmee je bewust denkt)
3. De insula (hetzelfde gebied dat op pijn reageert, reageert ook op 'pijn in de portemonnee' als besloten wordt om geld uit te geven.

Nu we in het hoofd van de consument kunnen kijken weten we dat de emotionele hersengebieden de lakens uitdelen. Het nemen van een (aankoop)beslissing is een emotioneel gebeuren, met een vleugje rationaliteit. Vijfennegentig procent van het (aankoop)beslissingsproces gebeurt op basis van onbewuste argumenten.

MAAR - Last, but not least - to understand the brain we also have to understand the world and culture in which the brain lives.

Read more: http://nextmontreal.com/tedxmcgill-the-largest-ted-event-north-of-the-border/#ixzz16PiaUt6Z






1e disruptieve ontwikkeling: In de 16e eeuw werd ons wereldbeeld omver geworpen toen Copernicus ontdekte dat de aarde niet het middelpunt van het universum was.

Copernicus changed the world by replacing the earth with the sun in the center of the solar system. And then with this simple looking act, he actually launched a scientific and technological revolution, which many call the Copernican Revolution.

Copernicus' followers quickly made the logical step to ask:
A. What is life?
B. If the earth is just a planet, then what about planets around other stars?
C. Are we alone? What about the idea of life on other planets?
D. What is the origin of life?

The new Kepler telescope is searching for planets day and night, without any interruption, for the next four years. What the Kepler telescope does is discover a lot of candidate planets. The ones which pass the test are confirmed to be planets.

This proces will learn us more about the distribution of planets in size. Many planets - with different sizes - are counted. There are small planets, there are bigger planets, there are big planets.
Until 15 years ago, the total planet number in our 'known' Solar System was nine:
A. Four earth-like planets with small radius, smaller than about two times the size of the earth. 1. Mercury, 2. Venus, 3. Mars, and 4. the Earth,
B. Two giant planets.
C. Three more planets were discovered. Now we have Pluto to join the numbers of small planets.

15 years ago, technology came to a point where we could discover a planet around another star. In the last 15 years, almost 500 planets were discovered orbiting other stars. With the technology of the last 15 years we only could see/discover the big planets. So that's why most of those planets are really in the category of "like Jupiter." We didn't have any evidence whether planets like the earth are out there. And we do care about planets like the earth because by now we understood that life as a chemical system really needs a smaller planet with water and with rocks and with a lot of complex chemistryto originate, to emerge, to survive.

And we didn't have the evidence for that, till 2009. The new telescope, Kepler, has been able to tell us since 2009 that small planets dominate the picture. The planets which are marked "like earth" definitely more than any other planets that we see.

And now - since 2009 - for the first time in history, we can say that the statistical result is that planets like our own earth are out there. Our own Milky Way Galaxy is rich in this kind of planets.

Next step: we are now able to find those planets that we would call habitable, meaning that they have similar conditions to the conditions that we experience here on earth and where a lot of complex chemistry can happen.

We can even tell that our own Milky Way Galaxy harbors 100 million planets.
In the next two years (2011 and 2012), we will be able to identify at least 60 of them. We can go and study those 60 planets. We can find what they're made of, would their atmospheres have water, carbon dioxide, methane?

This step is enabling us to do one step further. And here comes biology, with its basic question "If there is life on other planets, do we expect it to be like life on earth?"

Definition of life = life on Earth, past and present, from microbes to us humans in its rich molecular diversity the way we now understand life on earth as being a set of molecules and chemical reactions.....and we call that, collectively, biochemistry, life as a chemical process, as a chemical phenomenon.

So the question is: is that chemical phenomenon universal, or is it something which depends on the planet? Is it like gravity, which is the same everywhere in the universe, or there would be all kinds of different biochemistries wherever we find them?

We need to know what we are looking for when we try to do that. And that's a very basic question which we don't know that answer to, but which we are trying to answer in the lab. In the meantime the researchers are building a knowledge bridge as well.

When we think of what is necessary for the phenomenon that we call life, we think of compartmentalization, keeping the molecules which are important for life in a membrane, isolated from the rest of the environment, but yet, in an environment in which they actually could originate together. And in one of the labs, a series of experiments in the last 4 years showed that the environments - which are very common on planets, on certain types of planets like the earth, where you have some liquid water and some clays - you actually end up with naturally available molecules which spontaneously form bubbles. But those bubbles have membranes very similar to the membrane of every cell of every living thing on earth looks like Like this. And they really help molecules, like nucleic acids, like RNA and DNA, stay inside, develop, change, divide and do some of the processes that we call life.

This is the knowledge-bridge-building-proces in which we are now (in 2010, 2011 and 2012), trying to answer that bigger question about the universality of the phenomenon.

A. On the left bank of the river, are the people who study the planets and try to define the environments.

B. On the right bank of the river are the experiments in the lab, understanding chemistry.

Left bank and right bank feed each other with new insights back and forth, and we hope to meet in the middle one day.

This understanding of chemistry actually can help us with our daily lives. The deeper, underlying point is that science is in the process of redefining life as we know it. And that is going to change our worldview in a profound way.

There is immense, powerful, potential in life in this universe, especially now that we know that places like the earth are common. If we are to be stewards of our planet earth and its biosphere, we'd better understand the cosmic significance and do something about it. We can actually do it with synthetic biology being the way to transform both our environment and our future.


2e disruptieve ontwikkeling: In de 19e eeuw zorgde Darwin voor opschudding door zijn theorie dat de mens afstamt van de aap.

3e disruptieve ontwikkeling: Komt van de vader van de psychologie, Freud, die de menselijke geest bestudeerde en het onbewuste, door hem beschreven als ‘driften’, ontdekte.

4e disruptieve ontwikkeling: In de 20e eeuw, met de ontdekking dat leven kon worden gemaakt en gemanipuleerd.

5e disruptieve ontwikkeling: Een neurologische revolutie.




Persons associated with this subject:
Rinie van Est - trendcatcher van het Rathenau Instituut en docent Technology Assesment en Foresight aan de TU Eindhoven.
Tsjalling Swierstra, hoogleraar Filosofie aan de Unversiteit Maastricht

TEDxAmsterdam Thought Leaders #1: Robbert Dijkgraaf on Science from TEDxAmsterdam on Vimeo.

TEDxAmsterdam: Robbert Dijkgraaf from TEDxAmsterdam on Vimeo.

Robbert Dijkgraaf

View more presentations from TEDxAmsterdam.

Singulariy university subjects: biofeedback, mHealth, DNA, neurotech, moral robots, robocars, technological dependencies, decentralization of technologies, new educational guidelines




Talk by Kurzweil on Singularity and beauty as well as his personal health story on diabetes
Central theme at #EP10 seems to be Health, DNA and Medicine

We are starting today with AI/robots, Peter Diamandis kicks off.
Talk on advances of AI and embedded AI as well as it limits (emotion, chaos).
AI and nanotech are deeply connected.

Robots die elkaar aansluiten op stopcontacten, deuren openen en auto rijden in een drukke stad.
Now narrow AI for medication purposes -> rules.

Now on genetic algorithms, interesting thoughts on optimizing requirements and UI for mobile apps/services.

Now on brain sizes/volumes, white and grey matter + connectivity between neurons in different animals + humans.

Health/biology is an information technology says Kurzweil, but how about neurons? Projectome Modeling #EP10 analyzing white matter in brains; What about Connectomics?

Q&A on neurons, efficiency of organization, intelligence, pruning and neuroplasticity.

Amazing how much AI can contribute to better healthcare. Great question on the 8 intelligences of Howard Gardner and how it relates to AI.

Linquistic Logical Spatial intelligence Bodily Musical Interpersonal Intrapersonal Naturalist

AI not primarily focused on logical, spatial (DARPA challenge/robocars), linguistic and a little musical

AI is also improving considerably into interpersonal intelligence, see the social emotional robots by Cynthia Breazeal/MIT

How can robots and AI get a joke? Jokes are 1 more variable than you can handle, releasing the tension into laughter

How drug simulations might speed up approval processes for new drugs

TrueKnowledge and SIRI as cases

Breakthroughs in AI. A.I. that:
1. do self improvement, incl. code
2. absorbs knowledge from the web
3. will go beyond human level intelligence (see: supercomputers) with new dimensions, incomprehensible for humans (already here)


Now EtherPad, collaborative note-taking
"if you don't move around, you don't need a brain" (Dan Barry)
1) Failure is an option and requirement (Dan Barry)
2) Adaptation is essential

Dan Barry on mental fitness, adaptation, drive and overcoming handicaps/restrictions

Amazing story on being an astronaut and how you hit your own face with your own hands

#ep10, #(un)consciousness, #gravity

Dan Barry "You have to put AI into practice, experiantally, just like being in space"

Bizar, robots die ballen foutloos uit de lucht pakken, ongelofelijk, geloof het gewoon niet meer

Cuttlefish, octopus, adaptation video, #JanorLanier, #Garreau
, #EP10

Remote controlled robots with VR

Using robots for social networking purposes for the elderly

Een robot die de deur opent, pizza's aanneemt aan huis, en betaalt #het bestaat

Raymond Mcauley from illumina on Bio-informatics and Bio-technology

DNA sequencing

PCR's, microfluidics,, Raindance, microarrays, 23andme, now 580.000 SNP's

Cases form the book by Collins are given, breast cancer, BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes as indicative

Duration of an average gen patent is 12 years

How can we use epigenetics to counteract the rise of cancer? A new fight against cancer using food. Dr. William Li. See also Angiogenesis (http://angio.org)

Raymond says 800 diseases based on 1 gene, while George Church says 1.600 diseases based on 1 gene. Who can explain the difference?

Before 2030, all humans will be DNA sequenced. Probably multiple times (longitudainally, as well as cross-sectorally in depth)

Synthetic Biology #DrewAndy, #GeorgeChurch, #CraigVenter #EP10

Sequencing is to nanotechlogogy as RAM is to microtechnology

DNA companies: Genomera, CounSyl

Andrew Hessel on Biotechnology, drawing the same parallel between computers and biotech like Freemand Dyson #decentralization #remixing

Main differences between cells and computers; cells can multiply and self assemble, cells are messy.

Most organisms are robos, life is nanotech, DNA Specifies design, manufacturing, operations and maintenance

If singularity is coming, we will witness religious revolt on a global scale (likely, existential threat of religion)

DNA is quickly becoming print on demand and standards based

Tom Wujek of Autodesk visualizing te curriculum

Now more than 5.000 BioBricks

A new scientist is coming: a genetic one, DIY, already 128 schools doing BioBricks in 25 countries around the world.

LavaAmp into mobile devices (PCR in mobile)

DIY Biotech is now as Computers in 1975, but it will be spread way much faster

BioScreenCast, SciVee, DNATube, ScienceHack, PloSBiology, OpenWetWare

Quantified self, health lifelogging, Kelly Wolf

More info on Health Lifelogging and Quantified self in the book: Total Recall by Gordon Bell (Microsoft). Dit boek biedt een visionaire blik op de nabije toekomst. Daarin zullen werken en leven ingrijpend veranderen door 'total recall', de komende technologische revolutie die de huidige digitale mogelijkheden radicaal doortrekt. Binnenkort wordt het mogelijk en betaalbaar om je hele leven via minuscule camera's, microfoons en sensoren digitaal vast te leggen in een zogenoemde e-memory. Sinds 2002 is Bell al bezig met zijn project MyLifeBits: iedere dag wordt al zijn persoonlijke informatie automatisch digitaal opgeslagen en geindexeerd. Via zoekmachines kan hij in zijn 'externe geheugen' specifieke informatie zoeken en (laten) analyseren, iets dat bij het echte geheugen niet kan. In dit boek wordt vanuit dit project verder geextrapoleerd. Dit leidt naar een ingrijpende evolutie. Als je wilt kun je straks doorlopend een digital dagboek of e-memory van je eigen leven creëren. Dat gaat vrijwel moeiteloos, dankzij een collectie minuscule, onopvallende camera's, microfoons, locatiedetectoren en andere sensoren in knopen, hangers, dasspelden, reversspeldjes, broches, horlogebandjes, armbanden, hoeden, brilmonturen en oorbellen. Nog ingrijpender zijn de sensoren die in je lichaam worden geïmplanteerd om je gezondheid te meten. Overal in je omgeving - in de gadgets en de werktuigen die je gebruikt, zitten dan sensoren.

Samen vormen deze een persoonlijk sensornetwerk waarmee je kunt vastleggen wat er met jou en om je heen gebeurt. Deze total recall zal gevolgen hebben voor wat het inhoudt om een mens te zijn.

Met software kun je je digitale herinneringen sorteren en schiften en patronen ontwaren die je brein zonder hulp nooit zou opmerken.



the same parallel between computers and biotech like Freemand Dyson







Now more than 5.000 BioBricks

new scientist is coming : a genetic one, DIY, already 128 schools doing BioBricks around the world, 25 countries







Ancestry.com ; social DNA ; health and health data is social currency / social object

Real time biological mapping based on diseases and interactions.

DNA 2.0 (!) , Complete Genomics, Biofab

Gingko BioWorks

Organovo, 3D Printer for Cells/Organs/Bio

Craig Venter with Synthetic Genomics

Resurrected animals , Jurassic Park IRL

A species is just a firewall to other DNA

In 10 years building bacteria will be a high school project

Day 2: Network & Computing Systems, and my personal favorite, Medicine & Neuroscience

John Gage now (founder SUN), talks about Beijing Genomics Institute

2nd speaker Greg Papadopoulos

HadGEM2-ES Earth Model...

Gage on sensors, actuators and MEMs in hardware translating physical signals into electrical signals to optimize devices

Heerlijk, alle klassiekers van het Net: Licklider, Engelbart, Bush....

John Gage: metaphor and language are key to describe hardware

Metaphor as civilization as it builds bridges

Computer as Desktop > Sketchpad > Simplified Physical Universe > Network of Distributed Memory+Computation > Linked Book

Computer as Library > Command and Control > Orchestra > Marketplace > Organism/Ecology (Hillis)

Computer as Evolutionary Ecosystem > Distributed Intelligence > Computer as Theater making the Invisible Visible

presentation by Gage on mobile, immersive virtual/real environments and WorldEye

A on Feynmann, language, intuition and math, Google Liquid Galaxy, Davos, Second Life, immersiveness

I just connected the dots between Avatar, Liquid Galaxy/Google Earth and future of Learning/Therapy/Education

Two innovations:
1) a ball with a camera view (real-time) during soccer and beyond
2) Google Earth with real time IR scanning of spots within buildings mapped against specific weather conditions (real time)

Now Papadopoulos - the Networking Revolution, connecting the worlds of atoms and bits

Internet of Things....sensors >> awareness > filtering

All will be IP > all lifelogging > all camera > all organic and connected > Software assumes that the stuff it runs on does not make mistakes - Greg Papadopoulos (CTO of Sun and SETI boardmember

RFID, smart dust, MEMS, sensors: battery issue , how to optimize ? (I think Wifi signals)

Amazing, cosmic particles and its impact on sensors

Uncertainty in sensors in Microscale (Quantum and Cosmic) and Macroscale (interacting complex systems) > shift in Software needed

MapReduce is mentioned

The limits of physics (latency, light speed) limit hyper-strong AI - AI's have to wait so long, they will get bored.

Do the challenges of physics translate to a problem to be solved by hardware or software engineers?

All objects, buildings and animals > tagged > simulations and having bitmass, growing slowly

We go to a Infra-Destructed Sensor World , separating the Controller and Sensor Network

Internet of Things is not so much about Home Product Sensors as it is to immense Infrastructure issues

Network Entropy

Network Entropy resonates with the vision by Kevin Kelly (Evolution of Technology)

Sensors > primarily driven by scale and efficiency, what about mobile sensors / health sensors?

Technological network entropy driving organizational structure network entropy

Software Pattern View : 80s Client Server, 90s N-Tier, 00s Web Services, 10s Things

Q&A with quantum questions (entanglement)

# Servers * bandwidth of server = # Devices * bandwidth of (end-user) device > huge clouds

Future: Separation of Big Computers and Distribution Networks

Mooi verhaaltje door VP Yahoo Salim Ismael over mobiel internet, LBS, web 3.0 e.v

Evolution of Internet : Messaging > Request-Response > Publish-Subscribe

Blippy, Curetogether, PLM ,

Future: Separation of Big Computers and Distribution Networks

Mooi verhaaltje door VP Yahoo Salim Ismael over mobiel internet, LBS, web 3.0 e.v

Evolution of Internet : Messaging > Request-Response > Publish-Subscribe

Blippy, Curetogether, PLM , great cases on Info About Me (QuantifiedSelf)

PleaseRobMe.com

Now Medicine, Health #Health and NeuroScience at Singularity University#singularityu #ep10 with a.o. Daniel Kraft, EXCITED!!!



Proteus Smartpills - RFID chips embedded in pills.


QuantifiedSelf Meetup


augmented reality surgery with PT- and PET-scans projected while doing surgery


Nanomedicine now


Pharmacgenomics, personalized healthcare, mHealth apps for DNA analysis


Proteomics and Genomics


Geomedicine = Genetics + Lifestyle + Environment\


your history in terms of location translated into health profiles


P4 Medicine, Leroy Hood systems Biology





Health 2.0, Google.org Flu Trends


Long Tail of Healthcare treatment and trials


Virtual Biotech


the role of the doctor in 2030 according to Daniel Kraft will be Knowledge Connector/Curator/Enabler


Geomedicine is a fascinating new layer to health. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62cNtvx6P8E


Daniel Kraft on Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine


Software will have to become more adaptive and aware as the everything begins to compute.


breakthrough ideas : 1) bioinformatics 2) regenerative medicine 3) targeted drugs 4) robotics and medicine integration 5) social medicine


BioTime, immortal cells


Mike West (founder, Geron) currently shattering many preconceived notions about life itself


Organovo story in details, printing organs using 3D printers


John Reppas now on NeuroScience


it seems all speakers come from Stanford AND Harvard here


Mike West (founder, Geron) currently shattering many preconceived notions about life itself..


Gerontology holds the promise of unimaginable new technologies, with equally unimaginable consequences




now Neuroscience at #singularityu #ep10...


Machine that prints organs is coming to market.


hopefully Reppas will integrate the vision of Zack Lynch on Cosmetic Neurology here



Listening to the sound a monkey's brain makes as the monkey moves it's hands


The father of stem cell research - Mike West


Neuropace closed loop Neuromodulation


Eric Topol on the future of wireless medicine, your phone as a diagnostic device


Zeo Personal Sleep Coach


Writing DNA costs 15 dollars for 1 basepair in 2000, now 40 dollarcent, will drop to 1 dollarCENT in 2015


how to cure (beyond care)? gen therapy, stem cell therapy, drug therapy, epigenetics, proteomics, soma cell telomerase boost


synthetic biology, 3D printed organs? all combined? what a AMAZING world we live in


Is immortality a good thing? Question of 2010 IMHO. Mixed blessing in my view, inequality might boost revolt


now Ralph Merkle, a legend in Nanotech (worked with Eric Drexler).....http://bit.ly/bj7kpI (expand) ; Molecular Nanotech!!


Ralph is a Fellow at The Institute of Molecular Manufacturing http://www.imm.org


Trends in Manufacturing: Flexibility, Precision (!) and Cost


Nanofactories


red blood cell 8 microns, ribosome 25 nanometer, nanotube 1-2 nanometer, length of C-C bond 0.15 nanometer


fantastic to see this materialize after reading the first book by Eric Drexler on this topic long time ago

nanorobots, medical nanodevices, molecular computers; how to arrange atoms : 1) self assembly 2) positional assembly


Tomorrow: almost any product will be about a dollar per kilogram or less exc.l. design/licence costs


1 atom = 1 bit (on average) > probes > reading structures


nanobots as replacement for red and white blood cells as well as chromosomes


nanotech essential to reduce environmental impact (agriculture, less pollution, solar power, energy storage


WHat does an atom really look like? Forget the nice shinny spheres. More a cloud around a point. Fuzzy: http://bit.ly/bUyaTy


Molecular Manufacturing still a long term idea (2025-2030)


self assembly examples: DNA itself, proteins, T4 Bacteriophage


olecular memory storage so super-dense (bit/volume) that 1 sugar cube = football field filled w 600MB CDs


Merkle: Nanotech in drug delvry - can layer properties (eg hydrophyllic v lipophyllic) so drug is hyper-targeted in vivo


nanotech in terms of molecular machines is amazing and the most powerful technology but still way off


now replicative manufacturing: robot arms creating robot arms


replicating systems don't have to be living systems, adaptable, complex, have on-board instructions or be self sufficient


nanofactory video (jaw dropping): http://bit.ly/9G7VCj


It is possible to create replicating systems that input molecules & outputs meter size devices in a matter of minutes


Nano-factories will be the ultimate hacker tool. Deconstruct, build, change, create. On the atomic level. At no cost


computers who in 1 second can process like brains of 10^11 humans



now medical nanotech: Freitas (!): 1 extra hour to cope with heart failure due to artificial nanobased red blood cells


we move from Preserve Function in medicine to Preserve Structure


Nanomedicine will let us digitally restore you


I am stunned that such an important technology like nanofactories gets not the appropriate investment (yet)


Breakthroughs Nanotech: 1) SPMs maken 3D atomically precise structures 2) Self assembly of electronic devices 3) Moore's law continues....


4) RepRap and other 3D printers make more of their own parts (currently 50%) are more flexible , less expensive


5) shift to Scanning Probe based lithography similar to Milliepede


ASML in Netherlands already uses Milliped like techn.


Paul Saffo: "a scientist talks 1 hour about 1 year of new content while a consultant talks 1 year about 1 hour of new content"


Paul Saffo: "in each scenario there are Constants, Cycles and Novelties"


Saffo: 1) Start with your hunch 2) Identify driving forces 3) Look for Cross-Impacts of forces 4) Create 4 different scenarios


Saffo: "Innovation Rate (stagnation-acceleration) versus Public Acceptance (low-high)"




Saffo: create a Matrix (2x2) create simple names for each quadrant


correlation energy access/usage and GDP ; energy biggest issue at the moment


1) energy 2) water 3) food 4) environment 5) poverty 6) terrorism 7) disease 8) education 9) democracy 10) population #biggestissues


Synthetic Biology now, leapfrogging Moore's Law by factor 3-6


GlycosBio and Genomatica


Central Question here is : "how to avoid (religious) revolt while technological evolution is accelerating?"


fundamentalism, religion, social discohesion are the biggest concerns here ; the gap will increase enormously, even in an age of internet


Small Scale Solar on the rise

Good source on Nanotech > Nanorex : http://bit.ly/c8VkiZ


Energy Gamechangers: Carbon Eonomy, Cost revolution in renewables, Storage, Harvested Carbon Fuels, Ultragrid and Wireless Power from Space


book tip: Daniel Yergin - The Prize




Presentation by Saul Griffith

There will be alternatives to current IP based 2 million dollar fMRI devices with 1.000 dollar scans for each brain patient, quick

How to protect your own brain from a social point of view (social real-time brain scanning)?


People can control parts of their own brain..... within a few sessions!!!

People reduce their own subjective and objective pain experience using NeuroImaging

Mirror neurons, NeuroImaging, mobile and social implications

Learning, Empathy, Telepathy, Education, there are similarities and differences in individual brains, transfer IS possible

Jason Bobe

20 people have been sequenced 100% (DNA), will be 1 million people in a few years

Halcyon, PackBio

DNA Explorer $80, for kids!! http://bit.ly/9ornUW

VDJ-ome; determines responses to exposure to particular substances

Microbiome: different bacterial environments in particular spots on body, genealogy, evolution

Error rate DNA Sequencing very low (most DNA is sequenced 30 times to reduce errors)

It takes 30 SNPs to identify 1 individual..... huge privacy implications

Next: the FBI will talk about forensics and DNA (Edward You)

BioWeatherMap.org: environmental sensing and surveillance effort

Combine this with Pachube

Very tight integration between Google and NASA, now and in the far future, 40 year agreement!

Cooperation in nano-bio-neuro-robots-AI, even Space

Ruimtevaart en kosmologie is toch wel heel erg tof allemaal, dat het kan, machtig mooi !


Meer over het onderwerp Singularity:


Ruimtevaart en kosmologie is toch wel heel erg tof allemaal, dat het kan, machtig mooi !

Meer over het onderwerp Singularity:

• Artikel over Singularity in New York Times
• Research paper van Vernor Vinge

ASO: App Store Optimization
SOLE: Self Organized Learning Environments (Sugata Mitra) - Learning is an emerging phenomenon.

Harnessing future revenue growth in unfolding marketing eco system

As revenues are redistributed across the marketing eco system, the progress of media companies in leveraging customer data analytics - in order to develop deeper customer insight - will be the most important indicator of harnessing future revenue growth.

Deeper customer insight is vital to enable targeted, cross-platform - but platform specific - content offerings that will drive future revenue growth.

Last year, media companies have focused on improving efficiency (due to urgently needed cost cutting). In 2010, the next frontier opens up: mastering the process of analytical management of consumer and operational data, in order to achieve excellence in engaging and interacting with consumers.

The market leading media companies of tomorrow will be the ones that find innovative ways to harness their vast amounts of data to gain competitive advantages; companies that use statistical analysis to map patterns of consumer activity, rather than intuiting it from what they think customers are doing. These media companies conduct trend analysis by forecasting and extrapolating, based on varied assumptions, allowing them to anticipate needed business model, inventory, financing and capacity, so they can provide better, more relevant (mobile digital) services at lower costs.

Digital consumer understanding and analytics - using the data people generate to make smarter decisions, while adhering to concerns over privacy - grow in importance. Be ready to make the fullest possible use of consumer data to drive growth, or risk falling behind.

The marketing eco system needs to become more data driven. Every value constellation within the marketing eco system should be based on data and facts, while respecting consumer privacy, and should be considered a work-in-progress. Organize value constellations with relevant partners and iterate often, based on the data. The marketing eco system is in perpetual beta, and data is our constant companion.

While real-time will be the new prime time, micro-payments will move to mainstream payment models

A syndicated stream is the default view in Facebook, meaning that 350 million people are getting used to the paradigm of real-time syndicated streams....with - soon - geolocation data.

Connecting remote data to people and things in real-time will lead to a series of new devices and applications.

A significant step towards this real-time world is the visual search concept Google Goggles. Take a picture of a person's face, and Goggles tells you their name. Snap a picture of a building, and find out who built it, and what companies reside inside.

Behavior and human mindset changes fundamentally when you layer in real-time search overlays onto the real world.

The building blocks of that world will emerge over the next 12 months. This unfolding Marketing Eco System, which has less to do with technology and more to do with psychology, opens up a targeting-opportunity to deliver personal relevant messages based on location, interest, behavior, socio-demographics, time and context....combined with relevant affiliate marketing deals.

The privacy concerns will be huge. The first version won't let you search faces, due to privacy concerns - but in the end this is an ongoing trend that will change our world.

In this unfolding Marketing Eco System all content goes digital AND goes mobile. Everything gets tagged and the walled gardens open up. Lot's of (formerly) bundled content breaks free of old trapped business models and will be further atomized online.

Atomized mobile digital content drive micro-payments, which move from niche to mainstream payment models.

My advise: Don't build pay walls for your readers around the bundle, but activate people to give permission for a micro-payment for each atom that engages them to see, or read, a bit more of it. Monetize the instant gratification need. Find out how to activate people to give as many micropayment-permissions as possible from the moment they jump into the real-time river of branded content and affiliate marketing deals.

David de Boer, Head of Marketing Intelligence Sales, Sanoma

Sources: Chris Thorpe (The Guardian) and Mark Anderson (Strategic News Service)

Convergence of magazines and digital

Media companies are building digital magazine prototypes. They intend to make prototypes that will work on a variety of platforms so that they can sell their products on different devices of different sizes from a variety of suppliers. The media companies want to sell their products on smart phones, tablet PCs as well as netbooks, all of them will be as interesting platforms for digital magazines as the much hyped e-readers.

Vision (1): to re-create the visual experience of a high-end glossy lifestyle magazine. In a world dominated by real time chatter, a firehose of information overload, trashy celeb gossip, and fast sloppy news reporting there is a growing market for the opposite niche. There are plenty of people who still enjoy a calm, minimalistic aesthetic experience. A well crafted story, superb command of the written language, reflection, interesting facts, compelling arguments and beautiful photos. We aren't keeping old formats, we are keeping and enhancing experiences. That's not the same thing. The whole point of the prototype is to show how new formats can capture the essence of magazines in a digital environment. We fully recognize that people show their identity in many different arenas - but this isn't trying to replace them. On the contrary, it is running parallel, and branches over when appropriate. The exact formula is yet to be developed of course, but publishing this first prototype is a part of that process.

Bonnier isn't keeping old formats, but is keeping and enhancing experiences. That's not the same thing. The whole point of the prototype is to show how new formats can capture the essence of magazines in a digital environment. Bonnier fully recognizes that people show their identity in many different arenas - but this isn't trying to replace them. On the contrary, it is running parallel, and branches over when appropriate. The exact formula is yet to be developed of course, but publishing this first prototype is a part of that process.

Vision (2): A new kind of media-format where words, images, sound, and possibly video and other output sources work together to tell a story or provide information, rather than being necessarily separate objects embedded next to each other.

The finite nature of magazines: In a magazine, the limit in size and pre-determined format force authors to focus and concentrate. This is good for both quality and creativity, just look at the strict rules in classical poetry or the 140 character limit in Twitter. If the Mag+ is designed with stunning colors and excellent readability it will imbue the magazines you read with a sense of quality and importance that is lost on the web where everything is one click away. The sense of completion is key to getting closer to a magazine experience. People like finishing things.

Will the digital magazine on the tablet be monthly, daily or real time? What does the reader get for his money? This is not an easy question, because you might take a lot of fun away in waiting for the next issue!

This conceptual video is a corporate collaborative research project initiated by Bonnier R&D into the experience of reading magazines on handheld digital devices. It illustrates one possible vision for digital magazines in the near future. The concept aims to capture the essence of magazine reading, which people have been enjoying for decades: an engaging and unique reading experience in which high-quality writing and stunning imagery build up immersive stories.

The concept uses the power of digital media to create a rich and meaningful experience, while maintaining the relaxed and curated features of printed magazines. It has been designed for a world in which interactivity, abundant information and unlimited options could be perceived as intrusive and overwhelming.

The purpose of publishing this concept video is first and foremost to spark a discussion around the digital reading experience in general, and digital reading platforms in particular: the magazine reading experience, digital browsing, text versus images and open versus closed digital reading experiences.

After an initial scepticism readers were happy to consume their digital content in an eMagazine, provided it was no more than a 10 minute experience. The business model is simple that of strong engagement, although advertising does not fit well with eMags - the click through rate is much less than conventional web advertising. This is because the magazine environment provides a more relaxing way of consuming a feature and whilst in this state most readers don't want to interrupt this by being sent to a company's website (away from the page). After trying all the page turning platforms, findings are that the slide/scroll method is by far the most natural to use. No gimmicks, just the easiest possible method to read an article and engage with the multimedia on the page.

Advertising in digital magazines: Ads in digital magazines could be very immersive. Readers value ads in printed magazines much higher than on web sites (less interruptive and a more important part of the magazine content).

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

This collaboration between The Wonderfactory and Time, Inc. is an excellent example of how tablets will enable the creation of innovative, addictive experiences.



It is not only a promo video. The prototype already works. Watch this demo of Time Inc's digital magazine concept for tablet computers showing an issue of Sports Illustrated .



According to the Sun, the Sports Illustrated format on a multi-touch-screen tablet is a valuable addition, but no substitute for the magazine Sports Illustrated. Magazines and newspapers have been the world's best handheld for many, many years. Top news, sports, photos, gossip and games in an easy-to-share format. No waiting for pages to load, no losing reception.

TEDxAmsterdam afterthoughts: 'extracting value' versus 'exchange of value'

Even without claiming to be the mayor of Amsterdam, I had the honour to take part in the extraordinary TEDxAmsterdam ‘09. I am still recovering from the overwhelming combination of inspiration (450 talented ‘parents of promising mind childen’) and location (the impressive Royal Tropical Institute).

What happened that day? I have been touched by passionate ‘game changers’- struggling to ’sell’ their sustainable solutions - and I empathized with their persistent drive to realize their ideas.

Every TEDxAmsterdam ‘coffee break’ meant energetic interaction with fascinating people, having three things in common:

1. A common sense of urgency: Things need to change in a fundamental way to transform from the era of extracting value to the era of genuine value exchange;
2. A common passionate attitude: Enough spirit, creativity, ideas and energy to ’reset’ our society; to create sustainable ‘eco systems’;
3. A common belief: The impossible is possible. "If you think you are too small to make a difference...try sleeping in a room with a mosquito"(African proverb).

Making the impossible possible can only happen if every individual acts. I would like to thank Jim Stolze, Marian Spier, Monique van Dusseldorp, Paul Rispens and the team of volunteers for acting; for realizing the TEDxAmsterdam idea.

Let it be a starting point for a new era; an era in which we exchange value instead of extract value. An era in which we have the ability, and should take the opportunity, to optimize our (eco) systems, technology and currency to humans, rather than optimizing humans to them.

David de Boer

Enough spirit, creativity and energy to 'reset' our society; things need to change in a fundamental way

Transscript TEDtalk Frans Timmermans: I want to talk to you today about fear. Because you know, fear can be fun! Look at the way captain Jack Sparrow steps in and out of death. And makes a better future for himself. Look at the way the two hyenas in the Lion King enjoy the shivers they along their spines when they pronounce the word ‘Muphasa’. And look at the way your children react when they’re told bedtime stories written by the brothers Grimm with all the horrible elements: They love it! H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, Steven King, and even the rather less inspired makers of Evil Dead I to X. They all know that fear can be very, very exciting. Fear is also - potentially – a strong political force. If fear is combined with the knowledge that there is a way out, that there is a solution, it can unleash forces unknown to man itself.
A beautiful example of this is President Kennedy’s ‘moon speech’. When he knew that the Soviets had an advantage on the US they were afraid that this would lead to military dominance of the Soviet Union. Kennedy said: “We’ll put a man on the moon.” And this unleashed an incredible force in American society. And he said: “We’re not doing this because it’s easy; we’re doing this because it’s hard. And when you do things that are hard, you can show what your worth. You can show how much force, how much imagination, how much creativity you can unleash in your own society.
At the same time, there is another side to fear. Fear can also suffocate. It can paralyse. It can make you stay in the same spot and not want to move again. Fear is - if it is turned into a political commodity – also something that can paralyse whole societies. You often hear that European culture - European values - could dissolve like a lump of sugar in a cup of tea. Because a foreign element introduced into our society is lost. Today, people like Christopher Caldwell, Mark Stein, Bruce Bauer, they all argue that Europe will disappear, our values will go under. And they only have one solution for this: ‘the Other’ should disappear. Physically, leave. Or should disappear by becoming exactly like us. Those are the only two solutions they see for Europe to survive.
I think that is incredible. Because in Europe we are with so many. Our ideas are so powerful. Our diversity is such a source of strength that one wonders how it is possible that these writings can lead to such a low level of self-confidence. That you would think that a minutely small minority of people who want to impose their ideas on you could do so successfully. But that is what their fear, what the negative side of fear can do to you. In our times, on our continent, we face a huge choice. Because of what fear does. The fear of those who think there’s no way out. The fear of those who think we will disappear.
Jonesy. Do you know who Jonesy is? Lance-Corporal Jack Jones is a great character in a series called Dad’s army. He was a First World War veteran. He was the only true soldier in the band of Dad’s army. He always portrayed himself as a First World War hero. But as soon as something happened that was scary, he would start running around frantically and say: “Don’t panic! Don’t panic! Don’t panic!” And this is what we are doing today. This is what the bad fear is doing to our society.
The choice we face in our society in our time is whether we want to be Captain Jack Sparrow or Lance-Corporal Jack Jones. A pretty clear choice. Why? Because we face a daunting challenge. Perhaps the biggest challenge humanity ever faced. We need to redefine the relationship between man and his natural environment. For the first time in humanity, the presence of the earth and its resources is no longer self-evident and determined. We have to be more careful with how we deal with the earth. We have to take into account an ever-increasing population. A population we need to feed. We need to provide stability. Prosperity and peace. And this is a daunting challenge.
The bad news is: we will have to rethink everything we do, on a very personal level. How we live our lives. But we also have to rethink politics, rethink governance, and rethink our organisational structures. The nation-state can no longer solve all these problems. And governance is needed on continental level, on global level. This means we have to go back to the drawing board and convince people that things need to change in a fundamental way. That’s the bad news.
The good news though, is that it can be done. It is not a scientific challenge. It is not a technological problem. The technology is out there, science has invented the solutions. It is a political problem! Do we have the guts to face this and do the right thing? To apply the knowledge that has been invented to improve. And to make sure that this earth can feed nine billion people. That this earth can create stability and prosperity for all. It is pretty obvious that if we don’t apply the existing technology, if we fail, if we drop the ball, what happens is that humanity will face natural and man-made disasters. And all our efforts, all our efforts, will be directed at managing disasters rather than creating opportunities.
Do you know the Cracken? Jack Sparrow’s enemy, the beast in the sea with all his tentacles. This Cracken has far more than just one tentacle. Our society is affected by the speed of developments worldwide which are brought into your living room instantly. There is no avoiding that. The speed of change also comes to your country very quickly. As societies change rapidly. Far more rapid than ever before in human history. And the speed of this change, the proximity of the problems, the proximity of ‘the Other’, of difference, is another driving force of fear. Sometimes paralysing fear. One can see it all through European history. Fear of the other.
Every time we face change Europeans look at the other. Every time we go back to the drawing board and relations are changed, either in society or between groups or between countries or maps are redrawn, Europeans look at the other, without comprehension. Is he a friend or is he foe? Is he out there - to put it in modern terms – to take away my values? To impose his views? To push me out of my own position? And have we been abandoned by the elites? Where are they? Why don’t they come and help us? Have we seen the threat of different people coming to our society who want to move in a different direction, without the liberty and freedom that has been cherished in this city since the 17th century?
And what about the fear-mongers. Politicians have found that fear is a great political commodity. Perhaps the most successful political commodity in Europe today. These fear-mongers will answer these questions with: “Yes! Yes, this is what’s going to happen”
What they will do is to tell people bed-time stories - after locking their doors and chasing the neighbour away from their backyards - tell them bed-time stories about a past that never was, to seduce them to believe in a future that will never be. That is what is happening a lot in Europe today.
We politicians - but also those people who are dismissed as the elite - we have such an incredibly weak response to this challenge. What you see is that people react by dismissing the fears as irrational, as nonsensical. Which is a force. People see that the threats are real. People know – or feel intuitively – that their position is under threat, that it is not a done deal that we will always prosper. That our wealth will always stay. It is not a done deal that we will have a better future than today’s present. It is not a done deal that we will have peace and prosperity in our society. Look at the dimension of the threats, of the challenges. It is idiotic to dismiss these fears people feel as irrational. Because they’re true, they’re real, be honest about this: it could happen if we don’t act.
The second response is to mimic the fear-mongers. To say: “Okay, they’re popular with the electorate, let’s just adopt their agenda, in part, let’s be ‘fear-mongers light’. That doesn’t work either. The third response - and frankly that is what I see a lot in your circles - is a sort of come together and hold hands and say: “We’re the ones who are right, we’re the ones who understood, they’re all wrong. Yippiyayee.” That doesn’t help either. That does not help. We need to face realities in society. We need to look the Cracken in the eye. We need to do what Jack Sparrow does and say: “Hello beasty!”
Because look at society today and what is the challenge of politics? People have become very eclectic in their choices. They become eclectic in their personal choices. Their fashion is no longer the same all over, is no longer determined by their social group. Their taste in culture is different. And even in certain cities like Amsterdam and other urban areas, you can be eclectic about your identity. You can choose different elements of different identities and construct your own. That’s a wonderful thing! It’s a wonderful element of our liberty.
And people become eclectic in politics as well. They pick and choose from different ideologies and ideas. And they construct their own set of values, set of political ideas. Politics has a problem with that, because political parties - certainly in the Netherlands - are still organised along the lines of the society that was, but is gone. Politicians are still thinking that we have this complete set of values that cater to one group in society or people with one belief.
The end of the European divide had also an enormous influence on this. The end of the European divide meant an end to the ideological dichotomy in the world. It was so easy to have these two poles - capitalism and communism. Groups of people and individuals in political parties could position themselves somewhere is between those two poles. And say, this is our spot. Closer to this, a bit away from that, and so be recognisable. The ideological dichotomy is gone and it has been replaced not by ideological confrontation but a confrontation based on identity.
The foe is he or she with another identity. Because people need something to lean against or to set a difference with. And this is dangerous in society as I described before. With all its rapid changes etc. And we as politicians need to be far more aware of this, especially on the left side of the political spectrum that I represent. Conservatives have always been eclectic; hanging on to power is the main reason. Then you can be eclectic about values, eclectic about positions. Because you construct a set of values that caters to the time. And to the left, ideology has always been less important. But the left needs to reinvent its ideology. Based on a good analysis of society and the voters. To get rid of this attitude: “Here we are. This is where we stand. The voters are somewhere out there. Let’s wait until they’ll come and see us.” No, we need to go out there; we need to be with people, talk to people, and confront them with their fears.
Politicians have turned into providers of goods and services: ‘I have an itch, please come and scratch’. We are something like the service-provider of a phone company. You call them when something is wrong. You rather expect them not to respond. Or to respond very briefly. And perhaps to provide you with a small service and slight discomfort. And you put the phone on the hook and you forget all about them.
We have as a people in Europe outsourced governance and politics to a cast of - perhaps clever and able – people, but it is a fundamental flaw in our political system. We need to go back to the situation where there is one question we ask every individual citizen: What are you going to do about it? And we need to make sure that there is one response we cannot accept: ‘call my MP’. We need to make choices in our lives on individual basis, on societal basis. Even on a global basis. And this is going to be difficult. Because only global governance can solve the problems. Only the acceptance that there is one issue that we can solve together as humanity. Or we go under together as humanity. If we seek to solve it in confrontation and dominance over others. We will have to take action. And diversity is key to this.
When Jack Sparrow jumps into the beastie’s mouth goes against the grain of your intuition. And what politics needs to do today is counter-intuitive to people. When we say to people ‘the Other is your salvation, is your rescue, to look through the eyes of the Other will make you a better person’, it is counter-intuitive. Because people find ‘the Other’ scary, I want to stay with my own group. If we say to people: ‘governance can only be organised on a continental level or a global level’, people say no, no, no! I don’t know all this. I want to organise on a national level. It is counter intuitive. If we say to people: Change! Because we need to change. To redefine our relation with natural environment is fun! Is great! Its successful! People will say, no, no, no! It costs money; it makes my life more uncomfortable. I can’t drive my hummer anymore.
So we need to have the guts and strength as politicians to face fear. Change can only happen if every individual acts. As Teddy Roosevelt said: “Success or failure will be conditioned upon the way in which the average man, the average woman, does his or her duty, first in the ordinary, every-day affairs of life, and next in those great occasional cries which call for heroic virtues.” If we do that with passion we will prevail as a society.
Thank you very much.