Emergent Futures Tumblelog
This is the Tumblelog of Paul Higgins and Sandy Teagle - Futurists from Melbourne and Brisbane in Australia. Go to Emergent Futures to see more or follow on Twitter at
FuturistPaul .
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Ford’s unveils “talking” cars
Ford is showing off some high-tech features that warn drivers when there is danger ahead. The auto giant, with two large factories in Louisville, says while other car companies are developing similar technologies, it is the first company to have prototype vehicles.
Full Story: WDRB
A Twitter analysis of political tweets - the networks and the cross over
Interesting
Original Story: Wall Street Journal
Reblogged from smarterplanet|130 notes |# Comments
Duke Energy embraces cellular for smart grid | GigaOM
Duke Energy is turning to cellular networks as the backbone for its smart grid. The utility detailed the network plan in a white paper released earlier this month, and revealed one of the most aggressive uses of cellular networks by the utility industry in the U.S.
In the white paper Duke Energy’s Manager of Technology Development David Masters wrote that Duke plans to invest $1 billion into digital grid technologies, and the utility decided to rely heavily on already available networks like cellular connections for a variety of reasons. These reasons include: cellular networks are based on existing standards that have been used extensively, carriers will continue to invest in the network infrastructure to the benefit of the utility, and carriers use Internet Protocol as the transport layer. In addition, one of the most compelling reasons Masters writes:
Duke Energy has no desire to be in the communications business. We need to harness already- existing expertise and capabilities that the cellular networks provide in designing, building, and maintaining the communications.
Tracking Every Pill, Every Piece Of Food – The Internet Of Things Cometh
IBM is developing the software that, in conjunction with barcodes, GPS sensors, and environmental controls, could help us ensure that every drug we take came from the manufacturers we trust and in the condition they required. It’s the Internet of Thingsfor prescription drugs, and it could save lives and streamline inventory all over the world
Full Story: Singularity Hub
Reblogged from outcastsnack|85 notes |# Comments
Paul Higgins: Good Point.
There is an old study that showed that anytime there were changes to the work environment, productivity increased for a while, and then declined to previous levels or lower. It was found that workers responded to the perception of interest by management, not the actual stimulus introduced. One wonders if this is perhaps the case here. As they say, more research is necessary. A longitudinal study would be great. I don’t think it’s on the company’s website - but I could be wrong. Very very interesting though!
Short piece from last year on work that Alexander Pentland is doing at MIT. One project maps how people interact at work:
Andy Greenberg, Mining Human Behavior At MIT
Pentland’s lab put sociometers on 80 employees at a Bank of America call center in Rhode Island. The inconspicuous badges used Bluetooth and infrared signals to measure which co-workers the test subjects talked to every minute for a month and, later, another period of six weeks. After the first month the MIT researchers could see that individuals who talked to more co-workers were getting through calls faster, felt less stressed and had the same approval ratings as their peers. Informally talking out problems and solutions, it seemed, produced better results than following the employee handbook or obeying managers’ e-mailed instructions.
So the call center tried its own experiment. Instead of staggering employees’ coffee breaks as it had previously, it aligned their breaks to allow more chatter. The result, Bank of America told MIT a few months later: productivity gains worth about $15 million a year.
Let people form their own denser social networks and — surprise — happiness, knowledge, and better performance follows.
Throw away the manuals, fire the managers, get out of the way: let people figure out how to invent their own work, cooperatively.
Reblogged from stoweboyd|85 notes |# Comments
Short piece from last year on work that Alexander Pentland is doing at MIT. One project maps how people interact at work:
Andy Greenberg, Mining Human Behavior At MIT
Pentland’s lab put sociometers on 80 employees at a Bank of America call center in Rhode Island. The inconspicuous badges used Bluetooth and infrared signals to measure which co-workers the test subjects talked to every minute for a month and, later, another period of six weeks. After the first month the MIT researchers could see that individuals who talked to more co-workers were getting through calls faster, felt less stressed and had the same approval ratings as their peers. Informally talking out problems and solutions, it seemed, produced better results than following the employee handbook or obeying managers’ e-mailed instructions.
So the call center tried its own experiment. Instead of staggering employees’ coffee breaks as it had previously, it aligned their breaks to allow more chatter. The result, Bank of America told MIT a few months later: productivity gains worth about $15 million a year.
Let people form their own denser social networks and — surprise — happiness, knowledge, and better performance follows.
Throw away the manuals, fire the managers, get out of the way: let people figure out how to invent their own work, cooperatively.
Reblogged from futuristgerd|51 notes |# Comments