Across the full spectrum of human endeavor, it is often hard to see what the future might be. Trend lines can be seen, and directions understood, but specific pictures of the future can be vague.  However, our future shows up most clearly in the area of technology.  Technology lets us see new potential.  It shows […]

 Compassion and Wealth Together Given the last post on this blog, this weeks announcement of the astoundingly magnanimous and generous gift that Warren Buffett made to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is worthy of comment.  Simply put, Warren Buffett, the second wealthiest man in the United States, after Bill Gates, gave more than 80% […]

The announcement last week that Bill Gates would, over the next two years, relinquish day to day oversight of Microsoft made me think about history and the future.  The first thought of course was that in some way it was the end of an era. The second thought was, well, what era, where does that […]

This is a departure from most posts here as it is not ruminations about some event or trend or prediction about the future gleaned from developments in the world.  Instead it is taken from a personal experience that was unique, pleasant and perhaps an idea to be embraced by individuals and companies alike. To set […]

The post today is an interview I recently did with Nonprofit Online Learning Update, which is being published on-line today. The interviewer was Jeff Cobb, a leader in the field of on-line learning for non-profits. Non-profits provide an incredibly valuable function in today’s world and can be even more influential in the future as they […]

“The political party, as currently defined in America, feels like an out of date, anachronistic apparatus whose value is in the past, not the present and certainly not something aligned with the future.  If it is to survive, it must reconstitute itself or crumble under its own dead weight.”   -www.evolutionshift.com 5/31/06 When I set aside […]

I read an interesting article in the New York Times the other day.  The headline was “New Campaign Shows Progress for the Homeless” and the sub-headline quote was “Cost -benefit analysis may be the new expression of compassion”.  OK, lets read this.  A little known, formally dormant, office in the Federal government called the United […]

Earlier this week there was a report on the rapid growth of broadband high-speed internet hook-ups during the last year. The numbers are impressive and speak to the widening demographic and economic base of broadband users. According to a survey from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, broadband adoption increased 59% among households with […]

[Regular readers of this blog have read a lot about recent, current and coming disintermediation.  Whether it be the travel business, stock brokerage, media, real estate or insurance it is clear that in this major historical period of transformation, the Internet has brought about clear disintermediation.  Practically any industry will have some structural change due […]

Science fiction can be extremely thought provoking, particularly to one who thinks about the future.  There are novels that are fantastical and take place centuries in the future in galaxies ‘far far away’, populated by weird creatures and other worldly landscapes.  Then there are the many novels that are more conceptual, set slightly in the […]