Scan Monthly No. 052June 2007 |
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Signals of Change
The New Economic Nationalism
SoC243
Signs of a new economic form of nationalism are emerging as the economic risks and long-term costs of globalization become as apparent as its benefits to the nations of the world. In the developed world, prominent economists are rethinking the benefits of globalization while companies are trying new tactics (or reexamining old ones) to cope with the emerging risks.
Understanding Crowd Dynamics
SoC244
Researchers are discovering similarities between the way crowds of humans move and the way schools of fish or flocks of birds move. Researchers hope to use the knowledge that they gain from the research for a wide variety of social and business applications, from optimizing advertising to building communities. The concepts that the researchers are working with are already moving into real-world business applications.
Boomers Beware
SoC245
Companies planning to leverage spending by U.S. Baby Boomers to build a growth strategy in the coming years will need to plan carefully. Indicators are emerging that many Boomers will not have as much money at their disposal as the experts once believed that they would have.
Affordable 3-D and Haptic Controls
SoC246
Two new game-control devices that can model and convey information about three-dimensional spaces are now on the market and have opened up possibilities for dramatic new computer interfaces. The recently released Falcon force-and-touch controller by Novint Technologies is a game controller that brings an affordable version of haptic interfaces to the consumer market.
Artists on the Leading Edge
SoC247
Some artists are deep into the use of leading-edge technologies and are doing interesting experimental art work that previews issues, applications, and limits of society's latest technology breakthroughs. Regardless of artists' intent, artists' efforts invariably generate creative sparks that inspire new ways of looking at and thinking about new technologies and their synergies with commerce, culture, and each other.
Solar Remediation
SoC248
Using light from the sun and natural processes to create fueland remedy human-caused environmental damage at the same timeseems just a little too good to be true. But three technologies that harness solar-power while removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are showing promise.
Insights
| Boomer Product and Service Ideas from the Scan Database | View full summary |
| D07-2552 | Download this Insight |
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SRI Consulting Business Intelligence's Scan program identifies early signals of change in the business environment to help companies anticipate opportunities and threats. During the program's 25 years of scanning the business environment, it has tracked the progress of the Baby Boomers. The Boomers are now reaching a milestone, in that many of them are entering what society traditionally considers retirement age. The Boomers are busily transforming the concept of retirement just as they have transformed every other life stage through which they have passed. This study presents selected signals of change that have turned up in the Scan abstract database in the past several years concerning the new ways that the Boomers are implementing their "retirements" and concerning ideas for products and services that are likely to emerge from the new work and lifestyle choices that Boomers will make. Author: Kermit M. Patton. 13 pages. |
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| Scan Meeting Digest: 23 May 2007 Meeting | View full summary |
| D07-2553 | Download this Insight |
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This document is a digest of the Scan abstract clusters that participants in the 23 May 2007 Scan meeting identified. The digest includes a description of the Scan process for people who have never attended a Scan meeting, a list of the clusters that meeting participants identified, and a one-page description of each cluster's premise and supporting abstracts. The document has active links that allow the reader to access the supporting abstracts for each cluster in Scan's online abstract database. The document also has links to previously published Scan documents relating to the particular cluster. Clusters of abstracts for this May meeting include leadership 2.0, OLED technology goes mainstream, fitnicity, pervasiveintelligence gathering, curtailing consumption, social technical inertia, new cityscapes, crowd control, future competition and protectionism, community of conscience, open-source miracle drugs, psycho I/O (input/output), and altered states. Compiler: Martin Schwirn. 36 pages. |
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Calendar
Scan Abstract Meetings
Scan abstract meetings (in which SRIC-BI [now SBI] staff participate in a free-form discussion of current Scan abstracts) are open for client observation/participation on:
- 18 July 2007 at 9:00 am
- 19 September 2007 at 9:00 am
- 17 October 2007 at 9:00 am
- 23 January 2008 at 9:00 am
- 19 March 2008 at 9:00 am
- 21 May 2008 at 9:00 am.