Signals of Change

Ubiquitous User Interfaces Enable Pervasive Applications SoC393

Truly ubiquitous interfaces that develop a fabric of interconnected computing capabilities could become the crucial prerequisite for pervasive applications that weave through our daily lives, changing the way we interact with objects and go about our daily tasks.

Creating Next-Generation Digital Experiences SoC394

Whether we want it or not, our business and personal lives are becoming increasingly digital—and more and more Web based. As competition across the digital landscape intensifies, success will to a large extent depend on how the user perceives the experience of using the tools and what new and innovative experiences the tools will enable.

BRIC: Becoming Really Internationally Competitive SoC395

BRIC countries—Brazil, Russia, India, and China—as well as other emerging economies are exerting increasing influence on world events, financial institutions, and climate-change and environmental issues. This development foreshadows a future in which the influence of the United States and other developed countries could be reduced or at least limited by the rise of these emerging powers.

Blogging a New Course in Journalism SoC396

Blogs are gaining influence in a variety of arenas: social networking, information dissemination, politics, employment, and particularly journalism. Blogs are becoming a reliable and valid source of information that affects individuals who post on blogs or follow certain bloggers. Blogs will increasingly affect current and future business practices.

The Morals of Business SoC397

University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt and his colleagues recently developed arguments for the existence of a shared, evolutionarily developed system of morality in humans. This Signal of Change describes the five dimensions of morality that Haidt identifies and provides case examples to understand how the system might operate in the domains of business and consumption.

Strategies to Secure Food SoC398

Emerging new strategies involving collaborations by food growers and suppliers and communications and information-technology suppliers have the potential to challenge assumptions about the inevitable productivity decline in certain developing countries.

Insights

Business Implications of Social Neuroscience D09-2602

Coined only in 1992, the term social neuroscience is now in wide use and refers specifically to a field of study in which researchers try to understand more about the relationships between brain biology and both social behavior and social processes. Different from neuroscience, a field concerned with the nervous system, social neuroscience uses functional magnetic-resonance imaging, electrocardiograms, electroencephalograms, and other techniques to discover more about both social and neural processes. Despite the fact that complete knowledge is lacking, researchers are discovering ways to tap into the brain. Cognition and brain functionality have become relevant to all companies, regardless of industry, because of the breadth of their potential application areas: discovering creative processes, training in human resources, performing market research, potentially building better team dynamics, harvesting a better understanding of product shortcomings, and improving communication among constituents. More sinister applications such as identifying intentions or manipulating consumers are also noteworthy. Author: Kimberly H. Wiesbrock. 9 pages.

Scan™ Meeting Digest: 19 August 2009 Meeting D09-2603

This document is a digest of the Scan™ abstract clusters that participants in the 19 August 2009 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 August meeting include topics related to online postings, scientific and innovative competitiveness, sustainability, emerging conflicts in the information-technology industry, power generation, monetization of information, global power shifts, nanotechnology, privacy issues, geoengineering, and virtual training environments. Compiler: Kimberly H. Wiesbrock. 36 pages.

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 in Menlo Park on:

• 21 October 2009 at 9:00 am
• 20 January 2010 at 9:00 am
• 17 March 2010 at 9:00 am
• 19 May 2010 at 9:00 am
• 7 July 2010 at 9:00 am
• 1 September 2010 at 9:00 am.

Scan also sponsors occasional Scan abstract meetings in Croydon, Tokyo, and Washington, D.C. Contact your SRIC-BI (now SBI) marketing representative to schedule participation in any of the Scan abstract meetings.