Innovation Watch Newsletter - Issue 12.

17 - August 24, 2013

ISSN: 1712-9834

Highlights from the last two weeks...

David Forrest is a Canadian writer and strategy consultant. His Integral Strategy process has been widely used to increase collaboration in communities, build social capital, deepen commitment to action, and develop creative strategies to deal with complex challenges. David advises organizations on emerging trends. He uses the term Enterprise Ecology to describe how ecological principles can be applied to competition, innovation, and strategy in business.

the hottest fields of science research... how we can bring extinct animals back to life... the new MakerBot desktop 3D scanner... creating biological machines... more than 14 million Kenyans now have access to the Bitcoin digital currency... Google patents payper-gaze advertising for Google Glass... San Francisco's hackerspace energizes its maker community... Obama's radical education plan could judge colleges based on how their graduates perform in the real world... globalization in the Arctic is unstoppable... China has damaged its ability to increase food production in the future... Germany sets new records for renewable energy... coastal cities face $1 trillion a year in flood damage by 2050... new smart cities are being built around the world... a new class of easily retrievable asteroids has been discovered...

More resources ...

a new book by Koert van Mensvoort and Hendrik-Jan Grievink: Next Nature: Nature Changes Along With Us ... a link to the Very Near Future blog on new ideas and institutions... audio of an NPR program on why millennials are ditching cars and redefining ownership... a blog post by Victor Hwang on Atlanta's new startup hub inspired by his book The Rainforest ...

David is the founder and president of Global Vision Consulting Ltd., a strategy advisory firm. He is a member of the Professional Writers Association of Canada, the World Future Society, and the Advisory Committee of the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa.

David Forrest Innovation Watch

SCIENCE TRENDS
Top Stories: The 10 Hottest Fields of Science Research (Wired) Scientific research is a large and sprawling endeavor, with thousands of laboratories around the world studying their own ultra-specialized piece of a much more significant whole. It's the logical intersection of reductionist scientific heritage and centuries of technological advances: in order to advance our understanding of the world around us, we must pursue increasingly specific subdisciplines, from retina neural computation to space plasma physics. Which is why Thomson Reuters' scene-scoping study on "100 Key Scientific Research Fronts" is a welcome report for science enthusiasts eager to stay updated on cutting-edge research but lacking the time to read every issue of Science or Nature cover-to-cover. How We Can Bring Extinct Animals Back to Life (BBC) Extinction is a natural part of evolution, but as civilisation and industrialisation has gathered pace, so has the extinction rate. And it is not just large, lumbering animals requiring vast tracts of uncultivated land. The passenger pigeon, for instance, used to travel across the US in flocks of billions of animals when Europeans first settled America. But after decades of increasingly mechanised hunting, the last one died in 1919. Stewart Brand is a natural history futurist who believes mankind is on the brink of helping some of them get a second chance. Here he tells BBC Future how we might do it. More science trends...

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TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
Top Stories: MakerBot's $1,400 Digitizer Now Available To Pre-Order, Will Ship By Mid-October (Tech Crunch) - The folks at MakerBot have been teasing their Digitizer desktop 3D scanner since this past March, but now they're just about ready push it out the door. For $1,400, you too can scan all the little knick-knacks in your life and turn them into 3D schematics to print or share with others. Printing Out a Biological Machine (New York Times) - Not all bioengineers who are using printers in the lab are trying to create tissues or organs. Some are intent on making biological machines. In the laboratory of Rashid Bashir, head of the bioengineering department at the University of Illinois here, researchers have made small hybrid "biobots" -- part gel, part muscle cell -- that can move on their own. The research may someday lead to the development of tiny devices that could travel within the body, sensing toxins and delivering medication. More technology trends...

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BUSINESS TRENDS
Top Stories: Over 14 Million Kenyans Now Have Access to a Bitcoin Wallet Thanks to Kipochi (Bitcoin Examiner) - Kipochi is releasing its special Bitcoin wallet and the news couldn't be better: thanks to this service, which allows people to send and receive virtual currency and convert it through the popular Kenyan service M-Pesa, one third of the inhabitants of Kenya now have a Bitcoin wallet. Although this doesn't mean that everyone is using Bitcoin, it's a huge step forward towards the massive adoption of the digital coin in Africa. Pay-Per-Gaze Advertising: New Google Patent May Reveal Plans for Monetizing Google Glass (Marketing Land) Google has been granted a patent that appears to reveal some far-reaching plans for the eye-tracking sensor that exists -- but currently isn't formally used -- on Google Glass. And if you think those plans must include some form of advertising, you'd be correct. In the patent, Google is calling it "pay-per-gaze" advertising, and it involves charging advertisers if the user looks at an ad -- online or offline -- while wearing Glass. More business trends...

SOCIAL TRENDS
Top Stories: Inside Noisebridge: San Francisco's Eclectic Anarchist Hackerspace (GigaOM) - When Noisebridge opened the doors of its first hackerspace location in San Francisco's Mission district in 2008, it had nothing but a large table and few chairs found on the street. Today, it looks like a mad scientist has been methodically hoarding tools, inventions, art, supplies and a little bit of everything else for five years. The 350 people who come through Noisebridge each week have a habit of leaving a mark, whether by donating a tool or building something that other visitors add to bit by bit. Anyone can be a paid member or a free user of the space, and over the years they have built it into a place where you can code, sew, hack hardware, cook, build robots, woodwork, learn, teach and more. Why Obama's Radical Education Plan Could Finally Disrupt College (Tech Crunch) - For the first time in American history, colleges could be judged on how their graduates perform in the real world and give the private sector a way to compete on a common metric. Later today, President Obama will unveil a new plan to overhaul college ratings, funding requirements and loan repayment, as well as promote innovations in online learning. If the still-vague plan is implemented with teeth, it could lead to a radical overhaul in the educational establishment, since few universities are currently structured to impart job-relevant skills. More social trends...

GLOBAL TRENDS
Top Stories: Globalization of the Arctic is Unstoppable (Chatham House) - In May this year, in the midst of nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula and a worsening civil war in Syria, John Kerry, the newly minted Secretary of State, and Sergey Lavrov, the veteran Russian Foreign Minister, found themselves at a dinner with their fellow Arctic Council foreign ministers in the northern Swedish mining town of Kiruna. The Middle East and Far East were off the agenda for the night. Instead, discussion among eight ministers from the Arctic countries -- Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States -- focused on a more esoteric question: whether to accept or reject applications from China, India, Singapore, South Korea and others -- none of which has any sovereign territory in the Arctic -- to become second-tier members of the Arctic club, as observers to the Arctic

Council. 6 Mind-Boggling Facts About Farms in China (Atlantic Cities) - Tom Philpott "I've been looking into the simultaneously impressive and vexed state of China's food production system. In short, I've found that in the process of emerging as the globe's manufacturing center -- the place that provides us with everything from the simplest of brooms to the smartest of phones -- China has severely damaged its land and water resources, compromising its ability to increase food production even as its economy thunders along, its population grows (albeit slowly), and its people gain wealth, move up the food chain, and demand ever-more meat." More global trends...

ENVIRONMENTAL TRENDS
Top Stories: Germany Breaks Its Own Record For Solar Power Generation (Think Progress) - Germany just broke its monthly solar power generation record once again. In July, the grey-skied country logged 5.1 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity from solar power, slightly better than the 5 TWh of electricity generated by wind turbines it produced in January. As Inhabitat points out, "The accomplishment proves once again that a lack of sunshine is no obstacle to scaling up solar energy -- and if the Teutons can produce record amounts of solar power under grey skies, then the potential for countries with sunnier weather and more land mass (like the United States) is limitless." Coastal Cities Face $1 Trillion Floods by 2050 (Guardian) By 2050, flood damage in the world's coastal cities is expected to reach $1 trillion a year as sea levels rise and global warming triggers new extremes of heat, windstorm and rain. More than 40% of these prodigious costs could fall upon just four cities -New Orleans, Miami and New York in the US and Guangzhou in China. Stephane Hallegatte of the World Bank in Washington and colleagues looked at the risks of future flood losses in the 136 largest of the world's coastal cities. More environmental trends...

FUTURE TRENDS
Top Stories:

Tomorrow's Cities: Do You Want to Live in a Smart City? (BBC) - How do you fancy living in a city with which you can interact? A city that acts more like a living organism, a city that can respond to your needs. Around the world such cities are already being built, from Masdar in Abu Dhabi to Songdo in South Korea. Now the chaotic city near you may be in line for a makeover. In the future everything in a city, from the electricity grid, to the sewer pipes to roads, buildings and cars will be connected to the network. Buildings will turn off the lights for you, self-driving cars will find you that sought-after parking space, even the rubbish bins will be smart. New Class of "Easily Retrievable" Asteroids Discovered (MIT Technology Review) - Asteroids that pass close to Earth have become the focus of increased attention in recent years, partly because of the potential threat they pose to humanity. But they are also a potential boon. For decades, science fiction writers and various space scientists have pointed out that asteroids offer a huge untapped source of valuable resources. Bringing just a small portion of this back to Earth could be a game changer for our planet. More future trends...

From the publisher...

Next Nature: Nature Changes Along With Us

By Koert van Mensvoort and Hendrik-Jan Grievink, eds. Read more...

A Web Resource... Very Near Future - Old ideas and institutions are breaking all around us. Very Near Future is devoted to the new ones rising up to take their place. Multimedia... Why Millennials Are Ditching Cars And Redefining Ownership (NPR) It's not just cars that millennials question owning. Nearly any possession you can think of stopped being an "of course" and became a "hmmmm" for millennials. Jill Hennessy, clinical professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, says they're wondering whether "it's not so great to own everything anyway." She says the economy has been a big part of that shift. Millennials have witnessed the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. They've watched their parents struggle with financial insecurity no matter their education level. The Blogosphere... Atlanta's New Startup Hub is a Rainforest, Literally (Forbes) Victor W. Hwang "Earlier this year, Johnson Cook reached out to me over Twitter. He explained that my book, The Rainforest , had inspired the way he was designing his startup hub, Atlanta Tech Village. The book provided him a useful framework on how innovative

ecosystems thrive, how startup communities excel. So Johnson decided to become the "Chief Rainforest Evangelist" (his phrase) in Atlanta. He wanted to apply the Rainforest model as a roadmap for growing the entrepreneurial ecosystem. That's where most people would be satisfied. A few weeks later, however, Johnson came back to me again. This time, he wrote: "I have a new idea a big idea." He said he wanted to design the entire Atlanta Tech Village like a real rainforest."

Email: future@innovationwatch.com