I am speaking at an event in Slovenia in November and I was asked to write something about my presentation. I thought it was worth sharing...
It is often said that that what works in one country, does not work in another - especially when it comes to mobile - an argument I wholeheartedly refute.The reason being that human beings as a race, are in fact more alike than we care to admit. We share the same gene pool for a start. This is important when we understand that we are programmed to be a "we species" - a social and networking species - with an innate need to connect and communicate.
And that is why we inevitably move towards the Mobile Society,
where our mobile devices become the remote control for life. Any piece
of technology that allows us to better connect, communicate, share
knowledge and information, get stuff done - will be adopted. I often
muse on the reasons why sms is so universally adopted as a
communication tool. It's because we as a species do in fact communicate
via short messages - constantly. A behaviour that we learnt millennia
ago.
The mobile society - is completely different to the industrial society,
it requires a new logic and a new way of thinking of how to create
business, civil governance, health care and education.
The Mobile Society already exists, dotted across the 4 corners of the
globe - yet it does not exist in any one country. This is because we
are in transition from one type of economy to another, the collapse of
the banking system recently perhaps a painful symbol of that transition.
But also the reason why it is not universally adopted is because there
are vested interests that do not want the mobile society to flourish -
as it signifies [1] a re-ordering of business models, [2] flows of
communication [3] the appearance of new gate keepers in the
information distribution wars. This is a natural pattern when society
changes structurally.
So the way forward is to truly understand how the Mobile Society can
benefit us all - business being but only one piece of this jigsaw. In
my recent work I have come to the conclusion that we have separated
commerce from community, we have lost sight that in fact the society of
consumers is in fact us - people, who need more than shopping to give
them richer lives. Again, the epic and sudden collapse of the banking
system demonstrates how removed commerce has become from community and
that ultimately leads to hubris - and ultimate demise. Curiously its
the taxpayer that has been asked to foot the bill.
The Mobile Society can promise I think a richer life as in the same way
that Gutenberg's 42 Line Bible released information from the church and
brought us The Reformation, the Mobile Society will bring flows of
communication unprecedented - and it is these very flows of information
and communication that are the engines of innovation and commerce.
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