When can you expect the unexpected? When your crystal ball is working at full pelt.

I received this email yesterday from a vendor we do some work with:

Subject: ACME Corp. will experience an unexpected power outage tomorrow between 8 am and 12

Dear Client,

We have been notified of an unexpected power outage in between the hours of 8 am and 12 noon, Thursday 15th May, 2008. This means that we will be without power, network and phones.

I’m hoping to get them to visit our site to help us predict any unexpected issues we might have with our own systems.

This is from an article written in November 1968 in the Mechanix Illustrated. It’s an article on what life would be like on November 18, 2008.

Some of it is pretty close to being spot on. Other bits sadly haven’t yet eventuated. Wish I got flown to work in a car, worked a 4 hour day, holidayed at an underwater resort and had a housewife who made my microwave dinner for me!

• Page 1
• Page 2
• Page 3
• Page 4
• Page 5
• Page 6
• Page 7

Hat tip: Modern Mechanix

At a Web 2.0 Business Lunch today, one speaker played the following clip. Watching it, I had some serious mixed emotions. Worried, excited, inspired and humbled all mingled together.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fUHtc37MC8[/youtube]

I am unsure yet how I would go about engaging in this new media culture and maintain a sense of the real world at the same time. Certainly very interesting.

From the Museum of Media History.

It’s really not all that far away. Only 9 years.
A report by “The Orange Future Enterprise Coalition” (set up by Orange Business Services in Britain), has some interesting predictions regarding the future.

Whether predictions in “The Way To Work” report eventuate or not, we are certainly going to be facing some huge changes in the way companies are run and business is managed.

Management Line (The Age) provides a good summary of the four scenarios in the report:

Disciples of the cloud: Companies have pooled together to save costs on office space and services, strong lines of demarcation between work and non-work (which could create big issues for people wanting work-life balance), and there’s a bigger focus on IT and teamwork. Also a lot of what you do is monitored.

Electronic Cottages: Employees working either from home or commuting short distances to a small hub or office. There is a stronger sense of community, with more people pooling together to help out on child care and crime prevention. Working life and everyday life are much more integrated.

Replicants: Everyone’s a consultant. Not many people are directly employed and it’s not unusual to be working for two to three companies simultaneously. Working life is less predictable and secure. And since work is unpredictable, people work hard for part of the year before taking huge slabs of time off. Companies take little responsibility for staff and people have to look after and find work for themselves.

Mutual Worlds : The big focus is on local communities with people preferring to work in small local ventures rather than big business

Why does all of this worry me?

Quite simply, I might get left behind!

Perhaps I’m just feeling the effects of hitting 30, but I notice that it is becoming more difficult to make fundamental changes to your notions of work. After years employment, ideas and values become very embedded. Your choices are based on prior experience and that experience is based in a world of the past.

I see a strong need to change. A need to adapt. A need to reconnect with life and the purpose for living.

In the next years to come, as the next generation begin to enter the workforce and thrust a new model of work upon us, how will we cope? How will we deal with our notions of work being challenged. How will our leaders (being my generation) manage this change.

A commenter named “The Futurist” makes an interesting prediction of the future:

Generation Y workers would get used to travelling the world, in search of work. Many would leave Australia to avoid paying their HECS debts.

More double income households will retire by 50, due to ‘burn out’ from high stress jobs; and ability to do so from income from investments to get through the years before collecting two sets of superannuation nest eggs for the later years.

The ageing society will be in full profile with many jobs for looking after the disabled elderly and people with dementia.

The workplace of 2016, Management Line blog, The Age

Whatever happens, it’ll certainly be an interesting ride.

On the timecapsule theme from earlier, Yahoo! have released their own electronic time capsule.

For 30 days, from October 10 until November 8, Yahoo! users worldwide can contribute photos, writings, videos, audio – even drawings – to this electronic anthropology project. This is the first time that digital data will be gathered and preserved for historical purposes.

Whilst not really a capsule which will be unveiled at a future date, the idea is somewhat interesting. It would be even more interesting if it were to be sealed and re-opened in say 100 years. Infact, the description makes it sound more like a piece of art than of history or anthropology.

The interface itself is also quite “artistic”. The viewer can roll the sphere around and randomly hit one of the panels. This panel represents a user/profile in the capsule. Whilst the site is built mostly in Macromedia/Adobe Flash, it does have some nice search and tagging facilities.
Finally, I would much rather submit some images to the archive, knowing that they would be sealed and unseen for some time to come. This for me is much more interesting. It also gives the future generation a point in time to reflect back on what was.

I’ll give the whole idea a little more exploration and perhaps submit a few things myself too.