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Purpose – What’s the purpose of this site?

The purpose is to provide resources for thinking about technology and it’s affects on people.

a successful democracy requires
an informed & educated populace
whose voices are all heard!

Goal – What’s the desired result?

A primary goal is to democratize [define] Subject Matter Expert (SME) resources for increasing informed and educated:

        • Technology-minded citizens – help citizens think about technology and how it affects their learning, work, and daily life (citizen scientists)
        • Civic-minded technologists – help technologists think about the social, ethical, moral, legal and policy implications of their work (scientist citizens)
        • Socially-minded public service technologists – help those that serve the public in law, government, nonprofit careers think about societal implications of technology (public service scientists)

to address basic questions such as:

        • How will society address current and prepare future generations of students and workers?
        • How and what to learn to stay relevant in the work force?
        • How to help schools and communities flourish and grow?
        • What are the technology gaps, issues, and problems?
        • What technology governance is required?
        • How to individually and collectively contribute to affect outcomes to these questions and more?

What is the content on this Site about?

The content of this site is more specifically about Information and Communications Technology (ICT) resources with respect to people.

It is virtually impossible to find any human endeavor or domain not affected by advances in software, hardware & sensors and communications technology. Site content matches relevant technological innovations and advances to related issues, problems, and required governance that affect learning, working, and everyday life.

Strategy – What’s the high level plan?

The strategy is to identify SME resources from different sectors, perspectives, viewpoints, with differing agendas. Resources are included from:

        • Nonprofit  [define] entities, organizations that further scientific, charitable, educational, public safety causes or purposes, e.g. hospitals, charities, foundations, etc.
        • Professional Organizations and consortiums, based on industry, region, etc., e.g. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), etc.
        • Educational Institutions, schools, colleges, and universities
        • Non-governmental Organizations (NGO), e.g. United Nations (UN), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Bank (WB), World Economic Forum (WEF), etc.
        • Governmental entities, e.g. country, regional or municipal entities, e.g. federal, state, county, local, city, county, district, province, prefecture, etc.
        • For-profit [define] entities – corporations, companies, partnerships, etc.

Tactics – How is information organized?

The artifacts [define] of technological innovation are deployed into Society as products, business models, concepts, ideas, software, hardware, patents, etc. and are combined, structured, organized, and formed  by many forces and influences including:

        • technology – technical details
          • architecture – physical or technical constraints on artifact usage or activities
        • society – people focused
          • governance – statutes, laws, regulations, rules, policies, codes, etc.
          • social – norms, customs, mores, beliefs, morals, ethics, etc.
          • economic – microeconomics, macroeconomics, socioeconomics. Including capital, consumers, commerce, consumption, business model and plan, market, etc.
        • agenda – complex participant, agent, organization viewpoint, perspective, purpose, goal, etc.

Simply put: artifacts = technology (constraints) + society (governance, social, economic) + agenda (complex participation)!

Tactics – What is the source of information?

Information is gathered and structured from diverse publicly available sources and examples:

        • People Centered Economy (positive optimistic spin)
        • Technology leaders: Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), etc.
        • Educational, e.g. NAP (Autonomy, Systems of Systems)
        • Government – DARPA (non-commercial, less hype, state basic challenges, internet), EU, etc.
        • Market trends: Internet of Everything – a trillion devices (eventually) (ARM, Intel, all the unknown device makers, etc.) affecting all parts of life (Consumer, Industrial, Governmental, etc.)
        • Commercial products, offerings, other, etc.

People Centered Economy

ACM article People Centered Economy, people should start a plan of lifelong learning . . .

Microsoft Corporation Example

Dawn of a Decade: The Top Ten Tech Policy Issues for the 2020s, LinkedIn (html), published on December 19, 2019, by Brad Smith, Microsoft President and Carol Ann Browne, foreword by Bill Gates.

        1. Sustainability
        2. Defending Democracy
        3. Journalism
        4. Privacy in an AI Era
        5. Data and National Sovereignty
        6. Digital Safety
        7. Internet Inequality
        8. A Tech Cold War
        9. Ethics for Artificial Intelligence
        10. Jobs and Income Inequality in an AI Economy

The article goes on to say the world has turned information technology into both a powerful tool and a formidable weapon, and new approaches are needed to manage an era defined by even more powerful inventions like artificial intelligence.

Companies that create technology must accept greater responsibility for the future, and governments will need to regulate technology by moving faster and catching up with the fast pace of innovation.

The article describes the backdrop for the top ten technology issues of the 2020s and beyond. The changes will be immense. The issues will be huge. And the stakes could hardly be higher.

A clear, compelling guide to some of the most pressing debates in technology today. — Bill Gates, from the foreword

This is a colorful and insightful insiders’ view of how technology is both empowering us and threatening us. From privacy to cyberattacks, this timely book is a useful guide for how to navigate the digital future. — Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of The Innovators and Steve Jobs

A great example from an Industry technology leader further described here:

  • Tools and Weapons – On the Issues, Microsoft News (html)
  • A Look Inside Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age, LinkedIn (html)
  • Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age – Brad Smith, Carol Ann Browne – Google Books (html)

Alphabet Google Example

Another great example from Alphabet Google, another tech leader . . .

NAP Example

A great .edu example from . . .

Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) Example

A great .mil example from . . .

Why is This Important?

The sweeping digital transformation all around us holds great promise, and the need for informed discussion & participation is more important than ever. Citizens cannot count on corporations and government alone. Technology is a double edged sword: everyone needs to be informed and educated to understand not just technology, but the risks, issues and problems. At the same time it is imperative that everyone get involved & take action to protect the hopes technology offers against the very real threats presented.

There are huge implications for the future of families, communities, companies, industries, countries, and the global population itself.

Hopefully the information on this site will help people make up their own mind about a future that everyone needs to collectively shape.

It goes without saying the depth, breadth, and speed of technological innovation will continue to increase enabled by:

        • More powerful computers
          • Advanced storage & connectivity (5G, 6G and beyond)
        • Cloud economics
        • Digital Data explosion
        • More powerful software
          • AI for AI

Technological advances are changing the basic nature of our understanding of tools, techniques, and methods of innovation, and the governance required:

        • How science and problem solving in general
        • Computers as General Purpose Technology (GPT)
          • Computer architecture, hardware and chips (ASIC)
          • Software and programming
        • Sustainable governance

Research Agendas for the next several decades are being set now that will affect the evolution of how we learn, work, and live:

Learn – Continuous learning, training, and skills development will be the new norm

Work – According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in the field of Information and Computing Technology (ICT) is expected to grow faster than many other occupations with double digit growth. This means thousands of new jobs created every year. These jobs are also some of the highest demand therefore the highest paid jobs. To meet such large workforce demands people and organizations need to be proactive. It is truly a global competition for talent, and many jobs haven’t even been invented yet.

Live – Governance for Digital safety and Technology related deaths including Uber, Tesla, Boeing, legal implications, bias, sustainability , inequity, etc. are developing and need help from everyone. streaming terrorist acts, hacking home video, etc.