Technology
Can empathy scale technology?
Jonathan Jackson argues that empathy is necessary to make technology effective.
I have been fortunate enough to have been in the emerging field of mobile health well before there was much mobile to hype about. At Dimagi, our first “mobile” project was on a personal digital assistant that had no wireless capability. Over the years I have seen mobile technology help save lives. But I’ve also seen mobile technology employed in nearly identical situations, do absolutely nothing, or worse, make healthcare delivery more cumbersome.
We have certainly had deployments that fit in both categories. As I...
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March 18, 2013
Providing quality education to Latin America’s rural areas
I am fascinated by the prospect of new technologies and innovative private-public partnerships that disrupt the status quo in education in Latin America. In the past, governments struggled to find resources for education and their impoverished citizens were unable to invest in their future. Education spending – as a percentage of GDP – was very low across the region for decades.
Today, governments are directing greater resources to education, particularly to primary education, thanks to their rising incomes. The private sector is pouring in more capital as well, particularly in higher...
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March 14, 2013
Educating South Sudanese students with MP3s
Having recently emerged from nearly four decades of conflict in which two 2 million people were killed and four million displaced, everything in South Sudan needs to be built or rebuilt. As the world’s newest country, it also has the world’s lowest education indicators.
Countries like South Sudan struggling to deliver quality education are exactly why we created the solar-powered Lifeplayer MP3 in the first place. Our Lifeplayers have arrived in the country and so have I, to train in their use and care.
When I last visited here five years ago, there were just 50 miles of tarred road in a...
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March 13, 2013
Exploring the frontiers of recovery
In 2010, a fall from a second story window nearly killed me. I broke my back and the damage to my spinal cord left me paralysed from the waist down. From the moment I hit the ground, I joined a global community of people that, according to the experts, have no hope of recovery from complete spinal cord injury. But, what if the experts are wrong?
Only 60 years ago, patients with a spinal cord injury had an 80% chance of being dead within a year. The 20% who survived were likely to be institutionalized. But, in 1940s in England, Doctor Guttman wasn’t prepared to accept the status quo and...
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March 12, 2013
How can we transform the energy sector?
There are compelling reasons to improve our energy system – to make it more accessible, affordable and reliable, and to reduce its environmental impact. But energy change is often sluggish, especially as investing in energy infrastructure is expensive. A single power plant is a multi-billion dollar investment with a lifetime of decades.
Governments, citizens, private industry and NGOs all have different interests when it comes to energy. And since the consumer cannot distinguish among products from different sources, suppliers see incumbency as a considerable advantage.
Many cite the...
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March 6, 2013
Will biotechnology provide food security?
According to David Lawrence biotechnology, like all technologies, is not in itself good or bad. It’s what we do with it that decides
The way we human beings behave can be strange. For at least 30 years I used to give talks which included a slide showing how population increase was reducing the land available to feed an individual, pointing out that unless we changed something, at some point we would run the risk of not being able to feed everyone on the planet. Every few years I would update it, and while the trends continued as predicted, no one seemed to want to pay any attention....
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March 1, 2013
Biotechnology: Best line of defence against disease?
Andrew Zarur predicts that through biotechnology we’ll be able to cure diseases within months
In the 14th century almost one third of the world’s population was wiped out in 53 years by the infamous “Black Death.” Bubonic plague, the medical name of the Black Death, originated in China around 1347. From there it spread throughout Europe, where it claimed almost 100 million lives, representing somewhere between 40% and 60% of the continent’s population. Europe was devastated not only economically but also socially, morally and politically for more than a century.
It would be unthinkable...
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February 28, 2013
The evolution of personal data
William Hoffman discusses the possible benefits of our personal data ecosystem on a global scale
As our shared understanding of the personal data ecosystem matures, it is becoming increasingly evident that it represents a transformative opportunity. As the trusted flow of personal data increases, so too are the possibilities for new discoveries. Improvements in healthcare, financial services, urban transport, retail and government services are just some of the areas where the impact of data-driven insights is emerging.
But to achieve these benefits at global scale, a deeper understanding of...
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February 28, 2013
Sustainable solutions from the sea?
George Guo-Qiang Chen looks to the planet’s oceans to provide the resources to produce and process the large quantities of biomass that will be needed for a sustainable future
Industrial applications of biotechnology – the new “Bioeconomy” – hold out the promise of being able to produce biofuels and renewable chemicals and provide an alternative for society’s chronic addiction to goods that are produced using the finite supplies of petroleum and fossil fuel feedstocks. “Biorefining” is based on using biomass as its basic feedstock. Biomass is a renewable resource produced by agriculture....
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February 27, 2013
GM crops: Facts and myths
Nina Fedoroff, Professor of Biosciences at King Abdullah University in Saudi Arabia, discusses the science behind genetically modified crops.
The chasm between what people worry about and what is true about genetically modified (GM) crops is deep and wide. Indeed, most of what people believe about GM crops is the exact opposite of what is true.
Facts first. Modern genetic methods of crop improvement are responsible for a significant fraction of the recent yield increases in crops where they are used, so farmers who have adopted GM crops have benefited the most. In 2011, 16.7 million farmers...
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February 26, 2013
Biotechnology at work: Rapid diagnostics
Andrey Zarur, Vice-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Biotechnology, explains how biotechnology can fight against microscopic threats
Imagine this scenario: a child arrives at a hospital emergency room with a fever of 104°F, dehydrated and exhausted. She has been throwing up all night and her parents have been unable to bring down the fever. This scene is familiar in every ER around the world, from the most developed countries to villages in most remote corners of the planet. And yet, a simple twist in this story would transform it from a long nervous night for...
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February 25, 2013
How could biotechnology improve your life?
Experts on the World Economic Forum’s Council on Biotechnology have selected 10 developments which they believe could help not only meet the rapidly growing demand for energy, food and healthcare, but also increase productivity and create new jobs, should issues such as regulatory certainty, public perception and investment be tackled successfully. In this blog post, the council members make their case for each of these technologies and highlight their potential benefits:
1. Bioproduction of sustainable chemicals, energy and other materials
Over the past 100 years, humans have depleted...
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February 25, 2013
The top 10 emerging technologies for 2013
New challenges need new technologies to tackle them. Here, the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies identifies the top 10 most promising technology trends that can help to deliver sustainable growth in decades to come as global population and material demands on the environment continue to grow rapidly. These are technologies that the Council considers have made development breakthroughs and are nearing large-scale deployment.
OnLine Electric Vehicles (OLEV)
Wireless technology can now deliver electric power to moving vehicles. In next-generation...
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February 14, 2013
Do we know what the future holds?
The theme of this year’s Annual Meeting in Davos was Resilient Dynamism. Which basically means no-one can predict the future so we need to adapt our thinking and behaviour to deal with this. We need to be quick on our feet, adjusting to new scenarios. Especially as the world is getting smaller and changes occur faster. Those that can move quickly will come out on top. Success today does not guarantee success tomorrow. We need a new mentality – one which enables us to accept risk as a fact of life, and respond better to it.
The time I spent with the Technology Pioneers was an...
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February 13, 2013
Pandora’s inbox
Shashi Tharoor, India’s Minister of State for Human Resource Development, discusses how email can lead to information fatigue
A half-century before the invention of e-mail, T. S. Eliot asked, “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” If he were alive today, contemplating an electronic inbox on a flickering computer, he might well have added, “Where is the information that has been lost in trivia?”
It is one of the paradoxes of our times that inventions meant to make our lives easier inevitably end up slowing us down. When e-mail first...
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February 12, 2013
We’re one click away from a billion people
Matt Mullenweg, Founder of WordPress, on how the internet has let the underdog triumph.
The common thread that kept coming up at a dinner, and discussions centred around the idea of “online power”, was equality of access. Before the widespread rise of the Internet and easy publishing tools, influence was largely in the hands of those who could reach the widest audience, the people with printing presses or access to a wide audience on television or radio, all one-way mediums that concentrated power in the hands of the few.
Now an audience of more than 1 billion people is only a click...
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January 26, 2013
The thin blue line of connectivity
Niall Dunne explains the fundamental importance of connectivity for sustainability
The thin blue line of connectivity is absolutely critical to everyone’s future. That’s my takeaway from this year’s World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. Becoming hyperconnected is in all our interests. It has a critical role to play in dealing with all our big problems, be they social, environmental or economic. It’s a topic that connects farmers in Uganda with the imbalances across Europe.
At a dinner session entitled, “Grow Africa”, we heard about the need for real data to underpin pan-African...
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January 26, 2013
Imagining the universities of the future
We will see increasingly creative partnerships between for-profit entities and traditional universities, writes Linda Lorimer, Vice-President of Yale University.
We often hear references to “the” future of the university. In fact, the WEF has a Global Agenda Council dedicated to the subject. But the members of our GAC identified early that there is no one destination or definition of the university of tomorrow—rather universities will have multiple futures and multiple identities. We will continue to benefit from a wide spectrum of institutions: those universities that are primarily teaching...
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January 26, 2013
We know what’s good for us, we just don’t do it
The pressures of modern life too often make it difficult to take the right health choices, writes Pieter Nota.
Across the world, people want to maintain and improve their health and well-being, and that of their family and friends. In recent research carried out by Philips, looking after the health of family consistently ranks as one of the top five priorities in people’s lives, regardless of their age or the country they live in.
Health trends in many countries, highlighted in reports like this recently published landmark research, show the importance of making positive changes in our daily...
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January 25, 2013
Making manufacturing cool again
Manufacturing superstars like Germany and South Korea have always attracted the best to the sector and other countries should follow suit, write Martin Baily and James Manyika.
Once upon a time, ambitious young people with a knack for math and science went to work in manufacturing. They designed planes, computers, and furniture, figured out how to lay out an assembly line, helped to make new cars faster and refrigerators more efficient, pushed the limits of computer chips, and invented new medicines. But, as the role of manufacturing diminished in advanced economies, the brightest talents...
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January 25, 2013
Getting connected to better health
Everyday technologies like the Internet and cell phones make new ways of delivering healthcare possible, says Deborah DiSanzo is Chief Executive Officer of Philips Healthcare
Imagine that your son develops a cough, but there’s no hospital or clinic within your community that can identify if his respiratory condition is serious. Imagine your wife is pregnant and the closest clinic is a four-hour walk away. Imagine your father is in an intensive care unit where there are too few staff and no specialists to attend to his illness.
At this year’s World Economic Forum, discussions on access to...
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January 25, 2013
Why technology is the future for girls
In the developing world, nearly 25% fewer girls and women are online than boys and men – closing this gap will change their futures, argues Nigel Chapman, CEO of Plan International.
Should access to a computer or a mobile phone be a basic human right? A controversial question perhaps but, nowadays, as technology leaps ahead into previously unimagined realms, one can argue that to be ill-educated in information and communications technology is to be immediately disadvantaged for life and work in the modern world. You only have to look at the news from last week’s annual technology...
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January 24, 2013
Looking forward to “the age of equality”
Luis Alvarez, CEO of BT Global Services, shares his thoughts on the sharing of knowledge through technology.
I’ve sat through a few presentations on the global economy in the past couple of years where I could be forgiven for thinking the world’s about to end.
There’s no doubt business leaders have sensed that times are changing. And anyone who feels their position in the world order is under threat is entitled to feel gloomy.
But I believe things can get better.
Yes, there are serious challenges, from the debt crisis, an ever-increasing global population, urbanization and an ageing...
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January 24, 2013
Why healthcare must change
Mary Tolan, CEO of Accretive Health Inc, on why the medicine of tomorrow must make better use of data.
Health is a cornerstone issue at this year’s Annual Meeting in Davos. Within this context, I took part in a discussion on the financial sustainability and future of health systems. We discussed the question: How will health systems look in 2040? The session was the culmination of the “Scenarios for Sustainable Health Systems” project, whose steering board I served on in 2012. The discussion centred on the visions of several countries for new and better healthcare models, and how we as...
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January 24, 2013
Ideas @Davos: surgical snake robots
Howard Choset describes how his surgical ‘snake’ robots save lives by providing minimally invasive repairs and diagnostics without the need for risky, open surgery.
‘Snake’ robots thread through the body to places that other tools cannot reach, explains Howard Choset in the above video. The snakes are rigid in that they hold their shape, but are flexible enough to wind around parts of the body.
Three operations have been successfully carried out with the robots. In one case, the patient went home the next day following a procedure which would normally have involved a two-week stay...
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January 24, 2013
10 ways consumers are changing
Mark Spelman, Managing Director at Accenture, on how a better grasp of what makes customers tick will help to spur economic growth.
As the global economy recovers slowly, there is a sense of hope from businesses that a corner has been turned. But optimistic shareholder expectations appear to be out of kilter with the weak projections for global economic growth. If stock markets are correct, then companies must grow rapidly to meet analyst expectations in the next few years. To reach that growth target, the non-financial companies in the S&P Global 1200, alone, must find an additional US$...
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January 22, 2013
Thriving in a hyperconnected world
The Global Agenda Outlook 2013 brought together Robert Madelin, Director-General for Communications Networks at the European Commission and Marc Davis, Partner Architect of Microsoft Online Services Division. Rod Beckstrom, President of the Rod Beckstrom Group, moderated the discussion.
Q: What does it mean to be living in a hyperconnected world?
Marc Davis: We are in a position today where we have much more power and greater storage, so the amount of data has gone up. Different sources and kinds of data, from social networking sites and mobile communications for example, mean that we have...
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January 22, 2013
Tech utopia or cybergeddon?
We need to move beyond seeing technology as either a miracle or a disaster and focus on building resilience, says the World Economic Forum’s Derek O’Halloran.
Digital technologies are changing our world. We tell ourselves two stories about this process – we could call them “tech utopia” and “cybergeddon”. In the first, the future is bright and wonderful, in the second technology unleashes unknown dangers and threatens culture itself. However, a more mature perspective is emerging as resilience to cyber risks is recognised as a critical enabler of economic growth.
Tech Utopia: Digital...
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January 22, 2013
How open data can save lives
William A. Brindley, Chief Executive Officer of NetHope.org discusses the building of a data-sharing ecosystem.
To paraphrase English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, sometimes it seems as if there are data, data everywhere, nor any bit makes sense.
NetHope is a consortium of 37 leading international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) collaborating to address the world’s most pressing challenges through the smarter use of technology. We want all this data to make sense and help us do our jobs more effectively.
So earlier this year we started the Open Humanitarian...
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January 22, 2013
Four pillars of good business
Takeshi Niinami, CEO of Lawson and GAC chair, on why “doing the right thing” will lead to sustainable growth.
In the 21st century, diverse societies are globally connected due to transportation and technology and all share concerns related to energy, climate change, poverty, healthcare and human rights. One country, region or sector of a society cannot on its own provide the solutions to address such a complex web of issues. Thus, the engagement in global agendas must be multiregional and multidisciplinary.
The establishment in 1999 of the UN Global Compact was a clear sign that corporations...
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January 22, 2013
Technology and the employment challenge
Michael Spence, a Nobel laureate in economics, is Professor of Economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and is scheduled to participate at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos 2013.
MILAN – New technologies of various kinds, together with globalization, are powerfully affecting the range of employment options for individuals in advanced and developing countries alike – and at various levels of education. Technological innovations are not only reducing the number of routine jobs, but also causing changes in...
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January 15, 2013
Are we at risk from rogue geoengineering?
As part of the Global Risks 2013 report, the World Economic Forum’s Risk Response Network has identified five “X Factor” risks in partnership with Nature. These look beyond mainstream risks to five emerging potential game-changers.
In response to growing concerns about climate change, scientists are exploring ways in which they could, with international agreement, manipulate the Earth’s climate. But what if this technology were to be hijacked by a rogue state or individual?
Geoengineering can refer to many things, but it is most often associated with a scientific field that has come to be...
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January 11, 2013
The optimist’s timeline
SEATTLE – Usually, “optimism” and “realism” are used to describe two different outlooks on life. But I believe that a realistic appraisal of the human condition compels an optimistic worldview. I am particularly optimistic about the potential for technological innovation to improve the lives of the poorest people in the world. That is why I do the work that I do.
Even so, there is one area of technology and global development where reality has tempered my optimism: the idea that cellphones would revolutionize life in developing countries. A decade ago, many people believed that the...
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January 3, 2013
How can competitiveness bolster resilient dynamism?
For more than three decades, the World Economic Forum has been working on the topic of national competitiveness, in an effort to understand and measure what drives national productivity and prosperity.
Being competitive requires countries to have in place a mix of factors such as solid infrastructure, a healthy and educated workforce, efficient markets, and a propensity for technological adoption and innovation. Over the years, we have continued to integrate the latest thinking and priorities into our work, with a goal of supporting national and regional efforts towards improved economic...
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January 3, 2013
Norway tops the table in the global energy race
Every country wants affordable, sustainable, and secure energy supplies; to live in a cleaner, greener planet where the lights also stay on.
But some countries are doing better than others at achieving it.
In the World Economic Forum’s The Global Energy Architecture Performance Index Report 2013, compiled in collaboration with Accenture, the winners and losers in the global energy race are starkly laid out.
Norway and Sweden top the table of 105 countries when their scores for economic growth and development, environmental sustainability, and energy access and security are added up. They...
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December 17, 2012
Data as a human right
Data has the power to transform our lives – collectively and individually. What is needed to unlock the profound opportunity data affords to improve the human condition – and to defend against a multitude of threats – is not technical, but an ethical framework for its use by and beyond those who initially collect it, including providing access to individuals.
At its most fundamental level, data about individuals represents a new kind of “digital self” that cannot be easily distinguished from the physical person. Some consider it a form of property; others a form of expression or speech. Those...
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December 10, 2012
The Internet of Things: Making us more human
As human beings, we act on our environment. However, the evolution of tools and technology has changed tremendously the way we act. For example, we no longer have to spend the majority of our time hunting and gathering food – much of our food preparation has been automated. Tools can also act on our behalf in more advanced ways. With advances in sensors and processors, we are well on our way to having neurally controlled prosthetics and automated cars.
Concomitantly, our relationship with machines and, more importantly, with each other, has changed. As we automate and delegate tasks to...
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November 27, 2012
Ten things you need to know about the future of health
What will the future of health and healthcare look like? In a series of blog posts by the World Economic Forum’s Strategic Foresight and Health teams, a number of leading voices will present their own visions for the future. Contributions are linked to the Scenarios for Sustainable Health Systems project, the Workplace Wellness Alliance and the Healthy Living Initiative. In the following post, Gary Phillips, Director and Head of Healthcare Industries at the World Economic Forum, shares his perspective on the future of health. Your smartphone will be a more useful medical instrument to...
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November 23, 2012
Who’s afraid of mobile Internet in healthcare?
What will the future of health and healthcare look like? In a series of blog posts by the World Economic Forum’s Strategic Foresight and Health teams, a number of leading voices will present their own visions for the future. Contributions are linked to the Scenarios for Sustainable Health Systems project, the Workplace Wellness Alliance and the Healthy Living Initiative. In the following post, Andrew Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of Proteus Biomedical, shares his perspective on the future of health.Healthcare in the 21st century will be transformed by a new utility more available than...
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November 23, 2012
A healthcare scenario for 2040
What will the future of health and healthcare look like? In a series of blog posts by the World Economic Forum’s Strategic Foresight and Health teams, a number of leading voices will present their own visions for the future. Contributions are linked to the Scenarios for Sustainable Health Systems project, the Workplace Wellness Alliance and the Healthy Living Initiative. In the following post, Nicolaus Henk, Director of Global Healthcare Systems and Services Practice at McKinsey & Company, shares his perspective on the future of health.
The year is 2040. Healthcare is transformed through...
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November 22, 2012
Getting big data in shape for the development marathon (part 2)
In an earlier piece, I introduced the concept of “big data lite”, a form of massive data utilisation well below the threshold of traditional big data but which has proved difficult to incorporate into user-friendly formats for broader public consumption. I mentioned that better manipulation and presentation of such data, when applied to international development, can disrupt dominant narratives.Indeed, a Ghana-based research organisation with which I am affiliated have over the last few years been applying this more limited notion of Big Data to one of the most established beliefs in...
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June 12, 2012
Getting big data in shape for the development marathon (part 1)
If you are confused by all the buzz about “big data” and how it’s going to rock your business or industry, rest assured you are part of a teeming crowd. Few businesses – running the whole gamut from one-man start-up to global behemoth – have actually successfully integrated any “big data” opportunity into their core offerings or operations.On one hand, the concept is presented as a technical challenge: because we are swimming in such a sea of digital sensors – from the internet to CCTVs – huge amounts of data are being collected, way beyond the capacity of conventional computer methods...
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June 12, 2012
Using mobile technologies to tackle illicit trade in East Asia
The Forum published its annual Global Enabling Trade Report last week. Once again, two East Asian economies, Singapore and Hong Kong, topped the rankings of the Enabling Trade Index, while other East Asian nations such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, continued to progress through the ranks.If the globalization of trade and supply chains since the Second World War has benefited most countries, it has led a number of East Asian countries to make, literally, a quantum leap in economic development and reduction of poverty.While there is much to celebrate, the downside is that, as much...
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May 30, 2012
In Personal Data We Trust?
Trust is a relative term, open to a wide degree of interpretation. But any notion of trust usually is based on a number of underlying dimensions, including accountability, reliability, integrity, confidentiality and a fair exchange of value. At its core, trust is really about relationships, a way of describing how things interrelate and connect. When trust is present, innovative possibilities emerge. Without it, systems break down.A new World Economic Forum report, produced in collaboration with The Boston Consulting Group, released today, Rethinking Personal Data: Strengthening Trust,...
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May 16, 2012
Mastering the Art of Data Complexity
In a series of posts related to the World Economic Forum’s Rethinking Personal Data: Strengthening Trust report, Scott David of K&L Gates and one of the core members of the Rethinking Personal Data working group discusses the importance of context and data leverage in making sense of the data complexity facing us. You can download the report and see related videos, podcasts and other materials on our Rethinking Personal Data Page after 16 May.Mastering the Art of Data ComplexityIn 2013, we will produce the same amount of data every 10 minutes as was produced in the last 5,000 years...
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May 14, 2012
Can Social Technology Help “Reinvent Business”?
Dov Seidman and Tim Leberecht share their thoughts on social enterprise, social technology and “talentism” ahead of their hackathon on 9-10 June, set to take place as part of the “Reinvent Business” initiative.From Occupy Wall Street to the publication of resignation letters in the New York Times, we cannot ignore the widening “trust gap” between business and society. Increasingly, consumers and citizens are demanding that companies match their actions to their words. Integrity must incorporate the values and principles of stakeholders, including society at large. Our current crises –...
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May 14, 2012
Small is beautiful: Materials by design
Have you ever wondered how a butterfly’s wing creates such beautiful colours? We used to think it was through pigments. Now, due to our understanding of the wing’s “nanostructure” – how it works at a molecular and atomic level – we know colours are created by optical interference produced by nano-sized holes in the scales of their wings.This discovery is already finding applications in telecommunications. For example, replicating the nanoscale structure of water-repellent plant leaves has led to stain-resistant textiles and self-cleaning glass. But these are crude applications in comparison...
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May 3, 2012
Networked readiness since 2001
The last decade has seen information and communication technologies (ICT) dramatically transforming the world, enabling innovation and productivity increases, connecting people and communities, and improving standards of living and opportunities across the globe.While changing the way individuals live, interact, and work, ICT has also proven to be a key precondition for enhanced competitiveness and economic and societal modernization, as well as an important instrument for bridging economic and social divides and reducing poverty.The GITR series has been published by the World Economic Forum...
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April 4, 2012
The GITR a technology transformer
The Global Information Technology Report was first published in 2001, out of recognition that information and communication technologies (ICT) were increasingly driving economic growth. In the form of an index, the report series provides an annual overview of the readiness of countries to leverage ICT for growth and presents the key trends emerging in the industry and associated policy areas. The report has established itself as an authoritative benchmarking tool, a unique information source and an important platform for private-public dialogue. It allows policy-makers to identify comparative...
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April 3, 2012
How engineered micro-organisms could one day power the world
The world we inhabit is highly dependent on fossil resources. From fuels to synthetic fibers and plastics, many chemicals and materials undergo a refining process in which fossil oil or natural gas function as raw materials. The use of fossil resources in manufacturing everyday products is perceived as a threat to national energy security and is often also blamed for climate change. Accordingly, attempts are being made to reduce our dependence on fossil resources, such as by using renewable biomass as an alternative raw material.When considering biomass as a raw material, one consideration...
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March 27, 2012
Tech Tuesday: Predicting Type 2 diabetes
Tech Tuesday is an ongoing series profiling the Forum’s Technology Pioneers. The Tech Pioneers are companies that have been recognized by the Forum for groundbreaking and innovative approaches in tackling some of the world’s most wicked problems. Each week we will showcase some of the 2012 Tech Pioneers. You can learn more about the Technology Pioneer Programme on the Forum’s website.Tethys Bioscience develops sophisticated biological markers that enable the precise targeting of healthcare resourcesDetermining which patients will contract a chronic metabolic disease two or three years from...
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March 27, 2012
Tech Tuesday: Today’s schools rely more and more on video games
Tech Tuesday is an ongoing series profiling the Forum’s Technology Pioneers. The Tech Pioneers are companies that have been recognized by the Forum for groundbreaking and innovative approaches in tackling some of the world’s most wicked problems. Each week we will showcase some of the 2012 Tech Pioneers. You can learn more about the Technology Pioneer Programme on the Forum’s website.Tabula Digita develops video games to engage high school students in the pursuit of knowledgeTabula Digita’s award-winning technology breaks new ground by taking advantage of an estimated 93% of US school...
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March 20, 2012
Tech Tuesday: Electric motors in car wheels
Tech Tuesday is an ongoing series profiling the Forum’s Technology Pioneers. The Tech Pioneers are companies that have been recognized by the Forum for groundbreaking and innovative approaches in tackling some of the world’s most wicked problems. Each week we will showcase some of the 2012 Tech Pioneers. You can learn more about the Technology Pioneer Programme on the Forum’s website.Protean Electric puts its motors in the wheels of electric carsStandard automobile design puts the motor either in front or back. Protean Electric’s innovative approach is to replace the bulky conventional engine...
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February 28, 2012
Lemnis breaks prices with $5 LED bulbs
Previous Tech Pioneer Lemnis Lighting, a leader in LED technology, is introducing a new LED household light bulb that costs only $4.95 and is a greener version of the traditional household bulb.The company claims that the majority of people will buy the LED bulbs online. Warner Philips, the co-founder of Lemnis Lighting, in a recent interview by Greentech Media, emphasized the importance of other channels such as government, retailers and utilities.A recent US Department of Energy forecast predicts that LEDs will represent 76% of the general illumination market by 2030, but Lemnis...
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February 24, 2012
Tech Tuesday: Mapping city gas leaks
Tech Tuesday is an ongoing series profiling the Forum’s Technology Pioneers. The Tech Pioneers are companies that have been recognized by the Forum for groundbreaking and innovative approaches in tackling some of the world’s most wicked problems. Each week we will showcase some of the 2012 Tech Pioneers. You can learn more about the Technology Pioneer Programme on the Forum’s website.Picarro pushes the envelope in developing the world’s highest performance gas analysersIn a world increasingly conscious of the impact of greenhouse gases on climate change, the precision measurement of gas...
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February 21, 2012
The 2012 top 10 emerging technologies
Emerging technologies are critical to building a sustainable and resilient future. But without new understanding, tools and capabilities, their safe and successful development is far from guaranteed.At the Summit on the Global Agenda 2011 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies asked some of the world’s leading minds within the entire GAC Network which technology trends would have the greatest impact on the state of the world in the near future.Below, the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies presents the...
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February 15, 2012
Tech Tuesday: Taking data analysis to another level
Tech Tuesday is an ongoing series profiling the Forum’s Technology Pioneers. Tech Pioneer companies have been recognized by the Forum for their ground-breaking and/or innovative approaches in tackling some of the world’s most challenging problems. Each week, we will showcase some of the 2012 Tech Pioneers. You can learn more about the Technology Pioneer Programme on the Forum’s website.Palantir pioneers an engineering-centred approach to radically change the way data is analysedData smog is a hazard of today’s increasingly interconnected world. Unexpected opportunities as well as the answers...
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February 14, 2012
Data to decisions
We are at the beginning of the Big Data era, and there is widespread anticipation that this will be a huge benefit to companies. A recent MIT report shows that companies that practice “data-driven decision-making” have on average a 5% better profit margin than similar companies with more traditional decision-making processes.In our “Data to Decisions” session at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, we heard chief executives tell us how Big Data can reinvent everything from customer relationship management (CRM) and internal processes to product design. We also heard that...
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February 8, 2012
The human in human concerns
A significant number of sessions at this year’s World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos concerned the promise of emerging technologies for problems of general human concern – for health, education, multiculturalism, poverty and national security, among others.Speakers in these sessions were some of the top technological entrepreneurs and researchers of our time and it was an honour to hear them speak. I was struck by the ingenuity and potential of the technical innovations they proposed. Yet, occasionally, I found myself worrying that too many of these solutions might be ignoring the...
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February 6, 2012
Why Tech Start-Ups Can Change the Landscape of Fundraising
In order to take philanthropy into a new age and stimulate large-scale giving, we must first explore the psychology behind why people donate. This will allow us to see where charities have failed in the past, and what will enable them to succeed in the future. What better way to do so, therefore, than to visualize the most basic of human desires and attempt to analyze the simple act of giving figures.Donating to charity, according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, is one of the most complex and refined of human desires. Featuring at the top of the pyramid, it is an act that many of us do not...
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January 27, 2012
Cities in transformation- toward an intelligent future
Are cities about to die? This is what many people were thinking just a few years ago… Back in the 1990s, scholars speculated about the impact of the ongoing digital revolution on the viability of cities. The mainstream view was that, as digital media and the internet had killed distance, they would also kill cities. Technology writer George Gilder proclaimed that “cities are leftover baggage from the industrial era” and concluded that, due to the continued growth of personal computing, telecommunications and distributed production, “we are headed for the death of cities”.In actual fact, this...
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January 26, 2012
Creating the digital wallet
As a former banker, I have always been fascinated by the intersection of money and technology. During my time at Citibank more than 20 years ago I was a part of an effort to develop an electronic wallet that would provide digital banking and financial services. Despite two decades of significant advances in technology, we are still struggling today to create a robust and sustainable ecosystem for an electronic wallet that can bring banking services within the reach of most of the world’s population.As I prepare for the Forum this week, I am optimistic that the environment is now ripe to...
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January 26, 2012
Davos Daily: Big Data, Privacy and the Huge Opportunity in the Monetization of Trust
The Tech Pioneers will be guest blogging for us every day live from Davos this week.Michael Fertik, CEO and Founder, Reputation.com, opens the blog series with “Big Data, Privacy and the Huge Opportunity in the Monetization of Trust”, which is an issues that will also be in the heart of many of the discussions taking place this week. Big Data, Privacy and the Huge Opportunity in the Monetization of Trustby Michael Fertik, CEO and Founder, Reputation.com@michaelfertik We all know that Big Data has arrived. (Living in the Big Data world, I hear the phrase “Big Data” so much that I now...
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January 25, 2012
Tech Pioneers Gearing Up for Davos
Here we are in Davos where the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2012 kicks off tonight for the Tech Pioneers.The Tech Pioneers’ schedule is going to be busy as usual. We are truly looking forward to the different sessions and interactions with the 24 Tech Pioneers who are participating in this year’s Annual Meeting. This is really a unique occasion for all of us to connect, as well as share ideas and challenges across communities and among participants from, as Professor Klaus Schwab said this morning, all walks of life.The Tech Pioneers will be welcomed tonight at the traditional...
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January 24, 2012