We can see the contours of the revolution in higher education

Transformation of the music industry is old news. Retail, publishing, and newspaper industries are changing before our very eyes.  The Wall Street Journal described that Target stores are now working to deal with the ‘showrooming’  factor in their stores. That’s the trend that is devastating big box electronic stores (Best Buy) and booksellers (remember Borders?).

Up next?  Well, maybe not next but soon, will be higher education.

Here’s three articles that paint the picture:

Continue reading “We can see the contours of the revolution in higher education”

Putting North Dakota oil production into perspective

Here are a few stats on energy production in North Dakota from Mark Perry’s post, North Dakota Sets More Oil Productions Records in November; Above 500k Daily Barrels for First Time:

I will rearrange his comments. All of the following are quotes:

Let’s look at oil production in North Dakota:

…doubled from 246,000 barrels per day two years ago

Continue reading “Putting North Dakota oil production into perspective”

Smartphone sales are looking like a Shuttle takeoff

Don’t quite know how to get my head around this.

Remember the view when the Shuttle engines and rockets lit off?  Millions of pounds of spaceship are up and outta’ here.  

In a flash it’s clear of the pad and a few moments later it’s miles high and hundreds of miles downrange.  Smartphone sales are on that kind of curve.

Mark Perry, at Carpe Diem, points to this article by E.D. Kain at Forbes:  Smartphone Shipments Top PCs For The First Time Ever.

Continue reading “Smartphone sales are looking like a Shuttle takeoff”

Knowledge workers get to learn for a living!

(cross-post from my other blog, Attestation Update, with a few changes for broader application.)

That’s a key idea from Bill Sheridan’s blog post, Learn. Share. Repeat from the Maryland Association of CPAs.  His comments apply directly to all knowledge workers.

Knowledge workers need to have a lot of knowledge. And a broad base of information. And the wisdom how to use that knowledge.

We get paid for what we know! Cool!

Continue reading “Knowledge workers get to learn for a living!”

Fourty percent of U.S. military aircraft are drones

A report by Randy Nelson, Drones now account for one third of U.S. warplanes, says:

According to a new Congressional report, the country’s military now has 7,494 drone aircraft in use, compared to 10,767 traditional, manned planes.

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Yet another description of the exciting overall change surrounding us

An Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal describes yet one more view of the radical change surrounding us and the tremendous opportunities in our near future.

Mark P. Mills and Julio M Ottino discuss The Coming Tech-led Boom.

The causes of the transition and the reasons we should be optimistic about the future are familiar to me, and I hope to you as well if you’ve been reading this blog.

Continue reading “Yet another description of the exciting overall change surrounding us”

A deeper explanation of the turbulent change surrounding us

Walter Russell Mead is starting a series of posts describing the change we are in and how to move past it:  Beyond Blue Part One: The Crisis of the American Dream

He likens our current situation to the massive transition from farm to suburb.  Before WWII, most people lived and worked on a family farm.  Since then, most people have grown up in the suburbs with the industrial/office job model we have now.

That transition was terribly painful.  But we as a country came through it into a far more abundant life.

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Growing pains in North Dakota – signs of boom times from the oil in the Bakken field

Mark Perry relays some of the discussion of North Dakota Sheriffs & Deputies Association about the impact of the oil boom in Western North Dakota:  Bakken Oil is Having Major Impact on Western ND.

Professor Perry highlights 12 of the 35 issues discussed. Here are three amazing items: Continue reading “Growing pains in North Dakota – signs of boom times from the oil in the Bakken field”

Why my interest in the Bakken oil field is increasing

(Cross-post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update)

For quite a while now I’ve been fascinated by the rapid increase in oil production in the Bakken field in North Dakota.

Have had a lot of posts on my blog Outrun Change.  Under 1% unemployment in one county. Production graphs that are going vertical.  More oil produced in ND than California. That kind of stuff.

This month my interest level took off like those oil production charts.

Continue reading “Why my interest in the Bakken oil field is increasing”

Our near future can be an era of abundance

A book to be released in February suggests that radical advances in technologies will improve the lives of everyone, especially the poor – Abundance – The future is better than you think.

Here’s a description from the book’s website:

In Abundance, space entrepreneur turned innovation pioneer Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler document how progress in artificial intelligence, robotics, infinite computing, ubiquitous broadband networks, digital manufacturing, nanomaterials, synthetic biology, and many other exponentially growing technologies will enable us to make greater gains in the next two decades than we have in the previous two hundred years. We will soon have the ability to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman, and child on the planet.

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Reshoring – huge opportunity if we want it and a skill-set challenge we can overcome

Manufacturing jobs keep coming back to the U.S.

Mark Perry points to an article in Financial Times, Business returns to US as Asia loses edge (free registration required).

Rapidly rising wages in China are changing the equation on where it makes sense to locate plants.  Here’s what that picture looks like, in a comment from Mr. Bruce Cochrane, who opened up a furniture plant in North Carolina. The FT article says:

Continue reading “Reshoring – huge opportunity if we want it and a skill-set challenge we can overcome”

Fighting against overwhelming change is like taking a stand in quicksand

The change around us, in media, the flood of information, book publishing, nanotechnology, education, the economy in general, and even awareness of bad effects of poorly done international aid, is overwhelming.

In his post When the world changes… , Seth Godin says:

The history of media and technology is an endless series of failed rearguard actions as industry leaders attempt to solidify their positions on a bed of quicksand.

Continue reading “Fighting against overwhelming change is like taking a stand in quicksand”

Possible financial model for on-line newspapers?

Clay Shirky has an intriguing idea on how newspapers might adapt to the net – threshold paywall. You pay for over a certain number of page views – Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users

Underlying issue is the traditional newspaper model is a bundle – some local news generated by the paper, purchased national news, sports, comics, horoscope, Ann Landers, coupons, and classifieds.

People will pay a little for the bundle.  Bad experiences by several papers show that few people will pay to get through a paywall for the bundle.  The likely reason is that if you want just the horoscopes, or just national news, or just sports, there is far too much free stuff.

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We need better filters to sort through the overwhelming information

Even without social media, we face a flood of information. 

Just in terms of blogs, I have about 50 set up on my RSS feeder so I can quickly browse all the authors I want to read.

Social media multiplies the flood.  

One reason I’ve been slow to jump into the Twitter world is because merely following a handful of active Tweeters produces a few hundred tweets a day when you include all the people who reply to their posts. I don’t have time to sort through that much background discussion.

Schumpeter’s column, Too much buzz in The Economist discusses the difficulty companies are going to have in sorting through the volume of stuff in social media.  One of the challenges in responding to complaining tweeters is missing the mass of people who are unhappy but not voicing their discontent in social media.

His closing comment is great: Continue reading “We need better filters to sort through the overwhelming information”