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  • Four Ways of Seeing the Future

    Last July, Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the One Laptop Per Child project and co-founder of MIT Media Lab, keynoted at the WorldFuture 2013 conference. In the ten minute extract of his talk embedded below, he offers four ways of looking …
  • Futurist Friday: Parking Pedals

    Today’s Futurist Friday is about bicycles. Specifically, where to put them. DC’s “Sustainable DC” plan calls for bikes and walking to account for 25% of commuting by 2033. Right now that figure is about 16%, …
  • Blogging about Blogging

    I’ve encouraged folk seeking to start or advance their museum careers to jump in and do interesting work, with or without institutional support. Even as the internet has undermined the economic models for traditional avenues of …
  • TrendsWatch Update: The Internet of Things

    One of the trends we featured in TrendsWatch 2013 was “When Things Talk Back: the rise of networked objects and attentive spaces.” What could happen in a future where the “stuff” that surrounds you collects and shares information about …
  • Go East, Young Woman

    Many people, giving advice to people aiming at museum careers, have pointed out that you have to be willing to relocate. (See, for example, Robert Connolly’s recent Thoughts on How to Get a Museum Job). Today’s post raises the question—how …
  • Museum Jobs That Didn’t Exist in 2003

    (& what that says about the evolution of our field.) A couple weeks ago, I read a post on Coexist called “Eight New Jobs People will have in 2025,” projecting openings for Digital Death Managers, Un-Schooling Counselors, Digital Detox …
  • Museums & the IoT: Innovating With Wayfinding

    In TrendsWatch 2013, Phil and I explored the implications of entering a time “When Stuff Talks Back.” The Internet of Things, as this phenomenon is also known, arises from the proliferation of internet connected devices that can collect …
  • TrendsWatch Update: 3-D Scanning and Printing

     So much good stuff, what to highlight? 3-D printing overall continues to take off. In June, MakerBot was bought for $403M by industrial printing company Stratsys, demonstrating the industry’s belief in the exploding market for desktop …
  • Through a (Google) Glass, Darkly

    At the Tech@LEAD conference last week, Neal Stimler let me try his Google Glass. I had been kicking myself for not applying to be an early adopter of Glass, so I was happy to draft off Neal’s successful bid, however briefly. I’ve been …
  • Museums & Wikipedia—a Two Year Update

    I recently read a post on the New York Times blogs about a wiki edit-athon at Smithsonian American Art Museum here in D.C. That prompted me to ping Lori Byrd Phillips, digital marketing coordinator at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. …

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