Privatizing Key Government Functions – Good or Bad?

Privatization deals affecting everything from parking meters to child welfare to public water systems are often negotiated in secret, carried out with little oversight, and subject to massive cost overruns and corruption. For example -

A recent study by "In the Public Interest" found that 65% of state and local for-profit prison contacts studied include quotas, which require state and local governments to maintain a high occupancy level in private facilities. These clauses provide incentives to keep prison beds filled, which run counter to many states’ public policy goals of reducing the prison population and increasing efforts for inmate rehabilitation.

In 2012, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison company in the country, sent a letter to 48 state governors offering to buy up their public prisons. CCA offered to buy and operate a state’s prison in exchange for a 20 year contract, which would include a 90% quota for the entire term or a requirement that taxpayers pay for unused beds. While no state took CCA up on its offer, many existing prison privatization contracts contain such occupancy guarantees, with some as high as 100%.

Is it a good idea to contract out the U.S. prison system? Or are we just fostering a justice system run by corporations that want to imprison our citizens in order to make money? I believe we imprison a much higher percentage of people in the U.S. than any other countries – see latest figures.

What do you think about continued efforts to contract out many key functions previously performed by government? National Defense? Law Enforcement? Prisons? Public Schools? Is this good for the future of America?

The 'Internet of Everything (IoE)' will have major implications for the U.S.

The numbers are staggering.  Gartner predicts that the total economic value add for the Internet of Things (IoT) will be $1.9 trillion dollars in 2020, spread across all industries – especially in healthcare. McKinsey Global Institute pegs the potential economic impact at $2.7 trillion to $6.2 trillion by 2025. IDC put the Internet of things technology and services spending at $4.8 trillion in 2012 and expects the market to be $8.9 trillion in 2020.  Cisco Systems has published a white paper entitled "Embracing the Internet of Everything To Capture Your Share of $14.4 Trillion". Key to this rapidly evolving market are open standards and open source technology.

Background

The 'Internet of Things' refers to the equipping of all physical objects in the world with some form of minuscule identifying devices or computer sensors that can be inter-connected or networked together.

However, as the sensors embedded in these 'things' are enhanced and add new capabilities like context awareness, increased data processing power, and more sophisticated communications features, what we currently refer to as the Internet of Things (IoT) is morphing into something called the Internet of Everything (IoE).  The definition of these terms continue to evolve as development and implementation of the concepts and technologies move forward.

The Internet currently connects anywhere from 10 to 15 billion devices. That equates to less than 1 percent of  'things'. According to ABI Research, by 2020 more than 30 billion devices will be wirelessly connected to the Internet of Things (IoT), or the Internet of Everything (IoE). By 2050, there will be trillions of inter-connected 'things' not only all around us, but also 'inside' us.

According to McKinsey & Company, "the widespread adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) will take time, but the time line is advancing thanks to improvements in underlying technologies. Advances in wireless networking technology and the greater standardization of communications protocols make it possible to collect data from these sensors almost anywhere at any time." They peg the potential economic impact of IoT at $2.7 trillion to $6.2 trillion by 2025.

Gartner predicts that the Internet of Everything (IoE) will add $1.9 trillion to the global economy by 2020. It is expected that the numbers related to IoE will continue to climb over the next several decades given falling costs, adoption of open standards, emergence of innovative open hardware solutions, and the growth of cloud computing.

IDC put the Internet of things technology and services spending at $4.8 trillion in 2012 and expects the market to be $8.9 trillion in 2020. IDC said the installed base of things connected will be 212 billion by the end of 2020, including 30.1 billion connected autonomous things. Intelligent systems will be installed and collecting data by this point.

'Open Source' and the Internet of Everything (IoE)

Jim Zemlin recently wrote an excellent article entitled Open Source Tears Down Walled Gardens to Connect 'Internet of Everything'. He states that "a big impediment to the Internet of Everything’s economic promise and technology advances is interoperability -- the ability to intelligently share information across electronic devices and systems regardless of product brand." Bottom line, IoE doesn’t work unless 'everything' works together.

According to Zemlin, "Open source is the ideal, neutral staging area for collaboration that can provide the interoperability layer needed to make the Internet of Everything a reality. When everyone jointly develops and uses the same freely available code, companies can develop innovative services on top of it and get them to market faster."

Apparently many others agree with that conclusion. Witness the emergence of the AllSeen Alliance, a non-profit consortium of major corporations dedicated to driving the widespread adoption of products, systems and services that will enable the 'Internet of Everything', built upon an open, universal development framework and supported by

Members of the Alliance are helping to build the next wave of connected smart TVs, appliances, automobiles, and home automation - the 'Internet of Things' or the 'Internet of Everything' -  by using 'open source' AllJoyn software to develop interoperable devices, apps and consumer services.
Members include many of the world’s leading technology companies, manufacturers and service providers, e.g. Panasonic, Qualcomm, Sharp, Sears, LG Electronics, Google, Cisco.

Another reason open source will play a key role in the IoE revolution is that much of the consumer electronics world have already adopted and embedded the Linux operating system in their devices.

Companies have recognized that it is both impractical and too costly for any one of them to try and write their own proprietary code for the millions of different systems that will make up the Internet of Everything.

• Qualcomm, which reported almost $7 billion in profits on $25 billion in sales over this past year is investing considerable resources into IoE technology and solutions- to make the "digital sixth sense" a reality. • Intel is determined not to miss the Internet of Things (IoT) movement.  Under CEO Brian Krzanich, Intel is pursuing a new family of chips especially suited for 'wearables' and other small devices. Read about Intel's 'open source' Galileo computer and Quark chips. • IBM has teamed up with wireless sensor builder Libelium to offer an IoT starter kit that would let customers deploy dozens of different sensor applications. The kit integrates Libelium's Waspmote wireless sensor platform with IBM's Mote Runner software and 6LoWPAN. • Cisco has unveiled the nPower chip, a super-fast processor designed to funnel the enormous volumes of data that the Internet of Things (IoT) will generate.

 Final Observations & Conclusions

The Internet of Everything (IoE) is going to create new markets and a new economy for the 21st century. Estimates of the dollar value associated with IoE are all over the place – but all figures mentioned are staggering. They run from $1.9 trillion to more then $14 trillion over the next decade.

According to a white paper by Gartner, the verticals that are leading its adoption are manufacturing (15%), healthcare (15%), and insurance (11%).

Even as industries continue to move rapidly forward with plans to build the Internet of Everything (IoE), arguments are being made that not enough thought is being given to privacy, security, ethics, and the potential for a great number of unintended negative consequences. The need for more public debate about issues like this seems obvious, given the many recent revelations about NSA's unauthorized spying on American citizens. The potential for abuse of the technology by governments and private companies is very real.

Finally, it appears that for the Internet of Everything(IoE) to bring real value, U.S. industry should continue to adopt and build on open standards. To move things along and keep costs down, the industry should also continue to use 'open source' software such as - embedded operating systems software (Linux, Android);  network infrastructure (IPv6); web software (Java, LAMP stack);  cloud infrastructure (OpenStack, CloudStack, Eucalyptus); M2M software stacks (Mango, DeviceHive, Mihini); RFID software (OpenBeacon, Fostrak); database systems (Hadoop,  HBase, Mongo, NoSQL ).

With the Internet of Everything (IoE), we are now diving headlong into the 21st century and the 'Information Age'.   P.S. - If you thought things have been changing rapidly, think again. It's about to get real wild.

Other Selected IoT / IoE Links

AllSeen Alliance AllJoyn Software Eclipse M2M Solutions Internet of Things - Europe Internet of Things (IoT) Events Internet of Things (IoT) World Forum

MQ Telemetry Transport Protocol Ninja Block Ohmage OpenXC Smarter Objects Project           Web of Things

America and the Open Revolution - Continuing to Debate Our Future

Over the past decade a number of issues have slowly emerged that seem to overshadow all others in this country. You not only hear about these issues from all corners of the country, but you can also see them manifesting themselves in very tangible ways all around us.

The issue of "Inequality" in particular jumps out at you wherever you look. Large corporations and a small number of wealthy individuals now seem to have unbridled control over our country and its resources – from access to politicians, influence over the courts, control over the news media, accumulating wealth at rates unheard of in history, and much more.

The issue of inequality is not to be taken lightly. Witness the following excerpt from the Declaration of Independence issued at the start of the American Revolution.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

Let me start off this next series of blogs about America and the 'Open Revolution' that is underway by asking these questions –

In America, do we still believe that all men are created equal? Do we have equal access to our politicians? Do all branches of this government still derive their powers from the consent of the governed? Or do they derive their power from a small group of particular corporations and wealthy individuals? Are these corporations and wealthy individuals abusing or usurping the power of the people? 

Give us your constructive feedback. This is a very serious series of questions American must continuously ask and openly debate – especially now.

Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds

I just read the fifth installment in the National Intelligence Council’s (NIC) series of reports aimed at providing a framework for thinking about the future entitled "Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds". It's an excellent report well worth reading.

In this volume, they expanded their coverage of disruptive technologies, devoting a separate section to it in the work. They engaged with research scientists at DoE laboratories at Sandia, Oak Ridge, and NASA in addition to entrepreneurs and consultants in Silicon Valley and Santa Fe to help put together this section of the report.

This volume also contains a chapter on the potential trajectories for the U.S. role in the international System as well as a chapter on delineating possible future directions and their impact on the broader evolution of the international system.

This report is intended to stimulate thinking about the rapid and vast geopolitical changes characterizing the world today and possible global trajectories during the next 15-20 years. The following are some selected excerpts from this report: 

[Excerpts from "Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds"] 

MegaTrends

The world of 2030 will be radically transformed from our world today. By 2030, no country—whether the US, China, or any other large country—will be a hegemonic power. The empowerment of individuals and diffusion of power among states and from states to informal networks will have a dramatic impact, largely reversing the historic rise of the West since 1750, restoring Asia’s weight in the global economy, and ushering in a new era of “democratization” at the international and domestic level. In addition to individual empowerment and the diffusion of state power, we believe that two other megatrends will shape our world out to 2030: 

• demographic patterns, especially rapid aging; and 
• growing resource demands which, in the cases of food and water, might lead to scarcities. 

These trends, which are virtually certain, exist today, but during the next 15-20 years they will gain much greater momentum.

Underpinning the megatrends are tectonic shifts—critical changes to key features of our global environment that will affect how the world “works”.

NIC – Tectonic Shifts Between Now and and 2030  Growth of the Global Middle Class - Middle classes most everywhere in the developing world are poised to expand substantially in terms of both absolute numbers and the percentage of the population that can claim middle-class status during the next 15-20 years. Wider Access to Lethal and Disruptive Technologies - A wider spectrum of instruments of war—especially precision-strike capabilities, cyber instruments, and bio-terror weaponry—will become accessible. Individuals and small groups will have the capability to perpetrate large-scale violence and disruption—a capability formerly the monopoly of states. Definitive Shift of Economic Power to the East and South - The U.S., European, and Japanese share of global income is projected to fall from 56 percent today to well under half by 2030. In 2008, China overtook the U.S. as the world’s largest saver; by 2020, emerging markets’ share of financial assets is projected to almost double. Unprecedented and Widespread Aging - Whereas in 2012 only Japan and Germany had matured beyond a median age of 45 years, most European countries, South Korea, and Taiwan will have entered the post-mature age category by 2030. Migration will become more globalized as both rich and developing countries suffer from workforce shortages. Urbanization - Today’s roughly 50-percent urban population will climb to nearly 60 percent, or 4.9 billion people, in 2030. Africa will gradually replace Asia as the region with the highest urbanization growth rate. Urban centers are estimated to generate 80 percent of economic growth; the potential exists to apply modern technologies and infrastructure, promoting better use of scarce resources. Food and Water Pressures - Demand for food is expected to rise at least 35 percent by 2030 while demand for water is expected to rise by 40 percent.  Nearly half of the world’s population will live in areas experiencing severe water stress. Fragile states in Africa and the Middle East are most at risk of experiencing food and water shortages, but China and India are also vulnerable. U.S. Energy Independence - With shale gas, the U.S. will have sufficient natural gas to meet domestic needs and generate potential global exports for decades to come. Increased oil production from difficult-to-access oil deposits would result in a substantial reduction in the U.S. net trade balance and faster economic expansion. Global spare capacity may exceed over 8 million barrels, at which point OPEC would lose price control and crude oil prices would collapse, causing a major negative impact on oil-export economies.

Game-changer 1: The Crisis-Prone Global Economy

The international economy almost certainly will continue to be characterized by various regional and national economies moving at significantly different speeds—a pattern reinforced by the 2008 global financial crisis. The contrasting speeds across different regional economies are exacerbating global imbalances and straining governments and the international system. The key question is whether the divergences and increased volatility will result in a global breakdown and collapse or whether the development of multiple growth centers will lead to resiliency. The absence of a clear hegemonic  [leadership or predominant influence exercised by one nation over others] economic power could add to the volatility. Some experts have compared the relative decline in the economic weight of the U.S. to the late 19th century when economic dominance by one player—Britain—receded into multipolarity.

A return to pre-2008 growth rates and previous patterns of rapid globalization looks increasingly unlikely, at least for the next decade. The world’s economic prospects will increasingly depend on the fortunes of the East and South. The developing world already provides more than 50 percent of global economic growth and 40 percent of global investment. Its contribution to global investment growth is more than 70 percent. China’s contribution is now one and a half times the size of the US contribution.

In the World Bank’s baseline modeling of future economic multipolarity, China—despite a likely slowing of its economic growth—will contribute about one-third of global growth by 2025, far more than any other economy. Emerging market demand for infrastructure, housing, consumer goods, and new plants and equipment will raise global investment to levels not seen in four decades. Global savings maynot match this rise, resulting in upward pressure on long-term interest rates

Game-changer 2: The Governance Gap 

During the next 15-20 years, as power becomes even more diffuse than today, a growing number of diverse state and non-state actors, as well as sub-national actors, such as cities, will play important governance roles.

Currently about 50 countries are in the awkward stage between autocracy and democracy, with the greatest number concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast and Central Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa. Both social science theory and recent history—the Color Revolutions and the Arab Spring—support the idea that with maturing age structures and rising incomes, political liberalization and democracy will advance. However, many countries will still be zig-zagging their way through the complicated democratization process during the next 15-20 years. Countries moving from autocracy to democracy have a proven track record of instability.

Other countries will continue to suffer from a democratic deficit: in these cases a country’s developmental level is more advanced than its level of governance. Gulf countries and China account fora large number in this category.

The widespread use of new communications technologies will become a double-edged sword for governance. On the one hand, social networking will enable citizens to coalesce and challenge governments, as we have already seen in Middle East. On the other hand, such technologies will provide governments—both authoritarian and democratic—an unprecedented ability to monitor their citizens. It is unclear how the balance will be struck between greater IT-enabled individuals and networks and traditional political structures. In our interactions, technologists and political scientists have offered divergent views. Both sides agree, however, that the characteristics of IT use—multiple and simultaneous action, near instantaneous responses, mass organization across geographic boundaries, and technological dependence—increase the potential for more frequent discontinuous change in the international system.

The current, largely Western dominance of global structures such as the UN Security Council, World Bank, and IMF probably will have been transformed by 2030 to be more in line with the changing hierarchy of new economic players. Many second-tier emerging powers will be making their mark—at least as emerging regional leaders. Just as the larger G-20—rather than G-8—was energized to deal with the 2008 financial crisis

Game-changer 3: Potential for Increased Conflict

Historical trends during the past two decades show fewer major armed conflicts and, where conflicts remain, fewer civilian and military casualties than in previous decades. Maturing age structures in many developing countries point to continuing declines in intrastate conflict. We believe the disincentives will remain strong against great power conflict: too much would be at stake. Nevertheless, we need to be cautious about the prospects for further declines in the number and intensity of intrastate conflicts, and interstate conflict remains a possibility.

Intrastate conflicts have gradually increased in countries with a mature overall population that contain a politically dissonant, youthful ethnic minority. Strife involving ethnic Kurds in Turkey, Shia in Lebanon, and Pattani Muslims in southern Thailand are examples of such situations. Looking forward, the potential for conflict to occur in Sub-Saharan Africa is likely to remain high.

Insufficient natural resources—such as water and arable land—in many of the same countries that will have disproportionate levels of young men increase the risks of intrastate conflict breaking out, particularly in Sub-Saharan African and South and East Asian countries, including China and India.

With the potential for increased proliferation and growing concerns about nuclear security, risks are growing that future wars in South Asia and the Middle East would risk inclusion of a nuclear deterrent.

The current Islamist phase of terrorism might end by 2030, but terrorism is unlikely to die completely. Many states might continue to use terrorist group out of a strong sense of insecurity, although the costs to a regime of directly supporting terrorists looks set to become even greater as international cooperation increases. With more widespread access to lethal and disruptive technologies, individuals who are experts in such niche areas as cyber systems might sell their services to the highest bidder, including terrorists who would focus less on causing mass casualties and more on creating widespread economic and financial disruptions

Game-changer 4: Wider Scope of RegIonal Instability 

Regional dynamics in several different theaters during the next couple decades will have the potential to spill over and create global insecurity. The Middle East and South Asia are the two regions most likely to trigger broader instability.

Progress toward greater regional cohesion and integration in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa would promise increased stability in those regions and a reduced threat to global security. Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, and the Caribbean will remain vulnerable, nevertheless, to state failure through 2030, providing safe havens for both global criminal and terrorist networks and local insurgents.

Game-changer 5: The Impact of New Technologies 

Four technology arenas will shape global economic, social, and military developments as well as the world community’s actions pertaining to the environment by 2030. 

Information technology (IT) is entering the 'big data' era. Process power and data storage are becoming almost free; networks and the cloud will provide global access and pervasive services; social media and cybersecurity will be large new markets. This growth and diffusion will present significant challenges for governments and societies, which must find ways to capture the benefits of new IT technologies while dealing with the new threats that those technologies present. Fear of the growth of an Orwellian surveillance state may lead citizens particularly in the developed world to pressure their governments torestrict or dismantle certain big data systems.  [See OHN articles about 'Big Data' versus 'Open Data'.] 

New manufacturing and automation technologies such as additive manufacturing (3D printing) and robotics have the potential to change work patterns in both the developing and developed worlds. In developed countries these technologies will improve productivity, address labor constraints, and diminish the need for outsourcing.

Breakthroughs, especially for technologies pertaining to the security of vital resources—will be neccessary to meet the food, water, and energy needs of the world’s population. Key technologies likely to be at the forefront of maintaining such resources in the next 15-20 years will include genetically modified crops, precision agriculture, water irrigation techniques, solar energy, advanced bio-based fuels, and enhanced oil and natural gas extraction via fracturing. Given the vulnerabilities of developing economies to key resource supplies and prices and the early impacts of climate change, key developing countries may realize substantial rewards in commercializing many next-generation resource technologies first.

New health technologies will continue to extend the average age of populations around the world, by ameliorating debilitating physical and mental conditions and improving overall well-being. The greatest gains in healthy longevity are likely to occur in those countries with developing economies as the size of their middle class populations swells. The health-care systems in these countries may be poor today, but by 2030 they will make substantial progress in the longevity potential of their populations; by 2030 many leading centers of innovation in disease management will be in the developing world.

Game-changer 6: The role of the U.S. 

How the United States (U.S.) international role evolves during the next 15-20 years—a big uncertainty—and whether the US will be able to work with new partners to reinvent the international system will be among the most important variables in the future shape of the global order. Although the U.S. (and the West’s) relative decline vis-a-vis the rising states is inevitable, its future role in the international systemis much harder to project: the degree to which the U.S. continues to dominate the international system could vary widely.

The U.S. most likely will remain “first among equals” among the other great powers in 2030 because of its preeminence across a range of power dimensions and legacies of its leadership role. More important than just its economic weight, the U.S. dominant role in international politics has derived from its preponderance across the board in both hard and soft power. Nevertheless, with the rapid rise of other countries, the “unipolar moment” is over and Pax Americana—the era of American ascendancy in international politics that began in 1945—is fast winding down.

The fall of the dollar as the global reserve currency and substitution by another or a basket of currencies would be one of the sharpest indications of a loss of U.S. global economic position, strongly undermining Washington’s political influence too.

Conclusions 

Finally, the report concludes by stating that we have more than enough information to suggest that however rapid change has been over the past couple decades, the rate of change will accelerate in the future.  One final warning – beware of Black Swan events, which could derail many of the predictions.

Black Swan Evemts – The following are selected examples of discrete events that could cause large-scale disruption and alter the predictions made in this report. Severe Pandemic - No one can predict which pathogen will be the next to start spreading to humans, or when or where such a development will occur. Such an outbreak could result in millions of people suffering and dying in every corner of the world in less than six months. Rapid Climate Change - Dramatic and unforeseen changes already are occurring at a faster rate than expected. Most scientists are not confident of being able to predict such events. Rapid changes in precipitation patterns—such as monsoons in India and the rest of Asia—could sharply disrupt that region’s ability to feed its population. Solar Geomagnetic Storms - Solar geomagnetic storms could knock out satellites, the electric grid, and many sensitive electronic devices. Crippling solar geomagnetic storms could pose a substantial threat because of the world’s dependence on electricity

Read the Global Trends 2030 report. It might provide you with some valuable insights.

A Constitutional Ammendment holding Congress more accountable to "We the People"

Is it time to start discussing a new amendment to the U.S. Constitution holding Congress more accountable to the people? 

Given the ridiculous, irresponsible, and damaging aspects associated with the recent failure by Congress to pass a budget for the government and taking the country to the edge of defaulting on its financial obligations, perhaps it is time for "We the People" to advocate for a new amendment to the Constitution.

The proposed amendment  would calls for a new election within 90 days if Congress doesn't pass a budget by October 1 of each year – or if it allows the country to default on its debt.  Perhaps it should state that no members serving in the Congress be allowed to run for reelection during the new election.  

The idea has merit and deserves serious discussion – not by Congress, but by the people. A concerted effort could be made to raise the issue on all major social media sites and lets see what the people think.

It certainly would get members of Congress thinking – about saving their hides and doing their job.  Passing a budget is one of the key responsibilities of Congress.  Let me repeat that – it's the responsibility of Congress, not the Executive or Judicial branch of government. It's the job of the Legislative branch of the U.S. government.

What do you think? Share your constructive thoughts and ideas.

Series of Blogs on the 'Open Revolution & Movement

America's Future: 2020-2050

Focused on the "Future of America" and the "American Dream" in the 21st Century

Blogs on the Evolving 'Open Revolution' & Movement

'Open' Revolution #1 – It's Well Underway

Apr 7, 2011 - I believe we have moved into a century of massive, global collaboration, innovation, and 'open' solutions. There is a revolution taking place in the high tech industry as we continue to move to open source solutions. In education and publishing we are moving to open copyright, open access, open knowledge, and open journals. We're seeing collaborative and 'open' news organizations, religious, and political movements…

'Open' Revolution #2 – It's All Around Us

Aug 14, 2011 - We have moved into a century of massive, global collaboration, innovation, and 'open' solutions. We now have open source software, open communities, open copyright licenses, open access, open knowledge, open standards, open journals and more.  I still haven't got a truly clear handle on what is happening, but the 'open' revolution is upon us, all around us…

'Open' Revolution #3 – It's Taking Hold

Oct 4, 2011 - This the third blog I have written on the global 'Open Revolution'. As I have stated in the past, I believe we are seeing the successful strategies of global collaboration, open solutions, and innovation take hold and start to overwhelm current organizations and systems that are starting to fail…

'Open' Revolution #4 - Ending Closed Systems

Oct 30, 2011 - The growing number of protests on Wall Street and across the country by our citizenry reflects the belief that our system of American checks and balances has been circumvented by the influence of big corporations and and financial organizations that have made it impossible for the people's voice to be heard. This in turn has led to a global 'Open Revolution'. People are speaking up and have taken to the street…

'Open' Revolution #5 - Continuing to Unfold

Nov 6, 2011 - I started writing about the 'Open Revolution' over 6 months ago as we saw people step up, speak out, and start to overthrow existing leaders, political systems, and oppressive hierarchies in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria ...

'Open' Revolution #6 - The 'Information Age' and the 'Open Way'

Dec 1, 2011 - We are in the process of transitioning from the Industrial Age of the past century into the Information Age of the 21^st century.  Many acknowledge this but don't really grasped what it means. We are moving from the 'closed' protective systems that worked well in the Industrial Age to the new, more effective 'open' systems approach that is the hallmark of the Information Age.

'Open' Revolution #7 – The Rise of the 'Information Age' and the Death of Existing 'Nation States'

Mar 6, 2012 - We are all passing through a turbulent time in history. We are in the midst of the transition from the 'Industrial Age' to the 'Information Age' and are experiencing major changes and disruptions similar to those experienced when our country transitioned from the 'Agricultural Age' to the 'Industrial Age'.  Many businesses and skills that used to be valued are disappearing...

'Open' Revolution #8 - Culture Change

Jun 15, 2012 - The Internet, computer chips, social media, mobile devices, and other disruptive technologies of this Information Age are spreading around the world and bringing about major changes in business practices, government functions, and our culture. What does this all mean to us? What is going to happen? What will be replacing our existing system of government and way of life? I don't think any of us know for sure, but…

'Open' Revolution #9 – Taking action to Start Restoring the 'American Dream'

Aug 3, 2012 - What can we do to help shape a better future for our country and our people? We shouldn't just complain or comment on the current state of affairs, we ought to provide recommendations on next steps to take as we move deeper into the 21^st century. Let's start to figure out what 'We the People' believe ought to be the best way forward. Let's identify some of the key issues facing us and specific strategies and alternatives we should pursue. For example…

'Open' Revolution #10 - Solutions

Sep 25, 2012 – In this final blog of mine on the 'Open Revolution', my focus has shifted to 'solutions'.  What can we do in the U.S. to restore the American Dream and guide our country through this transition from the 'Industrial Age' of the 1900's into the 21^st century 'Information Age' .  What we need is a clearly articulated vision of the future we want for the U.S., coupled with a strategy, goals, and the major objectives the country needs to be focused on for the next several decades… 

These short blogs on the 'Open' Revolution were written over a period of almost 2 years as the 'Open' Movement slowly spread across the globe. What constructive thoughts and observations do you have to add about the 'Open' Revolution that is underway?