Power Curve Society: The Future of Innovation, Opportunity and Social Equity in the Emerging Networked Economy

Many people grew up learning about bell curves as the shape of normal distribution of most problems were faced. Certainly, in a high middle class society such as the United States, the bell curve described the wealth and income distribution of American society: starting low with the few rich, rising up to reflect a large middle class, and tapering off with a sizeable but still diminishing poverty class.As the technology boom of the 1990s increased productivity, many assumed that the rising water level of the economy was raising all those middle class boats. But a different phenomenon has also occurred. The wealthy have gained substantially over the past two decades while the middle class has remained stagnant in real income, and the poor are simply poorer. This has led some to wonder if America is turning into a power-curve society: one where there are a relative few at the top and a gradually declining curve with a long tail of relatively poorer people. Recent research indicates thatmid-level jobs, the kind that helped create economic stability in the 1950s and 1960s, are becoming rarer. For the first time since the end of World War II, the middle class is apparently doing worse, not better, than previous generations. If these statistics are an accurate measure of how people are doing, then this is an alarming trend. What is the role of technology in these developments? How will future generations fare in a world defined less by broad distributions of wealth and more defined by power-curves? Will a small number of "winners," accumulate the larger share of wealth through an increasingly automated and globalized economy? If this is our trajectory, how can we brace ourselves for it? To answer these and similar questions the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program assembled a knowledgeable group of thinkers, leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs seasoned in the digital economy for a three-day dialogue in Aspen, Colorado in August of 2012. The event focused on the broader economic and social implications of an economy being redefined by new networks, behaviors and rules. A significant portion of the discussion also explored personal data as a possible untapped source of economic empowerment. This report covers the relationship between innovation and productivity, the "new economy of personal information", the workings of the "power-curve society", the future of jobs, and the social, policy and leadership implications of these changes

Chapter 18 Re-imagining Politics through the Lens of the Commons

In this wide-ranging and multidisciplinary volume, leading scholars, activists, journalists, and public figures deliberate about the creative and critical potential of public imagination in an era paradoxically marked by intensifying globalization and resurgent nationalism. Divided into five sections, these essays explore the social, political, and cultural role of imagination and civic engagement, offering cogent, ingenious reflections that stand in stark contrast to the often grim rhetoric of our era. Short and succinct, the essays engage with an interconnected ensemble of themes and issues while also providing insights into the specific geographical and social dynamics of each author’s national or regional context

The Promise and Peril of Big Data

The Promise and Peril of Big Data explores the implications of inferential technologies used to analyze massive amounts of data and the ways in which these techniques can positively affect business, medicine, and government. The report is the result of the Eighteenth Annual Roundtable on Information Technology

Chapter 18 Re-imagining Politics through the Lens of the Commons

In this wide-ranging and multidisciplinary volume, leading scholars, activists, journalists, and public figures deliberate about the creative and critical potential of public imagination in an era paradoxically marked by intensifying globalization and resurgent nationalism. Divided into five sections, these essays explore the social, political, and cultural role of imagination and civic engagement, offering cogent, ingenious reflections that stand in stark contrast to the often grim rhetoric of our era. Short and succinct, the essays engage with an interconnected ensemble of themes and issues while also providing insights into the specific geographical and social dynamics of each author’s national or regional context

Artificial Intelligence Comes of Age: The Promise and Challenge of Integrating AI into Cars, Healthcare and Journalism

Artificial Intelligence Comes of Age," written by David Bollier, is the report resulting from the 2016 Aspen Institute Roundtable on Institutional Innovation. The report examines the transformative nature of artificially intelligent technologies on our society, our economies, our governments and our well-being. It concentrates on three artificial intelligence sectors: self-driving cars, AI and medicine, and AI and the media

Frei, fair und lebendig

This book should give you courage. It unites meaningful thinking with a new way of acting. The goal: a free, fair and lively society. But the familiar has become deeply engraved in our minds, in our everyday lives, in the market and the state. Silke Helfrich and David Bollier reveal traditional ways of thinking and design a program for successful coexistence, a different understanding of politics and caring business. The focus is on commons practices. They show how we pursue common goals in diversity. Practically, houses and vehicles can be created in a similar way to Wikipedia. The book also suggests how to think like a "commoner". It offers a language for the world of tomorrow. It's not just changing the economy and politics - it's changing us.Dieses Buch soll Mut machen. Es vereint ein beziehungsreiches Denken mit einer neuen Art zu handeln. Das Ziel: eine freie, faire und lebendige Gesellschaft. Doch das Gewohnte hat sich tief eingegraben in unseren Köpfen, in unserem Alltag, in Markt und Staat. Silke Helfrich und David Bollier legen überkommene Denkmuster frei und entwerfen ein Programm für ein gelingendes Miteinander, ein anderes Politikverständnis und ein sorgendes Wirtschaften. Im Mittelpunkt stehen dabei Commons-Praktiken. Sie zeigen, wie wir in Verschiedenheit gemeinsame Ziele verfolgen. Ganz praktisch können so Häuser und Fahrzeuge in ähnlicher Weise wie die Wikipedia entstehen. Das Buch stiftet zudem an, wie ein »Commoner« zu denken. Es bietet eine Sprache für die Welt von morgen. Es verändert nicht nur die Wirtschaft und die Politik – es verändert uns

Data, Data Everywhere, and Still Too Hard to Link: Insights from User Interactions with Diabetes Apps

For those with chronic conditions, such as Type 1 diabetes, smartphone apps offer the promise of an affordable, convenient, and personalized disease management tool. How- ever, despite significant academic research and commercial development in this area, diabetes apps still show low adoption rates and underwhelming clinical outcomes. Through user-interaction sessions with 16 people with Type 1 diabetes, we provide evidence that commonly used interfaces for diabetes self-management apps, while providing certain benefits, can fail to explicitly address the cognitive and emotional requirements of users. From analysis of these sessions with eight such user interface designs, we report on user requirements, as well as interface benefits, limitations, and then discuss the implications of these findings. Finally, with the goal of improving these apps, we identify 3 questions for designers, and review for each in turn: current shortcomings, relevant approaches, exposed challenges, and potential solutions

Frei, fair und lebendig

This book should give you courage. It unites meaningful thinking with a new way of acting. The goal: a free, fair and lively society. But the familiar has become deeply engraved in our minds, in our everyday lives, in the market and the state. Silke Helfrich and David Bollier reveal traditional ways of thinking and design a program for successful coexistence, a different understanding of politics and caring business. The focus is on commons practices. They show how we pursue common goals in diversity. Practically, houses and vehicles can be created in a similar way to Wikipedia. The book also suggests how to think like a "commoner". It offers a language for the world of tomorrow. It's not just changing the economy and politics - it's changing us