Some gleanings from the first afternoon
How to bestow trust. Werner Vogels of Amazon: Look at the vision of the company and how the company not only delivers to it but cannibalizes it. My take: When you adopt and alter a vision, you assume ownership of it.
Our current metacrisis. Umair Haque of Havas Media Lab: We are in a great compression, and the negative turning point was not last year but some point many decades ago. Inexpensive products, touted as delivering value, actually impart meaningless value because they create economic harm — borrowing something, or using someone, to make a product or service and not paying it back. My take: Beyond re-defining value and explaining the harm of capitalism gone awry, organizations of all kinds must answer the question, for themselves, of how they create value while inflicting the least amount of harm. That there is no one answer is part of the answer.
Why expertise may now mean something entirely different. Anil Dash of Expert Labs: The fundamental opportunity in a government is improving the model for filtering expertise, not just information. It’s more than transparency; it’s recognizing, then acting upon the recognition, that the knowledge of this country or this world is not concentrated among the few people with access to the President twice a year. My take: As a government student in college, as a marketing operative since then, and as a transplant to Silicon Valley twelve years ago, it’s safe to conclude, finally, that my journey, like that of many others, is about how to help people find representation and connection. This is the time to act. Even with all the challenges and the change that will be painful for some, we can build an infrastructure that is more than transparent — an infrastructure that is truly participative and embodies the voices of a democracy.
When manufacturing will be a force in America again. Chris Anderson of Wired: The next ten years are about applying new technologies to the physical world in much the same way we have applied them to services. My take: The unbelievable is truly possible in American manufacturing if the industry can see past its pain and discomfort. It’s possible because of the very force that manufacturing verticals have criticized is ready for manufacturing prime time.
Where Hollywood can meet Middle America, or even Silicon Valley. Peter Guber of Mandalay Entertainment: Hollywood is in the business of emotional transportation, not just filling seats. Humans are wired to hold data in terms of emotion and experience. My take: Of course. But the art is in how the artist looks at other people and uses every tool at his or her disposal to shape the experience. This industry that was threatened by talkies, then radio, then television, then iTunes needs to drink the tech kool-aid.
