I´ve cracked it. Got an idea for a new map for 2012. All came about by doing nothing, although music had something to do with it. Hence spent the whole of yesterday with some large sheets of white paper, a couple of pencils and an eraser.
Funny how a few ex-tabloid editors, loud-mouthed journalists and PR people have gone so quiet all of a sudden. Less surprising that the ´favoured daughter` has upset one of the real ones.
I remember some time ago someone telling me that doing a Google search used more energy than boiling a kettle. I was unable to verify this so I’ve never used this ‘fact’. However, there now appears to be some evidence to support this and similar claims.
A study by Ademe, the French government energy savings agency, says that using email rather than paper might be saving trees but is hardly saving the planet. Each email sent uses about 19g (0.7oz) of carbon dioxide and group emails can increase this figure by 400% while adding a photo attachment could increase it 1000%.
The study also claims that a company with 100 staff generates almost 14 tons of carbon dioxide, which is roughly equivalent to 13 return flights from Paris to New York. This calculation assumes that each member of staff sends 33 emails per day, which creates 136 kg (300 lb) of carbon dioxide. The data factors in the energy required to make the computers and also emissions from data centers.
This is very interesting. Thierry Breton, CEO and Chairman of Atos Origin, recently stated his vision for an email free company within 3 years. On the face of it this seems a little crazy. Email is, after all, so central to what people do all day nowadays. On the other hand, what people do nowadays seems to be read and write emails all day long and this isn’t especially productive. Email used to be a productivity tool, but now it’s just an obstacle to productivity and deep thinking.
To quote Breton: “The volume of emails we send and receive is unsustainable for business. Managers spend between 5 and 20 hours a week reading and writing emails”
Information overload – the facts:
* By 2013, half of all new digital content will be updates to existing information
* Online social networking is now more popular than email and search
* Middle managers spend 25% + of their time searching for information
* 2010 : Corporate users receive 200 mails per day, 18% of which is spam
More here- Atos blog
Now, back to my email….
Sorry folks, bit manic. Just escaped from two days talking about scenarios with an energy company (my head hasn’t hurt so much in months), trying to buy a house, kids on summer holidays for two months (help!) and a few other fun things like bloods tests down at the local hospital. Oh, and the test chapter on a new book turns out to have a fatal flaw so a re-write is on the cards for Aug 1.
Bottom line – my posts might be a bit rubbish for a few weeks.
PS – News. I think the issue is that Rupert is thinking about his legacy. The red top that he didn’t get rid of is his legacy, which is why she’s still got a job.
So here’s what I think is going on. Coulson is a sacrificial lamb. The News of the World is being ‘closed’ to ring fence other News titles. It’s likely that the Sun and other non-News tabloids could be implicated. A new title will be launched by News once the dust has settled and most of the News Journalists will be re-employed.
But I’m just a cynical old bastard.
I attended an “Evening of Scenarios” with Royal Dutch Shell last night. Presenting were Dr Angela Wilkinson, Director of Futures Programmes at the Smith School for Enterprise and Environment at Oxford, Nick Molho, Head of Energy Policy at WWF, Jeremy Bentham, VP, Global Business Environment at Shell and Dr Simon Buckle, Director of Climate Policy at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College. Moderator was Roger Harrabin from the BBC.
Angela Wilkinson was very good on the theory behind scenarios and I thought that Jeremy Bentham made some excellent and at times wonderfully nuanced points.
A few things I wrote down…
“Is fresh water the next CO2?”
“ An era of volatile transitions”
“How much difference can directed technology change make?”
“ A global GHG budget for staying below 2 degrees requires us to retire about 85% of all known conventional fossil fuel recoverable reserves by 2050”
(IPCC 2001, ECOFYS, 2009, WWF, 2009)
And a question from a conversation over drinks…“What would happen to Russia politically if demand for its energy and resources collapsed over an extended period?”
One question from the floor was whether the use of scenarios had ever made a real policy difference? My answer to this question would be yes. First there is the case of Shell anticipating the 1973 oil crisis while the second example that immediately springs to mind is the Mont Fleur Scenarios in South Africa.
BTW, I love the thought that sheep farmers in Wales are suddenly becoming rather rich (and somewhat loathed) because they are switching from farming sheep for almost no money to farming wind for rather a lot.
On a totally separate note the News International phone hacking scandal reminds me of a quote by Solzhenitsyn in Point to Point by Gore Vidal (Page 223):
“The press have become the greatest power within the Western countries, more powerful than the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary…hastiness and superficiality are the psychic disease of the twentieth century and more than anywhere else is this disease reflected in the press.”
Perhaps we should increasingly add social networks to media in this instance? Partly because of power, but largely for hastiness and superficiality.
A conversation between two Indians in a corner shop in England, which I overheard yesterday:
“I’m moving the family back to India because I want the children to get a proper education.”
OK, I have a question. Actually it’s not my question, it’s from Sandy in Sydney. He needs to borrow our brains.
“Any shining examples you can think of of companies that are making a successful transition from ‘analogue’ to digital delivery”.
My answer is nope. I can’t think of anything at all. Nothing in music, nothing in publishing, nothing in photography (Getty images?). Not really.
How about the wisdom of crowds on this one?
Do you know anything about this? Do you fancy a trip to Moscow? I can’t do it so I’m looking for someone that can. If you are interested get in touch. Date is middle of November.
Other news. Interesting lunch with Atos Origin yesterday. I must say they do produce some rather good reports about the future of technology. Linked the guy running innovation into a fellow Brazilian IT guru and tech trend watcher.
Oh, and I finally have a link for you to the new extinction timeline.