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Creating Generational Legacies

Saturday, May 22, 2021

The future of work is on us - are we ready for the #NexttechRevolution?




Craig Saphin  posted on linkedin today that there is a critical shortage of skilled staff - and we don’t even know what skills are needed in next 10 years, as technology is changing so fast! 

The future of work is on us - and there are significant opportunities! - are we ready for the #NexttechRevolution? 


As the Australian Tech Sector is coming into its own - There is a critical shortage is skilled roles in the tech sector today.


Case in points - 

  • Culture Amps is planning to go from 400 to 700 staff this year 
  • Deputy is hiring 40 people
  • Wise tech -is  on the continual lookout for data scientists , machine learning professionals and front-end developers 
  • Safety Culture has at any one time 30-40 roles


Yolanda Redrup reports in the AFR today that there are currently 30,000 software engineers in Australia - (where 9000 move jobs each year) , and the Industry will need an estimated 156,000 more digital technology workers by 2025. Deloitte Access Economics 2021 report says  that this skill gap could cost the economy up to $10 billion in growth over the next four years.


In the article , "Working Theory Angels” -Rachael Neumann predicts that 


“85% of the roles that will be in demand in a decade have not even been invented yet” 

What we need to do 

Learning  needs to be centred on mindsets and not based on vocational skills . Spending 5 years at  University learning a vocation in my view is history! 


Universities, Educational Institutions and Vocational Training should teach us to be outstanding thinkers and flexible executors – how to be creative, hypothesis-driven problem solvers, and how to build and work in diverse teams. 


Heather McGowan puts  it succinctly - we need to teach our workers to “learn how to learn” - to be well positioned to tackle problems that haven’t been seen before and be resilient to the inevitable “Moore’s Law” exponential rate of change .


Future Workers will need to become lifelong learners!


Welcome to the #NexttechRevolution  


#FOW

Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Hendrik Lourens - Getting the most out of New Technology

 


Clive Smallman and the Nexttech Transformation Forum

 

Our Chair, Bill Mclellan, introducing our Professor - Clive Smallman, who gave of his knowledge, that gave a number of firestarters for our thinktanks. 

The Thinktanks were unpacked by our members, Craig Sounes, Craig Saphin,  Michael Bartura and John Cooksey 


John Cooksey and the Nexttech Transformation Forum's Think Tank

 An amazing session of connecting, collaborating, contributing with an amazing Nexttech Community.

Rob Nankervis ,  Craig Saphin, Cassandra Parton and Hendrik Lourens  unpacking the think tank.


Monday, May 10, 2021

Augmented reality has been around Smriti 2 million years!

An interesting article by Bill Davidow ..... are you just a machine? 

would be interested in your views 


By William Davidow

Author—The Autonomous Revolution—Reclaiming the Future We’ve Sold to Machines


Hominids have inhabited virtual space for over two million years. Using the tool of virtual space, the homo species became the dominant species on earth. 


Evolution provided hominids with virtual space to facilitate their survival, ability to create human society, and to improve the quality of their lives. Virtual space provided them with greatly increased access to knowledge and new forms of fascinating entertainment. 


Augmented reality was a key component of the experience.


So, let’s examine the virtual space nature created.


If a tree falls in the wilderness and there is no one there to hear it, it does not make a sound. 


If no one is in an art gallery, the paintings have no colors. 


If a perfume bottle is open and there is no one nearby to smell it, it has no scent. 


Sounds, colors, smells, tastes, and hotness are only there if they are being observed. They do not exist in the physical world. They are creations of our senses and brains. 


Our senses sense the wavelength of light reflected by the object we are observing, not its color. Those wavelengths impinge on the cone cells in our retina that are sensitive to different wavelengths of light. 


If one is observing a lemon, adjacent red and green cones are activated. Our brain processes those signals coming from adjacent cones and creates the color yellow in our brain.[i] 

Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s, 1910 still-life of yellow lemons and a cup is a colorless piece of canvas if no one is observing it.



In the physical world, there is no music, only sound waves. Our brains create the perception of music. Our brains create the pain we feel when we touch a heated surface. That pain is an interpretation of what our senses feel which is rapidly vibrating molecules.


Just think of it, when our senses add colors to a painting or turn a sound wave into music, our brains are augmenting reality. Augmented reality has been with us for two million years, not twenty.   


Our virtual space plays a key role in our relationships and enhances our ability to survive. 


Verbal communication facilitates relationships, enables us to organize group activity, and enhances our ability to respond to threats. Verbal communication depends on our ability to use our vocal cords to create sound waves and the ability of our senses to convert those vibrations into sounds our brains can interpret as language.


Language made it possible to organize group activities and communicate abstract ideas. Language played a key role in making humans the world’s dominant species.


Language greatly increased our access to knowledge. 


Before writing and the internet, it helped people learn from one another, made it possible to gain knowledge of what was happening in distant locations, and share history. 


Virtual space also provided new forms of entertainment. 


Language made it possible to tell stories. Music and singing all depend on our ability to hear. Colors make art more beautiful and meaningful. 


Virtual space is a mental tool, not unlike physical tools such as a hammer, knife, or fire, that put mankind in charge of the world.


 So, since birth you have been living in a simulated world—a virtual space. Of course, since we have always lived in virtual space, we thought it was real and never bothered to give it a name like “virtual space.” Today we are so confused about the virtual space we live in that we call it the real world.


Recently, mankind claimed to have invented virtual space. 


The espoused goals of its inventers were to make the world a more prosperous and better place, provide us with instant access to the world’s information, and provide us with new forms of fascinating experiences—just like nature’s form of virtual space has been doing for two million years.


The inventors of the new virtual space sincerely believe they have invented something entirely new rather than an information technology enhanced and deeply flawed version of a two-million-year-old invention. 


Nature’s tried and true virtual space came up with a system that made hominin survival possible for two million years. It accomplished that remarkable feat by unselfishly providing mankind with tools that served his survival needs.


 If the new virtual space, with less noble values, is going to be around for the next two million years, it has a lot to learn from the great job nature has done.

The Grand Old Lady is returning to become “the Jewel of Sydney Harbour




Matt O’Sullivan of the #SMH this morning shared the announcement from Transport Minister Andrew Constance who proudly stated  that The Lady Northcott will be returning to grace herself on  the harbour once again after retiring gracefully from her ferry service in 2017. The Minister said 

“The Lady will not only be great for tourists and locals, but she will provide Aboriginal youth with specialised training programs while out on the water.” 


Shane Phillips, Chief Executive of Tribal Warrior says that they have been given the honour to refurbish and repurpose the Lady to be the Jewel of the Harbour - giving cultural tours and showcasing Aboriginal culture on the waterways of Sydney! 


Tribal Warrior is a Redfern Charity which has an amazing history and a track record of mentoring many young Aboriginal people who went on to secure permanent positions in the maritime industry.


The Lady has accumulated many passionate  supporters over the past 40 years - including  over over 20 engineers, deckhands and Masters who have created  a Whatsapp Group called “friends of Lady Northcott” and the “Yarning Circle’s #bbgforum” who have worked with Tribal Warriors to make this dream come true! 


Graeme Taylor, from community group Action for Public Transport, said the return of the Lady Northcott to Sydney Harbour was a “win-win for everyone”.

“The boat is as solid as Fort Denison,” he said. “The Lady-class ferries were an integral part of the image of the city. They were enormously popular and carried millions of passengers during their working lives.”


Shane Phillips Chief Executive of Tribal Warriors said 

“Through cultural tours of Sydney Harbour, we want the Lady to bring people of Sydney together as a community and create a legacy - so that our children will tell the story. Let’s prove we can do this as a community - by our actions - and help this  Lady to be a Vessel  for us to give back to the City of Sydney.” 


Shane saying  Thank You to the  Friends  of Lady Northcott and the Yarning Circle .




Sydney Morning Heralds article this morning 


“One of Sydney’s last grand dames set to return to harbour https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/one-of-sydney-s-last-grand-dames-set-to-return-to-harbour-20210115-p56uhi.html”