ENZO MARI, (1932-2021): The insatiable quest for (real) design and beyond.

Multiple categorizations in archives and files related to Enzo Mari and his works as a designer/ maker/ intellectual/ revolutionary, fail really to describe his “style” or let’s better say to place him on a specific rank in design history. His radical aspirations (inside the Nuove Tendenze movement back in 1963), his off-key start in fine arts and book binding, his beliefs in the New Age idealism of the 70’s (published in his own private manifesto, the legendary “Funzione della ricerca estetica” in 1970), his engagement to a personalized process when it comes to mass production (illustrated in his “Tecnica Povera”- inspired furniture in 1974), his warnings about over-industrialization, his disappointment about progressive political powers turned into a toxic status quo, his criticism on the 90’s design glamorama, his continuous faith to a system of values of caring/amend/curate –made him an anticonformist figure among the constellation of pioneering design superheroes in and out of Italy, his country of birth. 

A child and a teacher, a rebel and a restorer, a maker and a technocrat, a thinker and a maker, Mari’s legacy goes far beyond design and it contributes to a mindset or a system of politics of thought, which is very powerfully influential on the millennials’ readiness  for a change, especially during the pandemic era. His positioning in creative self-doubt when it comes to the evolution of his work throughout the years, from his very first design of a ingenious wooden toy of 16 animals piling up, made for Danese in 1957 to his most recent works like the citrus juicer Titanic for Alessi and his lighting designs for Artemide, Mari is the last of the great Masters of design, one that incarnates the indefinite questioning of his proper abilities, pushing the boundaries even when his at his safest in terms of acceptance and recognition. 

With a healthy distance from the over-playfulness-per se of the Memphis movement, reluctant and worried to the massive use of plastic established by the Futurists, inciting Utilitarian modernism but in limited mass production high-grade steel kitchen utensils only for them to be able to last the maximum period of time, embracing wood and its remains to up-cycle furniture parts in an advanced eco-friendly mode, understanding the need of a universal political movement, one that resists the cruel ambitions of political lobbyists, Mari resumed his incredibly good design as a entirely independent spirit, non-aligned  with any league or system, always truthful to his own, inner voice, always ahead of its era. Alberto Alessi’s quote on Mari: “I am grateful that Enzo Mari (ever) existed and continued to work fervently, non-stop, with courageous and uncompromising tenancy in a world that design is always under the threat to be dominated by pure marketing”. 

Thank you 4 All Enzo Mari. Float away into the galaxy, kept by the company of our warmest thoughts. 

A4D-D4A💙💚🙌

NEWS AND UPDATES JUST BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR…(WELCOME 2022).

In central image above: Pantone Color of the Year 2022: Very Peri💜

Money is not the issue anymore, Self-Realization is. Welcome 2022. 

Just before this year comes to an end, a round of applause for the last updates regarding tech, design et al., but also interesting facts and figures  we saved for last…Enjoy and come back for more next year for sure! 

-World Mobile, who recently announced their plans to make low-cost, high-quality internet access available to Zanzibaris, has signed a partnership with the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training in Zanzibar to provide free, unlimited internet to schools across the region. The target is to connect all schools in the region by the end of 2022. In addition to connectivity, World Mobile has installed some laptops for teachers and students. Roll out will be achieved through a close collaboration between World Mobile and the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training to install solar telco and power equipment efficiently in schools. Providing access at schools will also enable World Mobile to supply connectivity to the local areas around them, boosting the local economies. Revenues generated from this will benefit the schools directly as they become node operators on the World Mobile network. 

-Data linkage provides insight, informs policy change, and helps answer society’s most important questions through increasing the utility of data. Within the context of innovation and modernization in public services, Socitm, GeoPlace and Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council utilize Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) as those last can provide a wealth of insight and enablement for local authority decision making and projects. Socitm is supporting the ethical use of data and data insights effectively to make informed decisions and support ethical change as part of wider placebased post Covid recovery. UPRNs can facilitate data linking within a local authority context and this can be used to create a rich picture of intelligence for analytical and project needs.  

-Another EU member decides to seriously test crypto: No other than Estonia, Estonian central bank Eesti Pank and Guardtime research project confirms role for digital bill money systems in CBDC deployment KSI Cash per transaction energy use is just 70 µWh (micro-Watt hours) compared to 0.1 Wh for Visa and 1 MWh for Bitcoin.Blockchain technology can play a key role in the development of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) platforms worldwide, a joint research project by Estonian Central Bank Eesti Pank and leading European deep tech company Guardtime has found (please see the attached press release). The study set out to investigate the technological and operational frontiers of blockchain technology and its use in the context of CBDCs using KSI Cash, a digital currency technology based on the KSI Blockchain. 

Testing confirmed that digital bill-based money systems are linearly scalable and highly efficient delivering end-to-end payment times of 0.6 seconds based on speeds of up to two million bill transactions per second. Crucially it delivered a much smaller carbon footprint and lower energy use than current instant payments platforms – per transaction energy was just 70 µWh (micro-Watt -hour),compared with 0.1 Wh (Watt hour) for Visa and 1 MWh 

(Megawatt hour) for Bitcoin (1 Megawatt hour is one trillion micro-Watt hours). The summary report written by Rainer Olt and Tiit Meidla of Eesti Pank and Luukas Ilves and Jamie Steiner of Guardtime says:  “The CBDC platform we deployed proved to perform well. The system was tested at speeds of up to two million bill transactions per second, where it operated with faster transaction times, lower energy use, and a smaller carbon footprint than current instant payment platforms.” 

-The CCPC is launching a full investigation into Synch Payments to determine if it lessens competition in Ireland. The launch of a proposed payments app by four major banks in Ireland has hit another stumbling block, with the country’s competition authority launching an in-depth investigation into the joint venture. 

In January, AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB and KBC Ireland alerted the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) of their intention to create a digital payments service to compete with the likes of Revolut (which has more than 1m Irish customers) and N26. Following a preliminary assessment, the CCPC said that it found the notification to be invalid because it was unable to gauge the scope of the Irish banks’ plans. 

Last month, the Irish Times reported that Synch Payments had secured an additional €5m to fund the venture, led by AIB and Bank of Ireland buying up more than €4m in shares. Permanent TSB bought €855,000 in stock while KBC, which will soon exit the Irish market, bought only €8,500. This was on top of an initial capital raise of €5.9m that was reported earlier in the year. 

*Growing digital banks such as the UK’s Revolut and Berlin-based N26 pose a significant threat to the market share of traditional banks because of their easy-to-use smartphone applications and popularity with younger users. Earlier today (9 December), UK neobank Monzo was valued at $4.5bn after a fresh funding round that saw the company raise $500m. 

-Quant technology provider SigTech has announced that Revelio Labs, an industry leader in workforce intelligence, is the first client for its new Data Showroom service, a platform that revolutionizes the way data owners sell their data reducing the sales cycle from months to weeks.The SigTech Data Showroom, which launched in November this year, allows users to validate the value of alternative data within days rather than months by providing preloaded, mapped, and harmonized data, as well as signal code examples and backtesting building blocks. 

The Data Showroom provides data owners with more transparency on how customers are using their data, making it easier to engage prospective new clients and to convert trial users into paying customers. 

Revelio Labs’ team of data scientists, economists and engineers deliver industry leading workforce analytics and data to support strategic planning for companies looking to compare their own data to competitors. Most workforce data, unlike financial data, lacks the standardization necessary to develop sophisticated trading models. 

-Today’s apparent exchange between U.S. congressmen and crypto executives has been surprisingly productive, civil, and open-minded. This is big for web3. At stake in the House of Financial Services Committee hearing during the previous weeks:  the future of digital assets, (meaning  NFTs, stablecoins, and their  availability in the near future. Investment on those values seem to be entirely relevant and not the digital-chimeras-type-of -discussion during previous years, especially with the USA struggling to find an adequate position for its size in digital growth, in the comprehensive list of the big country players in crypto. The intentions are clear from inside the White House and beyond as well, that the U.S Dollar is there to coexist with its crypto-offspring in the near future. 

-Next Steps in AI: The Critical Role of Research and Innovation in realizing the full potential of AI, including training the next generation of researchers, supporting talent, and the importance of fundamental AI research in AI innovation became apparent during Covid’s first wave in the UK and it evolves rapidly. At present time UK is ahead in the amount of startups in AI in comparison with the USA:  training the public and the work sector in AI remains a challenge, nevertheless responsible, regulated AI in order to be robust, unbiasedundiscriminating and transparent, is tailored to each domain application. 

At the core of the educational system, starting from the schools, UK acknowledges the need to get the best people and train them with AI training programs conversion aiming to master AI: not just to pick it from the shelf but make it customizable to the best use of the individual or service domain. 

Data analysis and coding are about to get re-diverted not just to how-to-use AI but how to INVENT AI. Academia and industry have a foot in both camps as good AI is getting made always by diverse teams. Trust is another issue since AI tends to be appreciated but not judged as an irreplaceable technology of high importance, a pervasive locomotive in economy across all sectors. Slowed down or hammered by regulation? AI is not scared of regulation in the UK as all startups are very accessible, but all investors need to do is asking or getting ASKED TO INVEST.  

Key people in the AI field:  

Tim Cook, Deputy Head, The Office for AI 

Kathryn Magnay, Deputy Director - Cross-Council Programs, EPSRC 

Aldo Faisal, Professor in AI & Neuroscience & Founding Director, Centre in AI for Healthcare, Imperial College London 

-Whats new in Tech? Check out some of the industry’s most trailblazing females: 

Tugce Bulut, Founder & CEO, Streetbees 

Rose Hulse, Founder & CEO, ScreenHits TV 

Sam Evans, Head of International, TechNation 

-In the search of their (digital) future:  young people and employment. Almost two-thirds of those who have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic are under the age of 25.There is a risk that, without coordinated action, the negative economic impact of the pandemic will be long-lasting for this generation. Additionally, in a nationwide poll of 1,000 16–18-year-olds by the Institute of Coding, more than half believe the digital workforce lacks diversity. 70% of youth surveyed think the sector is run entirely by those of white, British ethnicity, and over a third think there are unequal opportunities for women. One in ten admitted they are actively discouraged from pursuing digital education and jobs due to the lack of people that represent them. While some of these opinions echo what many people in the industry may already feel, it is shocking that these are the perceptions of young people who have yet to set foot in the industry. 

Favourite Quotes of the Year (almost) Gone By:  

-“We need less information and more knowledge”. 

Elif Shafak 

-“Listen to the Quiet people, (especially at countries in turmoil)” 

Ellen Ehni 

-“New Media take time to shape and that very Form depends upon Us” 

“People Need & Deserve to Know: not only to get Informed, (about the surface of things)” 

Timothy Snyder 

-“#Infodemics is not serving as a Shield of Accurate Reporting” 

Audrey Tang 

-“Don’t devalue your Brand. Put Quality in it instead of Clickbaiting” 

Jesper Doub 

A Title 4 All for this Holiday season:  

Garden Cities of To-morrow (To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform), by Ebenezer Howard. 

All the Best & Bloody More/A VERY un-PERI-lous Year 2022! 

A4D-D4A💙💚🙌     

  

Gatherings: Is 70’s Design Stronger than Us? (Xmas 2021 Edition).

In image above (CW): 

Room: Alessandro Mendini-My Prisons: "STANZE-Rooms: Novel living concepts", Exhibition-Triennale 2016, Milano, IT

http://www.8ea.it/en/portfolio/stanze-catalogo-mostra-xxi-triennale-milano-aprile-2016/

Lamp: Jordi Canudas, Dipping Light 

http://www.jordicanudas.com/projects/dipping-light-for-marset

Poster:  Beatles T-Shirt on Talent, Stella McCartney

https://www.stellamccartney.com/gb/en/unisex/the-beatles-get-back/get-back-t-shirt-6J0004SPW268490.html

Screen/TV/Interface/Books: LG Quantum Dot NanoCell

https://www.lg.com/uk/lgnanocell/truth.jsp

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16793.Stardust

https://www.jameshowe.com/books-1/2017/5/4/bunnicula

https://www.bookdepository.com/My-Fathers-Dragon-Ruth-Stiles-Gannett/9780440421214?redirected=true&utm_medium=Google&utm_campaign=Base1&utm_source=GR&utm_content=My-Fathers-Dragon&selectCurrency=EUR&w=AFFMAU9SMDG1M8A8V9RB

https://www.electa.it/en/product/enzo-mari-curated-by-hans-hulrich-obrist/

Armchair: at flea markets everywhere and 

https://www.sothebys.com/en/series/design-week-ny-2021?cmp=email_Daily_Marketing_Email_verB_N11142_N10809_N10808_N11143_Design_Week_in_New_York_06-Dec-21&utm_campaign=MARDailyEmailLIVE&utm_content=email_daily_marketing_email_b&utm_dept=20th_Century_Design&utm_medium=email&utm_source=zaius&utm_term=06-Dec-21

Power bank: https://www.zagg.com/en_eu/universal-batteries?brand=164&gclid=Cj0KCQiA2NaNBhDvARIsAEw55hhBEvPmbz_2Jio6Xi2aEWcrhCzO6uX3QUoaY7NEGGdGGaEqGX_XuPEaAoDMEALw_wcB

Music: https://www.fruugo.gr/%CF%80%CE%B9%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%BF-%CE%BC%CE%B5-%CE%B1%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%B9%CF%87%CE%B5%CE%B9%CF%81%CE%B1-kalimba/p-53844142-108887758

Tray: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/paris-je-taime/_french-majolica-flower-form-handled-tray-c908

Stools: at flea markets everywhere and 

https://www.sothebys.com/en/series/design-week-ny-2021?cmp=email_Daily_Marketing_Email_verB_N11142_N10809_N10808_N11143_Design_Week_in_New_York_06-Dec-21&utm_campaign=MARDailyEmailLIVE&utm_content=email_daily_marketing_email_b&utm_dept=20th_Century_Design&utm_medium=email&utm_source=zaius&utm_term=06-Dec-21

Wine and  Condiments: 

http://www.lambouri.com/  

https://www.bostock.nz/product/apples-organic/

Spontaneous Underground. Cultural Immigration. (R-)Evolution as Heritage. Hosting and Entertaining for Friends (a crowd of 50 thousand people will do;-). Digital & Artisan. Global (Soul) Warming. A Humanity Archive.  

In the era of acute social media domination, it seems that the 70’s vibe transcends- still- contemporary aesthetics in design and interiors, to start with.  Aesthetics is Ethics after all, a system or set of values, defining social and political standing before creating a final image: something that only looks, works, feels good. Good design is pollinated with the 70’s legacy of Design 4 Good, firstly initiated through a psychedelic approach but ending up to the defense of Community, the sense of Belonging, a protective intention of no-harm. A notion larger than just being part of a local identity, breaking out your own Unit: the warmth of the Artisan even when design illustrates the highest tech in utilities and resources, that is a 70’s immunity to today’s turn in production.  

Escapism, losing thy self inside a personal journey of beliefs or even substances, has been heavily criticized in 70’s design, raising questions about functionality and accusations about Hoarder syndromes and consumerism. The feeling of lingering and forgetting the World and who you really are, only for the sake of becoming a part of wholesome process in terms of producing things, that storage element of the 70’s is always present even in the cashless society of the digital era. Experimental exploration in materials and formats was never about depriving design from its practical purpose but ended up to another level of creative knowledge: finding your way back to a much sought solution instead of just missing out the essential idea, in exuberant form and colour-only one element of the 70’s most people can recall.  

The 70’s apprenticeship in the development of future graphic communication, became part of an ever changing décor and finally got built into code, marking heavily the digital dialogues of today’s reality, the IoT and soon enough the AR and Metaverse virtual ecosystems.  

Can the 70’s still produce inspiration and stock up Humanity’s archive, on the fast way into the Deep Digital? The proof is out there, all over the place in design studios and factories, and it still remains a factor of knowhow and flair conveyance to the Gen Z designers, creators and citizens.

In photo bellow: Hosting and Entertaining your Friends At Home (70’s Classic Interiors Encyclopedia).  

Season’s Greetings and a Happy Holiday 4 All!

A4D-D4A💙💚🙌

Smart thinking + City Thinking = Smart City(-ies)>>>Amend or Destroy? (featuring Portugal's Smart Cities Summit 2021).

The future of cities through smart technologies consists of a yester-year clause already and an ongoing process right now in most of the large urban centers of the globe. Technologists and citizens are united, working together towards intelligent tech in order to tackle problems and create new ways of living well. Everyone agrees that we all know who to address and what we need to achieve in terms of smart living inside the town or city. The transition to the final function, image and infrastructure of the city grid though, remains the tricky bit we need to follow carefully: the pace or rate of transition that allows the radical solutions we so need, in an less scraping-all-from-the map way. Thus said, complete re-invention of quarters from scratch, can and will impose total demolition of some of the existing networks, buildings, paths, machines, methods, practises. Promises for a more fluid transformation until 2040 will definitely aggravate the non-so-light-decision to erase artefacts of previous decades for good, in order to replace them with holistic solutions, ready to comply with the A-Z of the future dense landscape of digital services. Amendments will not be always possible: additions, extensions or temporary "patches" to all products of material culture, some of which are unable by birth to transform easily into a total digitalization environment and certainly unkeen to adopt to net zero emissions protocols in less than 2 decades time. 

Climate-wise, the latter has been the top subject of the list to begin with in this year's edition of Smart Cities Summit in Lisbon, Portugal. Currently, around 55% of the world's population lives in cities, and this number is predicted to reach nearly 70% by 2050. This presents significant challenges in terms of managing resources, processes and infrastructures in urban spaces, in order to respond increasing population density and safeguarding the quality of life of all inhabitants. However, this also means that cities – and, as such, their management – ​​play an increasingly important role in fighting climate change repercussions. It was in this context that João Pedro Matos Fernandes, Minister of Environment and Climate Action, opened the first day of the Portugal's Smart Cities Summit 2021, taking place last week.

“Days after the COP 26 Summit in Glasgow on climate – the most important since the Paris agreement, in which each party would have to present itself as more ambitious in its decarbonisation goals – the importance of cities becomes very evident- it is of vital importance to achieve those climate goals”, emphasizes the Minister.

“It is now essential that every city wants to be famous for its commitment to the climate, to its citizens and to transforming life in their cities towards a carbon neutral society that regenerates resources, creates well-being, generate wealth and make the economy grow – not only inside but also outside walls”.

"Only cities and local authorities have the capacity to bridge the gap between the obligation to combat climate change and the need for this transition to be just, without leaving anyone behind, and choosing the right policies for urban territories", concludes the Minister of Environment and Climate Action.

Production in all sectors, from basic commodities, fashion, furniture et al. to Fine Art will go through major remapping as well. As an example, SAP announced the availability of SAP Responsible Design and Production, a solution that allows you to design products sustainably and transition to a circular economy. This is the latest offering in a growing portfolio of sustainability-specific software applications that help companies increase their measurement and data management capabilities. As corporate sustainability regulations such as plastic taxes are introduced, the SAP Responsible Design and Production solution enables brands to accelerate their transition to Circular Economy business practices. The SRDP helps companies gain better visibility into material flow throughout their processes, including tracking and enforcing constantly-updating regulations, especially those relating to product packaging and plastics. With the growing development of sustainable products by companies, the management of materials and regulatory data is one of the most complex challenges in today's consumer industry. There is inherent complexity in designing products that eliminate waste and use responsible materials, but the SAP Responsible Design and Production platform- native in Cloud, co-developed with Accenture and based on the SAP Business Technology- addresses these perplexities and offers the ideal, customized solution to customers, helping them to make circular products available and achieve a regenerative economy.

Check out our top selection of most noteworthy startups in the exhibition area of PSCS 2021, covering a wide spectum of facilities regarding intelligent systems for energy, security, crisis prevention, governance, architecture and design:

https://wavecom.pt/

http://www.enermeter.pt/

https://www.ama.gov.pt/

http://www.apemeta.pt/pt/

https://aqvamore.com/

http://www.e4s.pt/

https://www.bloomwall.com/

http://www.gesi.org/

Until next year's show, stay well and be smart in & out your home, town or city.

Best wishes

A4D-D4A💙💚🙌

WEB SUMMIT 2016-2021:The lifelong learning experience up to now, (key notes from the fair in Lisbon, Portugal).

Why Web Summit turns out to be that important after all? Apart from the global influence of the event business-wise, as the game-shaker and  play-maker of the digital entrepreneurial world plus a major platform to actually inspire more recent tech fairs in other capitals in the likes of London and Amsterdam, Web Summit remains a generator of ideas and actions for social change. The once-upon- a-time Irish startup starting all the way back in Dublin, moved to Lisbon's vibrant, digital ecosystem, merging forces with the local and international market but also affecting politics and helping to create initiatives by all those factors who strive for a benevolent, cooperative, restorative and innovative era of technology 4 Good.  

Here is a condensed recap of a few focal highlights of those last years, the beginning of a exciting journey: as long as the digital era creates opportunities of expansion  but also raising question marks Web Summit will continue to contribute with solutions in and out the web, always with strong ethics and the power of a new thinking class.  

-HR: Character VS Curriculum Vitae 

Recruitment technologies are getting more and more advanced, enriched lately with deep AI, an attempt for quicker and more centralized selection of candidates, a method that created controversy though especially in beauty pageants where the algorithm focused on Caucasian candidacies. The essential ability to distinguish the right one for the job remains  finally the interview and the evaluation of his/her personal traits and code of ethics, more than the prior experience or the knowhow. The difference-maker is always the character-builder in contemporary HR approach. (JobSCope A, Polina Montano). 

-Outer space – Airspace: Field 4 Business 

The outer space exploitation plus the airspace ventures of the future go beyond the exploration of other planets and civil aviation (airlines) for tourism purposes. Bobby Healy, the founder of aviation company MANNA stirred customer services through contemporary  technologies: drones delivering your takeaway lunch order. Astroscale,  is a global private space debris removal company using its technology for stock sustainable transferring  to outer space, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The possibilities are endless and they do not stop in the sectors of retail or waste management. 

-Improve VS Recreate 

In certain areas there are certain ways to function. Penalties inside the digital space acting as amendments or alerts to tech giants are proved to be unsuccessful: the result is that fines are getting paid by the Big tech for several discrepancies which end up being repeated. The actual solution for certain practices to stop is to demolish (and recreate from scratch) entirely the digital environment of action for the big tech who continue to ignore legislation. EU deciphered the challenges of this year including the need for restoration after a penalty and the recovery of the market post-damage, a new code of conduct (i.e. the Anti-Trust Law Enforcement) for any upcoming big company, the new tools set for distant working and learning, the need to release the weights and move faster in a capitalistic environment of private property and initiative. 

-AI Benevolence VS AI Discrimination 

With clauses like “physical labour in the industrial unit is going to be vanished” and AI wining over vital space in the workforce department when it comes to learning, public transports, farming and admin the new dominant question is born; not how many jobs we will lose to machines but what type of new jobs we will move into? Many countries implement coding since kindergarten and specialized tech or customer support tends to become a new sector of economic growth. 

-Growth VS Scale 

Vertical profit or profit in physical money tends to be less important when other type of assets like NFT are taking the lead (among many others to follow), especially to multidimensional, hyper-architected environments like the Metaverse soon to be launched inside many industries other than entertainment, (: virtuality, interaction between humans And services, augmented features 4 larger or smaller user audiences worldwide).  

-Public sector Architecture VS Public Sector Infrastructure 

Dr. Rebecca Parsons on evolutionary architecture and governance, she re-invented the public speaker's game in WS19, regarding a subject we rarely hear about and even more rarely tend to (really) understand. Linear hierarchies in the public sector infrastructure, pyramid schemes with the odd external app enriching the user value to make it look “upgraded”, belong to the Napoleonic era. The current notion of digitally stereoscopic , fully augmented, intelligent systems where civilians and public administrators contribute and navigate simultaneously saves time, can be error proof and excels in provision and crisis management scenarios. 

-Supply Chain VS Climate Rescue 

What it takes for environmental organizations to team up for one cause: net zero carbon emissions by 2050? Sustainability is not an expense but a cost-reduction factor and it needs to be implemented at the birth of every business, like an energy certificate for buildings, like water, electricity or consumables. The themes of ecology, desystematization and re-systemization, Circular Economy Model, ethical consumption, deplastification, repair, performance economy, dematerialization et al. are going to affect the state of the planet therefore the change in our climate. A change directly linked with a shift of the current economic and political system. 

-Shake hands (with the attendant next to you) VS not to shake hands;-) 

Paddy Cosgrave's advice is the first kick in the opening WS ceremony, just to break the ice and start networking: shake hands or (post-Covid) kindly introduce yourself to the person seating next to you;-))  

Which is your favourite year from 2016 onwards at Web Summit in Lisbon? You can register your vote and comment at the Blogger comment section bellow! 

NEXT: TO BE CONTINUED WITH PORTUGAL SMART CITIES SUMMIT 2021 UPDATES;-)) 

Stay awesome and trust in #websummit 

A4D-D4A💙💚🙌   

5G (>>TO 6G >TO…): WHAT’S NEXT? AN (ALMOST) GLOBAL IMPACT REPORT, powered by OMDIA.

Image above: Courtesy of Orange, https://5glab.orange.com/en/, https://www.orange-business.com/en/focus/5g 

Follow OMDIA on Twitter: @OmdiaHQ 

What will the impact of 5G be in real time? In-depth studies are commissioned in several countries already, exploring all the major micro and macro-economic changes ignited by 5G with a predominant one curated by mega service provider Orange and executed by OMDIA top tech experts. The two companies focused on economy (sales), employment (substitution of sectors and profession transformation, including new tech design and over-specialization in all areas) and the environmental impact (:total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by country by industry, thus on a specific part of the Eurozone for the time-being). 

5G facilitation on 1.enhancing mobile wireless broadband (:at work, school, university or distant learning hub, for entertainment purposes enabling augmented and virtual reality, for mobile computing and digital signage), 2. massive Internet of Things use (:smart agriculture, smart cities, smart homes, smart energy and utility monitoring, remote monitoring), 3. Autonomous vehicles, drones and public transport, plus medical apps and industrial automation (robotics) will impose the essential reassignment of all vital sectors and their core design. That also means a significant increase of sales in areas such as: retail, media/communication, admin, health-social work, construction/real estate, hospitality-food, arts-education, forestry, fishing being only some of them. There may be job losses though from: mechanization of production/processes; driverless transportation (e.g., mining and quarrying); remote monitoring, management, and control of assets; digitalization of customer interaction.

However, these will be outweighed by job creation from: manufacture of 5G equipment and components; software development for digitalizing industries; cellular/5G security specialists; drone operators; logistics analysts/technicians; autonomous vehicle/drone engineers. Different sectors of the economy and different types of roles will be enhanced and created because of 5G implementation. 5G will enable and create cognitive/physical jobs. Skilled specialized technicians will be required to install, operate, and maintain a wide range of devices, components, and systems across a range of industries. 

Previous research and public reporting by mobile service providers shows that mobile services drive a net reduction in Green House Gas emissions, by helping to reduce emissions for example, reducing travel and improving energy efficiency. 5G will accelerate this by enabling new features, applications and services, reducing the power consumption per gigabyte of mobile services; and increasing the scale and intelligence of IoT services. 5G-enabled smartphones and other devices will improve existing apps and create new ones, that will help to reduce physical travel and thus reduce emissions, with current examples including mobile banking, mobile shopping, video calling, and enterprise collaboration. Furthermore 5G enabled IoT devices, platforms, and services will improve efficiency in ways that reduce travel time and energy/fuel use, (ex. asset tracking, energy monitoring, smart homes, smart buildings, smart cities, smart manufacturing, and smart agriculture). 

We need to synchronize watches though, simply because 5G networks are not active everywhere, (per town quarter/zone, per municipality, per urban centre, per county, per country): a key issue triggering immense repercussions in the everyday workflow. Cross-borders 5G facilities still vary per country-member in the EU as it happens many times inside continental parts of each territory, due to geographical and socio-economic specifications.  What will be the level of adoption of 5G in each area/country? The drivers of adoption are varied and they depend on 1. The pace of standardization, level of network deployment and availability of 5G devices  2.The adoption rate of previous cellular technologies  3.The competition from other technologies, such as short-range connectivity in the smart home 4.The overall annual revenue from sales of all private and public enterprises within the specified industry. So, this includes both sales directly related to 5G goods and services (i.e., infrastructure, devices and connectivity), intermediary goods and services (e.g., semiconductor components), but also the broader ripple effects: the economic activity enabled by 5G.  

In the era of powerful AI/AR when the future of jobs, the so-called gender disparity, the next generation of climate innovation, the net-zero corporate attitude on reduction of carbon and costs are current talk and they definitely consist of the next decisive step in economy and society, designing and  establishing 5G is getting to a state of almost-an-emergency. That’s only the beginning of high-speed mobile networks with also 6G rising, about to change practically everything in data delivery and beyond.  

NEXT: Web Summit 5 + 1 (2016-2021): A Blogumentary. Stay tuned!-)  

Cheer up & Speed up 💨

A4D-D4A💙💚🙌   

THE METAVERSE CHALLENGE/ PROTO-"METAVERSE GARDENS": is MV the new way of translating our Utopias into Realness? (powered by London Tech Week 2021).

Like the space race, Metaverse is the exciting, lyrical, digital space for multiple players and strategies. How might it all pan out, and what are the opportunities for CreaTech businesses? Creativity meets technology, whereas gamification (games) is the starting point on top of which other technologies will pile up. In sectors like performing arts entertainment such comedy, talk shows, series et al., Metaverse will launch new meaningful projects with Hollywood and independent studio brands ready to adopt quickly and tie up all the following elements together: social media, virtual goods, AI, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, blockchain, cloud computing,  AR, gaming engines renamed to 3D interactive editors, all leading in spatial spaces not through a flat screen: an invisible world about to reveal itself next to us. 

The first objections are truffled all over a wide spectrum of critiques: overlooking the power of the individual in all this can be an issue as the factor of exploitation for profit is obviously  embedded and there might be a danger-as always- for media powerhouses to  dictate their own worlds to large audiences versus to converge their cultures. 

Current internet tools but also platforms do not meet expectations anymore, generating problems of all kinds, from privacy issues to fake news galore, just to quote some random ones. Metaverse can potentially provide a more fulfilling environment for communication and eventually recreation. MV is an Enabler connecting us very physically- (especially elderly people or people with disabilities), closer than ever before to the luring notion of “physical communication”. An essential tool for future Smart Cities, climate change fight and saving the planet, MV set of tools and technologies will not be used just to entertain or edu-tain, but to do good. 

In the post-factual era's many different features Metaverse’s intrusion is a fact and it is here to stay. The technology is rising quickly and like Digital currencies disrupting the idea of what Money is, MV will disrupt the process of every sort of human exchange from now on. 

Can MV win back (Fashion +) Design-at-Large lost cause? 

The indications are more than clear, if not far more than just that. The Minimum Higher Income & Expenditure law in China affecting the luxury industry to the maximum, the actual plateau at the dawn of circular fashion & economy that slows down production, (we do not need nor fancy any more goods ), the intense need to preserve the Ateliers, collections and archives of heritage Houses (hence initiatives a la Met Gala), plus the Tokenization in finance, pushing away traditional money alongside with the Rise of Metaverse as a new Homegrown space, all these reasons lead brands to engage new ways in order to sustain their ecosystems and continue as Brands + More. In an already saturated, struggling market defined by post-covid recession, companies are willing to implicate material-less ventures and getting paid in MV in-game currencies added up in the long list of crypto-assets, instead of trying hard to sell clothes, tables, cars, or souvenirs etc (: Epic Games revenue hit $5.1 billion in 2020, driven by Fortnite and the sale of in-game currency V-Bucks.  Ex. Balenciaga skins are priced at 1000 V-Bucks which equates to approximately $8.)  

Data & privacy protection, copyright protection and legislation, new workforce specialties, cross-platform facilitation and synchronization of infrastructures in the EU, the USA, Asia and beyond need to be tackled though at the same time the actual technology will start to fuse with the current status, in and out the internet.  

In 20 years you might be able to switch on the light and your MV circuit or system will be on, with your kids and family benefit from it for sure. Until then do your research and enjoy (every real and digital aspect of life that can be helpful, constructive and loving 4 U): 

Key MV people to follow:

 

Sol Rogers, Founder & Global Director of Innovation: REWIND x MAGNOPUS 

Jenna Seiden, Vertically Coastal Consulting 

Nick Fellingham, Co-Founder & CEO: Condense Reality 

Tony Currie, Creative Director: Imagination 

Cathy Hackl, Chief metaverse Officer-CEO: Futures Intelligence Group 

Rudy Lee, Chief strategy officer: Zepeto 

Check out these hubs – companies 4 extra resources: 

Yahoo Ryot Labs 

Block V 

Wolf 3D 

Aircards 

Fashion Innovation Agency 

Roblox 

London Tech Week 

Switch the lights off - Turn on the MV😊

A4D-D4A💙💚🙌