3 Top Things you need to know about the 2008 Great Recession

Accordingly to the International Labor Organization (ILO):

1. Since the beginning of the Great Recession, 30 million people have lost their jobs. There are now 210 millions jobless people (world wide)
   
   
2. Long term unemployment is increasing. Jobs obtained following involuntary unemployment, have lower earnings, which is particular affecting highly educated people.
   
   
3. Over the next 10 years, more than 440 million new jobs will be needed to absorb newcomers into the workforce.

See Dominique Strauss-Kahn's statement (IMF Managing Director) at the 2010 Joint ILO-IMF Oslo Conference: The Challenges of Growth, Employment and Social Cohesion.  It seems "they" are waking up.



3 Top Things YOU need to know to succeed.

1. You need to know that this is NOT a slow down
   
   The Great Depression of the 1930's in the US, eliminated many farm jobs. In the decades that followed, most farmers became industrial workers. More than an unfortunate economic event, the Great Depression represented a structural change in the economy. It marked the beginning of the industrial era.  The Great Recession of 2008 marks the beginning of the knowledge economy. Like the farmers in the 1930s, most of the jobs being lost today, will be permanent.
   
   
2. Your next position needs to be about "problem solving"
   
   Automation and outsourcing have been collaborating towards transitioning our markets from the service to the knowledge economy.  We started by automating and outsourcing the industrial capacity and quickly moved onto services. The Great Recession of 2008 Services was just the final straw that accelerated the unavoidable. In this new economy, you need to be in position of research and development.  If you don't have it yet, or you are not on a path towards it, you need to start... today!
   
   
3. Learn, Document, Publish
   
   To survive in the knowledge economy, you need to find a topic about which you are passionate about, and engage in life long (continuous) learning.  As you learn, you will have to document with great detail what and how you learn, so others can easily find you and engage you.  This is the only way you will be able to compete with the other 600 million people competing for a job.

In case you were thinking that this is too far fetch...(click the link to read the entire article).

P.S. - Unlike government, the entrepreneur community has long picked up on this topic.  New systems were already built to allow you to develop, aggregate and publish your knowledge (Olexe). All you need to bring... is a dream!

3 Top reasons you need to STOP putting money aside for college

Stop putting money aside for college

Here the top 3 reasons why:

1. Bill Gates is onboard - The internet has come of age.  Today it contains vast amounts of high quality information, including the content of many of the top colleges in the world.



Bill Gates at the Techonomy Conference on August 6 2010 (video)

2. Significant change is imminent - Between 2000 and 2006 Medicaid costs went up 62.6%. Higher Education tuition increased 63.4%. State budgets only 17.6%. Society is open to revolutionary solution(s).



Protests at UCLA about the 32% increase in CA tuitions

3. Startup community is busy at work - The education problem has been attracting many entrepreneurs (including yours truly) that see the great opportunities in this chaotic situation.



Olexe is creating the business metaphors of the knowledge economy

In summary, unless you or your kids need to go to college in the next five years, I would strongly recommend you invest the money otherwise.  If you want an advice, I would suggest you save the money for your kids' first startup. That will become your retirement supplement.  Pretty cool hey?

3 top reasons why Google killed Google Wave

It's official. As of August 4th, Google is pulling the plug on Google Wave .  Accordingly to Google that was due to lack of interest.

First things first.

Do you know what a Google Wave REALLY is?

Google Wave is a knowledge aggregator. A knowledge aggreagator is a system that records and archives reflective events (what happens when you think).  The objective of the knowledge aggregator is to establish individual or group knowledge foundation.

A knowledge aggregator is like a dam but instead of collecting water, from one or more rivers, it collects your ideas.  Instead of a large body of water, a knowledge aggregator creates a body of knowledge.

Top Three Reasons why Google Killed the Wave

Since Olexe also creates knowledge aggregators, I decided to investigate what was really behind Google's failure.

1. The product was not ready when it was announced to the world - I got my Google Wave invitation from a person that had attended the 2009 Google IO.  I was anxious to understand what Google Wave was all about.  After joining, I couldn't believe it.  The product had some "nice to haves" but was missing "deal breaker" features. One that really surprised me was the inability to get notifications of when people changed waves.
   
   
2. Google forgot to define the value proposition - Google called the Wave a 3Ps system: program, protocol, platform. Google wanted to create an ecosystem of apps developers and providers that would put the entire world into collaboration overdrive. Do you see the problem?  They didn't create a system that "would double your income in six months". People go to school because they want jobs.  People use Facebook because it's fun. Google delivered technology (the easy part) and forgot to define the value proposition (the difficult part).
   
   
3. They didn't live up to their own expectations - By the end of 2009, the blogging community had already picked on the negative vibes.  While some kept playing to the doll drums, projecting huge success, others where starting to see the obvious. When Google finally made the platform available to the general public, in May of 2010, the excitement from the previous year was all gone.  They started strong and ended in shame.

Conclusion

People don't want more technology. People want to enjoy their lives.

Even though the people behind Google Wave and Google Maps were the same, the results couldn't be further apart. Anyone gets a map. Few get a knowledge aggregator. In the end that what failed was Google inability to make a business case for the knowledge aggregator.

How immune is your organization to mass retirement?

Were you born between 1954 and 1964?  

• YES - move to paragraph after the graphic.
• NO -  continue here.

Those born between 1945 and 1964 are named "baby boomers" (boomers) and they represent 76.4 million people. In case you don't know, every eight seconds, there's a new boomer who turns 60. Chances are he/she works in your organization. 

When talking about boomers, our brain often makes huge mistakes.  The biggest of them is to think that all boomers are people that know nothing about computers and/or the benefits of social networks. Let's face it.  Steve Jobs was born in 1955.  He is now 55!

Generations from 1900 to 2000+

As the generation that took us to the Moon, and invented the internet, retires, those staying behind need to resolve an emerging problem. How will organizations exchange knowledge from those that have it (knowledge holders) to those who need it (learners), in an easy and affordable way?

After the 2008 recession, many stopped worrying about this problem.  However, organizations cannot underestimate the seriousness of the situation, because most of their institutional knowledge is undocumented.

It was to solve this problem that we have been working for the past 2 years on a knowledge exchange.  We call it Olexe - Open-Learning EXchange Engine.  Who said retirement would be boring... or just golfing?

Saramago

I always write my posts thinking about you. Today I didn't. My apologies.

Nunca parou de duvidar.

Nunca parou de pensar.

Nunca aceitou "nunca".

Do you remember the books you read in 2007?

I know what you are probably thinking. Three years is a very long time. Maybe this will help you. Three years ago this month (June 29th), Apple started selling the iPhone. All over the world, people waited for hours in long lines to get one.

In case you find yourself continuing to grasp for the books you read in 2007, then stop and read this blog post.

In the knowledge economy you are what you know; in other words knowledge is money. The books you read are one of your biggest sources of your knowledge. Not knowing what books you read is the equivalent of not knowing what stocks you own.

While financial institutions over the past 10 years became experts at aggregating financial assets (financial asset aggregation),  when it comes to knowledge aggregation, things are only now emerging.

Those who are already aware to the concept of knowledge aggregation are using Personal Information Management (PIM) tools such as Google Notebook, LinkedIn, Facebook, Tumblr and Evernote. Unfortunately, PIM tools are to knowledge aggregation what hybrids are to transportation. They are just a step on the way. PIMs are not goal-oriented which is paramount for successful knowledge aggregation (more about this on a coming post).

Bottom line: You need to start documenting the books you read, and all other learning events in the pursuit of your goals (knowledge aggregation).  Doing so could (will) play a critical role in your next promotion.

P.S. - Olexe is a platform that allows true-knowledge aggregation.

Why is "knowledge aggregation" so important?

It has been almost 6 years since I created my first company - M2MSys.  M2MSys' mission is to bring to organizations the ability to adapt automatically to change.  A combination of sensors, feedback loops, decision engines and business processes.

As you so well know, "revolutionary concepts" hate recessions. As soon as the market hits the skids, customers returned to basics. The 2008 recession has stolen the ability to dream from our customers.

Why is "knowledge aggregation" so important?

M2MSys ideas are still as fresh today as they were in 2002.

"Knowledge aggregation" is what you do to preserve all your ideas so they are not lost, and you can continue where you left off.

Are you aggregating your knowledge?