Telecommunications company Ericsson has initiated a dialog about the future, specifically about how we will communicate 10 years from now. The name of the campaign is 2020, Shaping Ideas. Most would take a cursory look at consider it just a marketing campaign and they would be doing themselves a disservice by not investigating further.
Above all else this campaign is a platform for discussion to shape the future of communications. Thought-Leaders, visionaries and experts from all walks of life have been asked a few questions about how communications will shape the future; To quote directly from the campaign’s website:
What will life be like in 2020? What will consumers, enterprises and society want from communications in 2020? How will the world evolve? What habits and needs will people have? What kinds of technologies will they use to make life easier?
These interviews have been distilled into small videos that are available to see on the 2020 Shaping Ideas site. The topics discussed range from eliminating poverty to the dramatic rise of women in the workforce, to the next generation and how communications technology will shape those trends. According to the site there will be a new video every week. A List of the videos so far:
- Jeffrey Sachs – Fighting Poverty with Connectivity
- Ian Pearson – Twenty-Four/Seven Connected
- Carlota Perez – Golden Age or Another Crisis?
- Johan Bergendahl – New Demands on the Telecom Industry
- Don Tapscott – Growing Up Digital
- Adrian Bowyer – Download, Adjust, Print!
- Anne Lise Kjaer – Ethical Business and Female Power
- Hans Rosling – On Our Way to a Stable World
I hope as the site evolves we will be able to see longer and unedited interviews as well as a place for those of us who are interested to participate in the discussion. A moderated way of allowing public dialog between those if us interested and the people featured in the interviews could add another dimension to this endeavour.
When going through the site I was struck by the notion that Ericsson has designed this platform to have a life of its own. This is a considerable risk as some opinions can (and probably will be) contrary to Ericsson’s vision of the future. Obviously Ericsson has gone into this endeavour with their eyes wide open and are aware of the inherent risks.
The real question now is; Will Ericsson use these discussions to shape their own activity in this market?
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