Pluralist Economics - Growth or Degrowth? It's not an either or

It must have been a social media post mentioning the announcement of the 3rd Summer Academy for Pluralist Economics that caught my attention some months ago. The thing that let me even dig deeper was the fact that the Club of Rome (initiator of what became quite a famous research study on the current state of the earth, climate change and how business should be done, "The Limits to Growth"; anyone who'd like a quick overview on the book check out the interview between Willem L. Oltmans and Jay W. Forrester, the creator of the field system dynamics and initiator of the report, which gives a quick glimpse into the book and its concepts that hold largely true still today in the 21st century).

Having participated in "Transforming Capitalism Lab", a sub-prototype of the MOOC "u.lab - Leading From the Emerging Future" that runs again this September for the 6th consecutive time since 2014, applying for the Summer Academy felt like something "not not to do!" I applied and a few weeks later got the notification that I am in. Can't say how excited I was, especially as my "economics days" were 25 years ago, and focus of work and interest had changed since quite a lot.

What really had drawn my interest was the fact that for the last ten years, since returning to Dresden right in the middle of the bursting Financial Crisis in late 2008, and seeing that "economics 101" neither had produced the "green meadows" of Eastern Germany nor enabled entrepreneurs and visionaries to pursue their dreams for the betterment of society in the region (the complete journey of mine in this context you find here).

Reading into the agenda of the Summer Academy and the previous ones, fond memories of myself sitting in front of Reuters monitors in the trading room of the bank where I did my apprenticeship between 1986-88 and seeing my held stock plunge into a "pit black hole" when the Black Monday happened on October 19, 1987. Not much explanation took place after that time (pretty much like what happened after the Financial Crisis in 2008). As a direct consequence I found myself studying economics afterwards, yet not getting satisfied by the classical curriculum at the university which (back then as still these days) focuses on trying to analyse the developments of the past, missing out the deeper exploration of the "Why?" consequently. Since these days in the late 80's, also experiencing a complete economy (the former GDR) in a massive transition over the last three decades, and having lived in Saxony for half of that time, I am trying to understand and explore other ways of the "natural" growth paradigm which has many "unintended side-effects" that we can see everywhere.

Garden of the Protestant Academy of Thuringia

So the question came up, "Which workshop to take?" amongst almost a dozen ones ranging from Marxist Economics via Feminist Economics to Complexity Economics. To get a glimpse of the variety of economic theory see here the overview at Exploring Economics. It turned out to be "Entrepreneurship and Diverse Economics", making the most sense. Arriving in Neudietendorf and meeting the workshop class on Saturday morning I could not be more thrilled to meet students from various fields (law and medicine including), consultants, policymakers coming from countries such as Colombia, Uganda, Germany, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. The picture you see is the outdoor area which was going to be filled with people discussing the workshops, exchanging thoughts, playing chess or just having a great lunch or dinner outside over the next couple of days.

The core question that followed our workshop over the week was the following, "Does it always need growth or are there other paths of economic progress and well-being of society?"

However, what we see and quite naturally come about in conversation with colleagues and friends it is all about growth (without any mentioned boundaries). "Bigger is Better" seems to be the thing that drives society and the economy, all around the world - yet there are other approaches for companies.

After we had digged deeper in the theory and different concepts, often overlapping in some essential aspects such as giving back value to the society/community and strongly valueing sustainable processes, we learned about some examples of such companies. More of that including companies/projects to be found in this overview from which we drew much of the basis of our conversations in class.

Package of Amarelli liquorice

However, after returning from Neudietendorf and my mind buzzing with the inputs it gained over the week, memories of the past came back once opening the cupboard holding our tea and coffee: a box of liquorice manufactured by Amarelli. While on holiday in Italy we happened to visit their company, where we learned about the peculiar making of liquorice (Lakritz). The most stunning thing was that this company is in family hand since its founding in 1731. Even more so it is a member of a global community of family-owned businesses that had been founded more than 200 years, called The Hénokiens. What is so amazing about those companies (the oldest, a spa in Japan in family hands for 46(!) generations since the 8th century) is that all have grown to a certain size, ranging from a few hundred to several thousand employees.

Staying for generations in family ownership says one thing for sure, "Growth in numbers is not everything!"

Why not take some of the Hénokien wisdom into account when starting your company or leading an existing one?

For further research and learning around degrowth check out the following links:

• Degrowth in Movement
• New Systems - Possibilities and Proposals
• Club of Rome Summer Academy 2017

5G Pulling the Pack Ahead, Especially on the Edge

Final talk at #IEEETTM 2012 in Dresden;
photographer: Ralf Lippold

It was a bright sunny day in late spring of the year 2012. Several hundred tech experts, researchers and media folks began to flock the City of Dresden. One could immediately sense the international flair near the Hilton Hotel in downtown right in the middle of the Altstadt, yet the miracle was over soon enough. The city itself often is described as a "cultural pearl" with a historic legacy that can be still today be visited. That it could be a modern day technology hot spot probably is not that well-known (at least outside the tech community). The TU Dresden was just about to hand its application to Excellence Initiative which would make it later the one university in the Eastern part of Germany holding the title of an "Excellence University".

This was seven years ago. If you'd be interested in what it was like you can read my personal experiences from that event here. From here the story evolves in ways that might not be so obvious, even for the curious outside observer, even at a local basis.

With the right mindset, the right people, and the right amount of capital, anything is possible - so Peter H. Diamandis, founder of XPRIZE, Singularity University and co-founder of Planetary Resources

One thing that was mentioned by one of the co-organizers, Prof. Gerhard Fettweis, at his planetary talk was the "tactile internet", literally the real-time interaction via data communication. Back then and mostly still today is the latency time of signal travelling through fibre cables or via air. Listen to his visionary talk at the 2013 Johannesberg Summit. What was still missing was a technology that enables signals to move fast enough to almost create real-time situations (e.g. relevant for remote-control surgery or autonomous driving) even at short distances and not like space-related distances as SpaceX and PlanetaryResources had launched their operations earlier that year.

In 2014, just a year later, Dresden-based technology blogger Heiko Weckbrodt (aka Oiger) captured a live presentation on what was going to become the next generation in mobile communication. And roughly around the same at the Date 2014 the "Tactile Internet" found its way again into the conversation in Dresden, this time in connection with the cfaed (Center for Advanced Electronics Dresden - one of the funded excellence projects at the TU Dresden researching in the "electronics of tomorrow").

Two years later, the focus of the Hannover Messe 2016 was "Industrie 4.0" (a term coined in 2012 in order to establish a brand around the German efforts towards what is commonly known as "The 4th Industrial Revolutions". It was about to pull in local companies and research institutes in that area to the giant fairground (formerly base of the EXPO2000) in Hannover. Additionally, in early spring the  MP of the Free State of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich, had initiated a local conference in Dresden on "Industry 4.0" (in German). Several hundred stakeholders flocked to the International Congress Center Dresden and a social media there can be still the spirit of that day be captured via the hashtag #SachsenIndustrie40. Industry 4.0 and real-time interaction with as little latency between connected machines certainly was in need for technology beyond cable or WiFi connectivity. Examples of the difference could be seen in Berlin during the 1st SUGermanySummit in May which was also attended by Saxons, namely the boundary spanning mind behind HTxA - HighTech x Agency. An overview of what happened during these two days in Berlin, seen from a Saxon perspective, has been captured here.

Even though the events over the years since 2012 look like single dots in history, a closer look certainly reveals an ongoing development and like patient upbringing of camellias (a flower originating in China and Japan which has a long, and lately rising, relevance in Saxony; famous examples are the "Pillnitzer Kamelie" at Pillnitz Castle or "Königsbrücker Kamelien" at Castle Königsbrück). Like a jigsaw puzzle, things only become visible only shortly before all the dots/pieces are connected and the "big picture" comes into view.

Press conference on Tuesday, April 2, 2019, #HM19;
photographer: Ralf Lippold

The latest highlight took place at the Hannover Messe 2019, just this week, where the City of Dresden held a press conference (live stream via Periscope from minute 59:00 onwards) together with several partners, e.g. Future Mobility Incubator of Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH (Transparent Factory), Airrays GmbH, 5G Lab Germany, Smart Systems Hub, T-Systems MMS GmbH, SQL Projekt AG led by Robert Weichert, WeichertMehner (furthest on the left)

More details on the press conference and adjacent activities around technology see the Dresden Convention website. The following conferences in Dresden touch on 5G-, telecommunication-technologies, as well as applications. Don't miss to take into account and in your travel plans.

1. connect-ec: Germany's first telecommunications trade fair (German), May 2-5, 2019, connect-ec (open for the public), May 4-5, #connectec2019 (Twitter)
2. IEEE 4th 5G Summit Dresden, October 1, 2019, @5g_lab
3. IEEE 5G World Forum Dresden, September 30 - October 2, 2019 

.... as always, this could only be a small dip in the pool of amazing things ongoing in Dresden. Stay tuned for more, check on Twitter, and see recapture from personal experience and staying close to this years' Hannover Messe via our Twitter activities. 

Ralf Lippold 

Hellerau - Where Art and Tech Dance Together

Yesterday the final presentation day of futureSAX - The Saxon Innovation Conference took place at the Festspielhaus Hellerau, an iconic building in the smallish suburb Hellerau on the edge of the globally known city of Dresden.

The area of what a little bit more than 100 years ago just heath land with scattered woods became an entrepreneurial and dance hotspot shortly after its founding as the first German "garden city" in 1909. The visionary entrepreneur, Karl Schmidt (link to "German History in Books and Images" by @GHIWashington), envisioned not only a new furniture production site but also a suburb where working, education and living would jointly go together in the most natural form (literally embedded into the landscape of that strip of land).

The prosperous business owner and his outstandingly new ideas attracted famous architects of the time to this new "venture" and furthermore pulled in artists like Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, a Swiss musical pedagogue, who finally became the initiator of creating the Festspielhaus Dresden to perform rhythmical gymnastics.

So it made more than sense to choose this location to showcase some of the amazing innovations, like startups scaling up and projects in the making, as well as established regional companies that have gone to take exponential technologies to transform there sometimes centuries-old business models. As 100 years earlier not only local and Saxon players, but also attendees from Berlin and other locations found their way to Hellerau. BTW, the location is most conveniently reachable via eMobility as a tram line (No. 8) operated by the local public transport corporation DVB AG has a stop ("Festspielhaus") nearby with a direct connection to downtown Dresden.

Saxony once again showed, that despite the edgy position within Germany, it has houses a high number of passionate and clever minds who are not just talking about shaping the future. They have dared to hand in their ideas, projects and startups putting their future on the "dance floor" where once Gret Palucca (and others) brought modern dance to the public.

To cut the story short, the prize ceremony has been banned on "digital tape" namely Facebook Live by technology passionate members of the SMWA_SN (Saxon State Ministry for Labour, Economics, and Infrastructure). Prior to the prize ceremony, a group of young dancers of the Tanzraum Dresden performed a wonderful that in some way resembled the struggles entre-/intra-/extrapreneurs face while working on their innovative ideas to see the bright light of success. It may take quite some time, not days, not a week, rather years or even decades.

Looking forward to the next edition of futureSAX in 2018 and the path there, rich of shaped serendipity encounters (here a short clip with John Hagel, co-chair of the Deloitte Center for the Edge on shaped serendipity) along the way.

Wrapping up on a day full of surprise encounters, meeting new and old friends one sentence captures what innovation is literally all about:

Innovation is like performing arts, you passionately have to stay with it through training, repetition until the idea becomes a reality. 

In short, the review on yesterday's experience will be captured what was coined #PresencingStatus back in the "early days" of occDD (Open Coffee Club Dresden, an idea we brought back from Boston back in 2009):

1. Good - perfect location; dense, somewhat crowded place (enabling serendipity encounters); meeting friends from Berlin who are also in the #ExponentialTechnologies space; most inspiring conversations
2. Tricky - 5 GHz WiFi networks may lead to connection problems (h/t to Hellerau's guest network that worked flawlessly over the whole time); noisy crowd during the pitches 
3. Learned - Humble Inquiry (a concept Edgar H. Schein, Prof. Emer. of MIT Sloan School of Management with family roots also from Bad Schandau, Saxony as he writes in his autobiography "Becoming American"; "Are you at futureSAX in Hellerau today?") really led to a most surprising and rich conversation with someone who had not been aware of futureSAX 
4. Action - Doing what we always do, weaving the various threads of information, events, and persons together into a bigger picture of Saxony that is truly more than what can often be read in the media outside Saxony  

Grasping Beyond the Stars and Landing in Saxony

Space technology is not just since live streams of the relanding (CRS-11 Landing aerial view) of the Falcon 9 rocket, and several resupply missions to the ISS (International Space Station) made possible by the team around serial entrepreneur Elon Musk in the news. Planetary Resources, a bold start-up with the mission to mine Earth-near asteroids, co-founded by Peter H. Diamandis (he is also the co-founder of Singularity University, a visionary think tank with the mission to teach and empower leaders about the power of converging exponential technologies through various in-person and digital formats, whose chancellor Ray Kurzweil gave an outstanding keynote at the 4th Dresden Future Forum in 2010).

At first sight one would not expect Saxony, or more specifically Dresden, to play a significant role in this context. And yet, it does. More subtle through the person Prof. Hans Müller-Steinhagen, Rektor of the Technical University of Dresden (TU Dresden), who not only led the university to its current heights being one of 11 top universities in Germany with the "excellence status" in 2012. This even pulled in the interest of the New York Times which put a story up on this achievement in January 13, 2013

Dresden, once the home of the East German passenger plane industry in the late 50s and beginnings of the 60s, has transformed this legacy into being a viable part of the Airbus-family with the Elbe Flugzeugwerke EFW that is specializing transforming passenger aircrafts into freight liners. Even though situated on the edge of Germany, and even on the edge of the City of Dresden, there are many "hidden champions" in the aerospace industry (see the post "Engineered Serendipity Shaping the Future") and which can be found in the Cluster LRT Sachsen/Thüringen.

On top of this, the TU Dresden is home of the Institut für Luft- und Raumfahrttechnik, and one of the largest science communities in the field of Aeronautics in Germany, mainly at the former GDR Aerospace campus in Dresden-Johannstadt with international ties to ESA, NASA, and the International Space University (another startup by Peter H. Diamandis going back to late 80s when he and two buddies at the MIT founded it, now it has its permanent headquarters near Strasbourg, France).

Looking back five years in time when IEEE TTM (IEEE Time Technology Machine) took place right in the historic center of Dresden, SpaceX had just completed its first successful re-supply mission to the ISS (see "Boundaries Across Boundaries, Technologies, and Cultures") it makes perfect sense for another bold step. And it was there to come, not too unexpected as the curious observers of the developments would certainly confirm.

The DLR (German Aerospace Center) the national aeronautics and space research center the Federal Republic of Germany decided during its Senate Meeting end of June the establishment of seven DLR institutes across Germany. One of which is based in Dresden, at the TU Dresden, and it will focus on the "Research into the digitalisation of aviation"

#DLR opens new Institute of Software Methods for Product Virtualisation in #Dresden https://t.co/csd3Iqspxq pic.twitter.com/nwzldcnUqJ

— DLR - English (@DLR_en) 3. August 2017

making not only use of the excellent software industry base, the scientific research community, but also of the high-performance computing capabilities that the TU Dresden provides (and which other potential users are connected to such as the MPI-CBG which opened the Center for Systems Biology Dresden lately).

Today the inaugiration of the Institute of Software Methods for Product Virtualisation in Dresden has taken place and more about the event and first impressions, interviews, and statements are available through DLR's Twitter account through which the exciting news were announced on July 26, 2017,

Am 3.8. eröffnen wir das DLR-Institut für Softwaremethoden zur Produkt-Virtualisierung in Dresden.Wir twittern währenddessen via #DLRdresden

— DLR_de (@DLR_de) 26. Juli 2017

and the specific hashtag #DLRdresden which has been in use since.

We congratulate all people, institutions, and companies who have made this amazing step possible, and with the #DLRdresden and its team most successful scaling into a prosperous and exciting future.

Engineered Serendipity Shaping the Future

It is been a while, on March 2, 2017, the Economic Development Corporation Saxony (Wirtschaftsförderung Sachsen GmbH) invited the press to their yearly press talk on the achievements of the past year and a lookout for the future.

Saxon State Minister for Economics, Labor and Transportation, Martin Dulig, SMWA, and Head of Wirtschaftsförderung Sachsen GmbH, Peter Nothnagel, welcomed the media and gave a broad overview of the activities and successes within the past year 2016. Despite the fact that the projects that the WFS facilitated a similar number of investments over the course of the year 2016 compared with 2015, the average invest volume was about half compared with that of the preceding year. Peter Nothnagel, "Auch kleine Projekte werden zu großen." (English: "Also small projects become large ones"). What at first sight might look as a not so positive outlook into the future might also be an early sign of focus shift from traditional industries towards advancing technologies. Such include space-related and exponential technologies such as additive manufacturing (also known as 3D printing or AM) and other business fields that are massively impacted by the rising digitalization (e.g. e-Mobility, autonomous driving, life sciences, IIoT) and economic activities around emerging digital business models.

Extruder for probe picking
(prototype)

In general, it once more became clear that the WFS is a major "anchor point" between Saxony, its scientific communities, the established and emerging SMEs (though mostly small in size, nevertheless big at highest quality levels) in the region, and the international business community. The event took place at the headquarters of Hoch Technologie Systeme GmbH (HTS GmbH), a small yet unique supplier and service provider specifically for the aerospace, space and rail industry with 33 employees and currently led by its founder Dr. Wolfgang Göhler who had founded the company in 1996. One of the reasons not only the wide array of well-trained engineers streaming out of Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden) but also the unique density of companies and a cluster in the field of aerospace in the region.

In 2016, HTS GmbH had its 20th anniversary of operations,  RUAG Space, the space division of the Swiss RUAG Group, had announced the take-over of HTS in order to build on their long-lasting business collaboration between the two companies which started in 2002 and has been successfully fulfilled projects around several space missions by ESA and players in the field. Quite surprisingly RUAG Space is involved in the project OneWeb. This ambitious project is supported also by serial entrepreneur and space enthusiast Sir Richard Branson and is aiming to position several hundred satellites around the Earth to provide internet connection to all regions of the world, especially remote ones as stated by Invest Switzerland on Twitter in late 2016.

from left: Dr. Axel Roenneke (RUAG Space), 

Dr. WolfgangGöhler (HTS GmbH), 

Martin Dulig (SMWA), Peter Nothnagel (WFS GmbH), 

Jakob Kania (Support Q GmbH)

As Dr. Axel Roenneke, VP Marketing & Sales of RUAG Space, stated at the press conference things are like to change dramatically in the space industry as it gets more industrialized.

Presently most of the equipment for space missions is small in number and unique, often made by craftsmanship. Whereas in the past building of a satellite took about nine months, processes, also supported by emerging additive manufacturing technologies in metal as well as in ceramics, now constructing three satellites per day (!) is one of the bold goals. Industrializing production processes, and keeping the highest standards is a challenge and an opportunity at the same time, bringing the relevance of lean (LAI, Lean Aerospace Initiative (1993-2012) by MIT), Industry 4.0 and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) into perspective. In this context, it is also worth to mention the conference on Industry 4.0 in Dresden, called "Industrie 4.0 - Sachsen stellt sich auf" (#SachsenIndustrie40).

During the event and afterwards it came up several times in personal conversations that the region, and especially Dresden with its legacy in material sciences, additive manufacturing expertise (the Fraunhofer Campus in Dresden is about to become a major research and applied research hub in the field)), the aerospace legacy and other technology fields may play a larger role than is presently visible in the space industry that is currently becoming more industrialized and scaling up. In this context, as scaling production processes need enlarged quality management efforts, Jakob Kania, founder and CEO of Support Q GmbH, was introduced. Support Q GmbH, based in the most eastern part of Saxony focuses on services enabling suppliers to deliver products, especially to the automotive industry to high-level quality standards. Jakob Kania had attended earlier last year a market research tour by WFS to Mexico where during one of the meetings during the tour a conversation with the head of the Mexican Automotive Supplier Association took place. This rather "unexpected" conversation pulled up a new potential market chance in Mexico where the automotive industry is currently scaling production, and with it as well as driven by rising production in the U.S. OEM plants, suppliers are coping with rising quality challenges with ramping production.

The key learnings from this press talk that might be useful for other industry leaders as well:

1. take a long breath when working on something visionary (e.g. space technology)
2. focus on core competencies and specific capabilities where you are a master in the field
3. take opportunities (even when the outcome cannot be clearly defined)
4. never underestimate the value of an organization or region due to its size and position 
5. observe closely how industry reality shifts swiftly with exponential technology advancement

Update per 2017-10-25
- Bauteile für Luft- und Raumfahrt aus dem 3D-Drucker, idw

Update per 2017-06-28 

- Satellite mega-constellation production begins via BBC  

- OneWeb Satellites eröffnet Serienfertigungslinie via Airbus Press

U.Lab - a self-learning orientated vehicle to shape the future together

#ULab has begun, and the social field is in the process of being cultivated. Now already by two u.lab hubs in Saxony: Leipzig & Dresden. Activities within Saxony check #ulabsaxony

Interested to learn about projects, and get to know change makers, and passionate people in Saxony, and from around the globe?

Join in the current MOOC "u.lab - Leading From the Emerging Future"

To have a quick overview, whether this could be something for you (personally), the organization you are part of or the community you are living in, here are some links (including some in German) or have a look at the Presencing Institute

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1gd7sWM-L5JPRfsriradWo-F7Po8

Seeds From 2008 are Emerging into #CitizenScienceLab

#CitizenScienceLab - A System Dynamics Think Tank for a Smart Zero Net Carbon City h/t @ClimateCoLab giving the opportunity through the Smart Zero Carbon Cities Challenge

Pitch

Exponentially towards a future with net zero carbon output by engaging individuals & organizations, providing scalable learning & prosperity. (2016-05-23)

For more?

Read through the proposal to the very end (where the whole story is told in short)

Action?

Why don't you join "u.lab - Leading From the Emerging Future"(starting September)?

The Singularity and Exponential Change - April 20-21, 2016 Where is More to Learn

In "The Singularity Is Near" futurist and now Google's Chief Engineer Ray Kurzweil predicts a not so distant time in the future when computers have more computing power than humans, and will actually bring it on the road.

The metaphor "The Singularity" is taken from physics where it is used to describe the unpredictable chaos that is following the development of a "black hole".

What seems to most of us as a purely Sci-Fi dreamlike utopia or even dystopia can be felt already some forms that things are changing around us so fast that we as individuals and especially organizations often haven't learnt extensively how to cope with it.

Whole industries and their key players are threatened by digital competitors like the film industry with Kodak once being the "poster child". Despite the fact that an engineer at Kodak developed the first digital camera, which of course back in the day showed the concept, and the starting point of an exponential process that started at such a low level that the company denied any substantial progress on its development only to see itself filing bankruptcy for Chapter 11 in early 2012 (in 2013 Kodak rose again, though with a much smaller workforce, as a technology company).

What does it tell us?

Exponential technologies enable new-comers in the traditional business and industry fields to take advantage of digital technologies outpacing the business models of the traditional players, as Instagram, Pinterest and others did with Kodak.

Should your industry, and organization fear the same fate? Why, if you are open to see what is happening now already and where the exponential trajectory may lead impacting your own business models.

What till now was possible to learn at on a super-fast learning trip to Silicon Valley's unique think and do tank Singularity University either on a 10-week summer course or various shorter workshop offers at executive level now is coming to Germany with #SUGermanySummit (hashtag) in Berlin from April 20-21, 2016.

Most often we are stuck in our disciplinary boundaries. As a cartographer might not reach into #Industrie40 space and yet layout digitization might be a huge improvement factor in future production scenarios. So why not cross-learn what exiting technologies are around that might have positive impacts on our industry and work field. Engineered serendipity as described in article stemming from the Aspen Ideas Festivals 2014 might be exactly what participants (especially newcomers to the Singularity University community, as it is their first official appearance in Germany organized by SU Ambassador for Germany Stephan Balzer) will get.

Be open. Get overwhelmed. Take the relevant knowledge out of the conversation.

Even if you can't be in Berlin in person connecting via digital technology, namely in the communication such as Twitter, Facebook or else and check out the speaker line-up, and program on the SingularityUniversityGermanySummit website.

Vibrant University Engagement - Exponential Knowledge Flows

An empathic, energetic, open minded, networked, student-life interested staff member needs a way to effectively engage relevant university stakeholders on one shared goal (vision) because otherwise energies of engaged staff members are wasted and engagement goes to zero.

Here is what emerged of different ideas, and got resurfaced while doing a MOOC together with an energized international team #CitizenScienceLab:

1. weekly online meeting (30min) of heads of staff/ departments about ongoing things (minutes shared publicly within the university)
2. public online forum (within university net)
3. free WiFi access in all campus premises (including cafeteria) for students, staff, and alumni
4. gamification of interdepartmental communication
5. Facebook page with interactive elements (providing credit points to students who involve, and staff, professors) 
6. Systems Thinking/ System Dynamics as a new curriculum (touching all other departments
7. real-world (within the university) use cases on improvements
8. a startup accelerator within the university (without public funding, in order to enable students to learn to run a business earn money for the rent, and learn for future work)
9. publish all (!) thesis 
10. only allow thesis with companies that are fully published to the public (so knowledge is spreading across disciplines, and time)
11. OLED-flat screen at the university cafeteria
12. WikiWall at very places within the university campus where different disciplines meet
13. publishing the regulations of certain university-related funding projects
14. entrepreneur boot camps as part of the general curriculum for all departments (including distance learning teams)
15. providing funding for conference attendees at other universities around the globe to learn what their approaches are
16. create ambassador teams of alumni (physical)
17. create ambassador teams of alumni (virtual, e.g. just on Twitter/ Facebook)
18. making it for new professorships a must to have a Twitter account
19. alumni days
20. summer school
21. entrepreneurial incubator (funded)
22. eliminate paperwork across the staff
23. deliver laptops/ mobile devices to all staff (with usage tracking)
24. person tracking so one can find relevant discussion partners across campus (either professors, students)
25. creating an alumni network with added value (what?) for them
26. allow alumni to use university web services/ free of charge WiFi around campus
27. mentor-mentee groups (with alumni)
28. organize tours to companies that are run by alumni
29. create multidisciplinary teams to solve city-based challenges (becoming part of the curriculum)
30. establish an Ultimate Frisbee league (leadership, tracking of body movements, a mobile computing application, interdisciplinary, competition)
31. encourage staircase using (instead of the elevator) by providing incentives (to be used via swipecards) for staff, and students
32. Install seating opportunities in prominent areas of the campus where a large, diverse mass of people flow by
33. engage special interest groups for improvement of processes e.g.. Lean Thinking, System Dynamics
34. engage politicians to do empathy walks for a day through the campus, telling in realtime what is good/ tricky / learned / action (#PresencingStatus)
35. Doing a #PresencingStatus (What is good? What is tricky? What have I learned? Next minimal viable action?) as a standard process for incoming students (after four weeks, bachelor students in their 2nd year, master students in their 1st year, professors, staff members) and publish those findings
36. engage as a university (with the non-obvious challenges around the transition from university to work) during the Global Entrepreneurship Week, and Lean Startup Workshops in Dresden, that I plan to organize)
37. open-door policy
38. student counselling 15 min with #PresencingStatus - on a PostIt® for all, see http://www.flickr.com/photos/ralflippold/sets/72157623063031728/
39. establishing standard processes to bring university news across floors, departments, and stakeholders (e.g. web-based standardized documents)
40. bringing the needs, and challenges of the different departments within the university to the public (#PresencingStatus)
41. lowered workload
42. single-entry-point where news from all faculties streams in in real-time
43. drawing together public websites of faculties where news come up
44. make sure that once published work is reachable even when servers, URL is changed in the future
45. automatic streaming of information about departments, university, student work, events
46. include the relevance of serendipity into the curriculum, and on the website of the university (with given examples where it turned to amazing results)
47. bringing together technical departments with non-technical departments on student projects
48. GoogleHangouts with alumni interviews (standard questions, #PresencingStatus; once a week, public, inviting up to 8 students
49. Workshops on specific topics led by alumni at the university (live streamed) to give students the work experience 
50. lowering the workload of staff members (what is really necessary? what is helping the student? what is going wrong over and over again (systemic failure)?
51. Interactive both like @SenseableCity's bus stop in the university entrance hall where bypassers can leave a message
52. RSS feed connecting hub bringing news of different departments up in real-time 
53. microblogging/chat program for all staff members (indicating online status, so questions/proposals/meetings can be done online/offline at no constraint
54. glass doors at offices
55. 3D-model of the university campus with the appropriate origin of information from RSS-info (point 52.) so deeper inquiry can be done directly
56. smartphone app for university microblogging, and location-based  - with gamification incentive (such as most direct contact with professors, response-time evaluation)
57. online, visualization of room occupancy in the buildings around campus (who, what, when) - so interesting thesis presentations or such can be visited
58. creating an ideation environment (d.school-like) within easy reach within campus main building, inviting also outsiders (for fresh ideas)
59. University speed-dating evenings on challenging questions that students and stuff bring up over and over again
60. PlasticLogic (electronic paper) in the main hall visualizing all courses and their rooms currently so one gets an overview
61. WikiWall-net within the campus (8x8 matrix for each department that is fed by automatic RSS-feeds + individual input), with daily capturing
62. MIT Sloan CONDOR solution to track the information flow across the floors, and departments (without tracking exact names), so information constraints or overload can be examined
63. a semantic-web solution to capture information flow 
64. put the formal curriculum out of work and create an entrepreneurial university - learning by doing only (like Team Academy, including the given faculties as the grounding)
65. open office building like BMW Plant Leipzig, http://leanthinkers.blogspot.de/2011/08/bmw-werk-leipzig-semperoper-starbucks.html
66. bilingual website to attract foreign students to include other cultures
67. sponsoring of books to the library (with mention of the giver in the book and electronic catalogue including how to be reached via social web)
68. Yearbook of all students (current) and electronic (printed on-demand basis) supplement with all alumni (with current base, work position)
69. Upon entering university short one-page pitch (person, background, interests, hobbies, social media presence, past work, picture, etc.)
70. Staff yearbook (and one-pager or three tags # on each person)
71. University BarCamp (during the week; free for all - practical design thinking workshops with practical relevance - get all stakeholders into dialogue
72. Twitter account for each department just like MIT Cambridge (e.g. http://smbrown.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/mit-on-twitter
73. Professors on Twitter (have a single entry point to find their accounts; e.g. http://connect.mit.edu/blog/12-mit-professors-who-use-twitter/
74. Short cafeteria-based 5-10 min workshops about what to write on Twitter or share in general (e.g. http://connect.mit.edu/blog/tweeters-block/ )
75. Creating a "creative communication office" (e.g. Orbiting the Giant Hairball, The Creative Paradox), one person as knowledge flow catalysator
76. Chartering a train (for roughly 700 persons), and run a week-long boot camp train tour (having flip charts, WiFi, and other facilities onboard)
77. sponsor a university world tour to learn who other universities tackle the challenge of communicating across campus
78. Initiate "viral campaigns" about news about the university that has to be spread into the public, and across campus
79. run ideation workshops (public to anybody) with oversized electronic boards for visualization
80. Surface table and touch-sensitive whiteboards in the hallway 
81. visualize the flow of moving information across different departments (especially on where waiting time appears) - these are the points where intervention and inquiry into root causes are most effective
82. no data closure on information flow
83. put a system dynamics department into place to act as internal flow improvement accelerator
84. writing a book by alumni "What was really really good, and should be replicated from the old days"?
85. inviting alumni and professor emeritus, as well as the staff who have left the university 20 years ago - engage in dialogue to learn from them
86. on entering the building send via your smartphone on what was hindering good information flow yesterday
87. Café outside at the entrance where all meet
88. encourage staff and students to take tram and bus (gamification, such as meeting at least two people of the university to talk with on the bus and so get into a conversation)
89. regular fire alarms (every quarter) - that is when people meet
90. make a day when every staff member wears a name badge with name, department, and three hobbies/ interests
91. create an open day in departments (one by one) and enable that others learn about your work and challenges
92. Job rotation (and only for a few days) so to see what the others do 
93. internships for university students (of all faculties) by the university at fields that students feel could be improved
94. cross-faculty projects that have the intention to generate revenue in a lean startup approach
95. mentor fireplace chats (live covered by students on Twitter)
96. students mentor staff on new media usage in a business context
97. open office with laptop use, and only electronic documents (paper scanned directly)
98. smartphone app where small incremental improvements individuals have achieved within university information & knowledge flow (e.g. establishing an alumni group or a Twitter account)
99. Innovation Nights where students pitch 5 min (5 pages) improvement ideas on things that bother them, sponsored catering/ drinking
100. GET CHANGE INTO MOTION ;-)

(taken from my first assignment of #DTActionLab MOOC 2013 offered by Stanford University)

Disruption - Pairing Social Innovation and Technology for Good

Three events that don't see connected too much, and yet they perhaps are showing one of the great "opportunity windows" of our time.

(1) Quite recently "U.Lab - Transforming Business, Society, and Self" a MOOC with about 40k registered participants led by M.I.T. Senior Lecturer Otto Scharmer has come to an end.

(2) At the same time Singularity University (an institution founded by Peter Diamandis and Ray Kurzweil and based on the impact of exponential technologies on bold challenges that humanity faces these times) is getting unexpected awareness.

(3) In Paris, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21), the heads of state of 195 (!) countries are meeting to discuss, debate and come to a joint agreement on how to tackle what we get aware on a global scale across all possible boundaries: climate change.

When during a book stand stroll I stumbled across a book with a peculiar name "Presence" I wasn't really aware until the Financial Crisis hit Germany about a year later. Disruptive economic impact could be almost felt and seen overnight, Qimonda a chip manufacturer closed in Dresden in mid-2009, a washing powder production plant in Genthin was about to be shut down in late 2008.

The set of questions that came up in 2008 to my mind was the following,

"Isn't that a waste of human capital in the purest sense? Shutting down a plant. Resettling all the high-paid experts to other regions. Getting social work relations to regrow. ... can this be transformed in a positive way by bringing digital technology to create economic, and social value alike?"

Around that time in the summer of 2008, the news about a newly set up institution, Singularity University, in Silicon Valley and a little later the name Ray Kurzweil reached the city of Dresden (2). The idea to pair social innovation and technology emerged into a working prototype in the city of Dresden over some months. Dozens of interested people joined and were eager to find solutions to the severe economic conditions (the Financial Crisis of 2008 had just hit the world). An old ballroom was quickly found, things began moving in even more exponential manner, and digital communication combined with "Theory U" (the follow-up book and approach for large-scale social change) was meant to be the "magic sauce" to make the "impossible reality".

https://www.presencing.com/principles

The vision of pairing technology and social innovation (Theory U) took hold and emerged over the years into several smaller prototypes, and experiments (to be found on this post on another blog).

The concept that emerged in summer 2014, largely after a professor in nano-technology had given a short interview on the essence of applied research and the current lack of academics, business and society to make positive wide-spread use through new products, and services made it into the Global Plan 2014 of the MIT Climate CoLab. It stayed there as a handed in proposal waiting to be grown at the appropriate opportunity.

(3) Lastly a few days ago on Monday, November 30, 2015 the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) started and the world is looking what the leaders of the world we come up with to tackle climate change, or in other words "to aim to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C"

Three disconnected seeming events that when you get yourself on your "mental helicopter" and rise some hundred meters above ground level, or even well into Space ("Overview Effect") there is a glimpse to do together as a global society what Kelvy Bird has captured during an event last year in the little town of Nauen close to Berlin.

We are all connected on this small planet called Earth and eco-awareness at large through technology is possible, if we choose together to do so!

Why not? What is holding us individually and collectively (across all possible boundaries) back? What would set us loose to achieve?

In this sense welcoming your thoughts - Ralf


Picture: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/17jul_discoveringearth/

Problems are a Window for Future Opportunities - See and Catch

Dresden-based chip manufacturer GLOBALFOUNDRIES Fab1 in Dresden just has announced an employee reduction of around 800 (currently 3,700 people from all across the globe, and disciplines are employed).

The news have hit local ground via various media outlets.

Manufacturing in the semiconductor field is always accompanied by rather short production cycles (cars for example are still 'running' on a 5-7 year 'refreshment' cycle), capital intensive investment, long-lead planning, and highest level of quality (Zero-Defect the ultimate production goal).

Watch (before you continue to read) the passionate Welcome Speech by Ibrahim Ajami, former CEO of ATIC (Advanced Technology Investment Company), at the 2011 Abu Dhabi Media Summit - with a strong vision as that everything is possible.

As global demand shifts constantly, an rapidly increasing from formerly chips for PCs, then smartphones and tablets (decreasing in size, and raising in complexity) the Internet of Things (#IoT) is the upcoming pulling-force. The Internet of Things or as the German version is called Industrie 4.0 (focusing on the production side of society) however is still in its infant days, many people and companies around are not yet fully aware of the positive or general implications that it will bring (besides of course questions around security, privacy and other issues) to their lives and businesses.

However as the City of Dresden, is currently part of a network of 52 cities around Germany as part of the Science Year 2015 - City of the Future, and working on creating the visions for the Future of the City of Dresden #DDzu2030 (the new hashtag is #DD2030, are the common hashtags on Facebook and Twitter) this announcement from today should be taken as an opportunity to create the future for the city and the region (ranging as wide as Saxony, and beyond) bringing the creative potential into a (new) reality.

Why not engage passionate and well-educated employees not in full-time positions, rather reduce the working hours (of course also the income will decrease some), and on the other hand be able to co-create a future that is build on and around semiconductors and equipment/ applications that will be crucial for use in the IoT context, such as the CCS Telehealth-Ostsachsen (currently only in German) project?

Quite on the edge, and some distance from Dresden away, The Things Network, an initiative from Amsterdam that has the vision to enable cities with open-source IoT solutions not only managed to bring this to Amsterdam in an outstanding short time but currently is scaling and spreading the word? Wouldn't it in this context make sense to put the complementary competencies together, and build on the strengths of a local chip manufacturer (with global connections), engage with Europe's largest microelectronics cluster (Silicon Saxony e.V.) and make #SachsenDigital a reality. Next week's semiconductor trade fair SEMICONEuropa 2015 #SEMICONEuropa (Twitter activity) brings together all the local and global players in the field together to Dresden. Why not join in?

Even though the initial lines of this post may sound not positive this might open an unfamiliar path, joining in "U.Lab - Transforming Business, Society, and Self", and there already exists an international community locally in Dresden participating in this recent MOOC.

What Theoretical Physics Brings to Entrepreneurship

http://de.slideshare.net/coilpsu/klemmer-presentation, p.5

Quite by serendipity, having lunch with a theoretical physicist from Asia some days ago I learned that theoretical physics is not plain theory, but the science field trying to make sense of seen reality. In short an experimental physicist finds a new material, which has some "unexpected" properties (that is the practical part). However, as Kurt Lewin (1890-1947), the famous German-American experimental social psychologist, is quoted, "There is nothing more practical than a good theory" which underlies and explains that real-life phenomenon. For this very same reason theoretical physicists then work to figure out, with the help of computer simulations, perceived patters of reactions of the material due to change of particular parameters, and known knowledge, what the underlying root causes of the new material's properties, and how they can be used, and eventually made practical in future applications.

What has all this to do with entrepreneurship, and eventually innovation?

Let's have a look at innovation and how it comes (in various forms) into the world, and to practical use. Peter Drucker, "management guru" and "Renaissance Man" of the 20th century well respected in the global business community in some form laid out a "theory of innovation", namely the sources of innovations that lead eventually to their economical success. In "Innovation and Entrepreneurship" he lays out seven distinct sources, which range from "The Unexpected" to "New Knowledge". See Andre Kearns' Slideshare  presentation for a good overview of these (and a condensed overview of the book itself) here.

Quite often the public focuses on the innovation based on new knowledge, such as technology-based (generally on new knowledge), and wonders why innovation is not taking off shortly after discovery, and first prototypes of possible products or services based on it. Due to Drucker this kind of innovation is the one with the longest lead time (and quite a high loser rate, due to the shift of other relevant parameters that change over time, especially shifts that touch society as a whole, such as demographics, immigration, or world politics) this should "In the theory and practice of innovation and entrepreneurship, the bright-idea innovating belongs in the appendix" ("The Daily Drucker", 20 July, p. 220).

So making sense of how innovations diffuse into society (and not just on some edges due to price, or perceived value by a minority) is more challenging than it looks like at first sight. Prof. John D. Sterman, Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management, Director MIT System Dynamics Group, not only gave quite a thought-provoking presenting in early 2008 stating that "technological solutions are not enough to address the problem of creating a sustainable world" but has covered the issue of innovation diffusion in his book "Business Dynamics - Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World" (chapter 9.3, Innovation Diffusion as Infection: Modeling New Ideas and New Products, p. 323-347).

So the question stays, "What does it need to bring innovations into the world?"

To close this post, and keep the question open that underlines Kurt Lewin's "There is nothing more practical than a good theory", perhaps it is time for what Jay W. Forrester envisioned in 2007 at the International System Dynamics Conference in Boston in his speech "System dynamics - the next fifty years" and his statement at the end of the speech, "We should be able to move sufficient understanding of the behavior of complex systems into the public sector."

Isn't a "school of thought" (even a quite independent department of an existing university), based on theory and practice alike, the "perfect" place to make this happen?

The Creative Process is Key

My personal role model about intercultural collaborative and most creative value creation is the Semperoper Ballet, the ballet company within the Semperoper Dresden led by Creative Director Aaron S. Watkin since 2006.

After individual pieces created by contemporary choreographer William Forsythe have been presented at various productions on stage here in Dresden, now a full-evening ballet, #ImpressingTheCzar, is premiering tomorrow (7pm with box office at the house opening an hour earlier, with some luck you'll eventually get some tickets) with several performances after that (check out the Semperoper schedule).

Get a flavor of what it means to create a piece so different from what you normally would expect a ballet to be on stage, and the different. 

Impressing the Czar - Week I

Impressing the Czar - Week II

Impressing the Czar - Week III

Impressing the Czar - Week IV

Impressing the Czar - Week V

In case you now got curious on how your creative thinking (and acting) process can be sparked by ballet and the creative process around check out http://www.williamforsythe.de where you'll find more work created by William Forsythe. Have a look at the following article by Prof. em. Edgar H. Schein on "The Role of Art and the Artist" that gives a few more thought inspirations on why it is valuable to visit a ballet performance (even or especially you are not familiar with the piece).