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 

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.

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).

#DATE14 - and what it has to do with the future

Over the course of five days in late March 2014 an elite group of people are meeting for a conference in a place that is not as prominent at Barcelona (home of the Mobile World Congress), Las Vegas (home of CES) or Silicon Valley (home of to numerous to name).

Do you remember #IEEETTM back in 2012 that took place also at this relaxed city on the River Elbe? Have a look on what I wrote back then here.

It's DRESDEN, a city on the edge and at the core of the emerging future. In the midst of Europe's hotspot for semiconductors, nanotech, biotech, life sciences and increasingly evolving adjacent application areas.

DATE stands for Design, Automation & Test in Europe - more to be found on Twitter #DATE14

What sounds at first sight not worth visiting to the non-tech guy, transforms more to a surprise of serendipity. Of course it is a conference focusing on very technical, pre-application developments in

FlashAir™

microelectronics, communication.

Surprises like the FlashAir™ by Toshiba, an up to 32GB SD-card with WiFi-ability are just among several serendipity encounters at this conference one would not expect.

Visit of the exhibition (which will be on also tomorrow, Thursday March 27, 2014, 10am-5pm) is free of charge.

Tomahawk 2 (photo credits: cfaed)

The Excellence Cluster Center for Advanced Electronics Dresden cfaed at the TU Dresden presents its new superfast microchip 'Tomahawk 2' which could play a more prominent role in the 'Tactile Internet' (presentation during the Johannesberg Summit) that its chair Prof. Gerhard Fettweis promoted just recently at the CeBIT.

Never doubt a smart crowd to teach you something extraordinary new. Go for the serendipity challenge that pulls new ideas into your head.

Unconnected Moves Smartly Joined Together May Lead to Great Future

In mid summer 2012 the Technical University Dresden (TUD) obtained the prestigious title „Excellence University“ out of a years-long process in competition with other German universities. It happens to be the only one in the East-Germany countries (besides Berlin) and with good reasons so it seems.

The region around Dresden, Chemnitz, Freiberg, and in more general terms Saxony has a long lasting legacy of technical invention, technology-driven innovation, research stemming from a time when the early ore reserves were found, and new materials were starting to be used in the energy producing fields.

Rudolf Sigismund Blochmann who not only was one of the founding fathers of the TUD but had brought the German-version of the gaslighting to wide use in Germany as an efficient energy usage for street lighting (which can also nowadays be seen in Dresden in action; info via StadtWiki). Around Chemnitz and Freital there had been intensive coal deep-ground digging with all ajacent innovation which spread to new transport infrastructures, and other innovations that last till today on which to build on for the future.

DRESDEN-concept, the future concept of TUD around a synergetic university combining different diverse, and not always obviously connecting, fields like material science, semiconductors, arts, entrepreneurship, libraries, life sciences, and not least, nor last energy creation. The intent of this partnership of these institutions is to not only draw out the best of all involved partners ranging from Fraunhofer, Helmholtz, Leibniz and Max-Planck Institutes but to facilitate the power of arts, and sozio-science fields for tackling the „grand challenges“ ahead of us with effective, and efficient for education, and making use of this knowledge across boundaries of disciplines, generations, gender, and cultures.

One of these „grand challenges“, energy, which also is one of the main fields of a university of a quite contrary kind, as its curriculum changes every six months which holds it back to be acknowledged as a „real“ university, yet called Singularity University, drew in 250 researchers, scientists, and executives to two days on the River Elbe last week to discuss new ways to create energy in sustainable, and new ways.

Fraunhofer IWS, one of several Fraunhofer institutes based here in Dresden due to the strong technology-based community, and future-orientated wise moves of a handful of institute leaders, and politicians after the reunification to make effective use of the available resources in the region, was host of this conference.

The pulling force of the conference has been the Dresden-based „Dresden Innovation Center Energy Efficiency DIZE“, funded by the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft and the Free State of Saxony. Apart from scientific research, and economic aspects the center focuses on the creation of future scientists, and engineers in the broad field of energy across disciplinary boundaries.

More on the conference can be found at the conference website "Energy in Future" and on Twitter.

The topics of the threads reached from thermoelectrics, solar energy, photovoltaics, energy storage, mobility, fuel cells and energy efficiency, and offered a wide range of insight into an amazing field for „outsiders“, as well as sparking ground for future collaboration, and creation of projects on bringing technologies into practical use for the "insiders".

Besides providing direct benefit for members of the research institutes as well as their direct project partners in the form of meeting and exchanging ideas in condensed matter, coffee breaks enabled the conversation across boundaries. It could be learned that public transportation companies with tram networks, such as the Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe AG that is currently testing hybrid-electric busses, can offer electrical energy storage of a kind that has been not yet really tapped in. For providing the electric energy for the tramways continuous current at high voltage is provided by transformer substations (spread around the network within the city). These transformer substations can be further used in the future as electric storage stations for electric cars, e-bikes, and alike – the infrastructure is there, now it is time for innovation, and business model creation to set this potential to effective work for society.

As the just announced stop of operations of Better Place (which filed for bankruptcy in Israel), a company focusing on battery swapping technologies for electrical cars with headquarters in Palo Alto, and first prototype markets in Denmark and Israel showed once more the difficulty that "good technologies"despite good intent, and visions in a world of "normal energy providing" can eventually take. It takes bold visions, and smart moves alongside when technology innovation is going to become striving business models that last for decades, or centuries into the future. For sure is only that the future is unclear, full of surprises, and that new ways to tackle the great challenges of humanity (energy, food, health, housing, education, etc.) of which energy is amongst the most fundamental ones, it takes courageous steps out of the research, and prototype world to make a fertile business out of it, and generate the money to further fuel the future research in these fields, and create lasting economic wealth.

What could demonstrate this challenge better than the (rather surprising) announcement of closing of the Collaborative Research Center 804 at TUD due to not relieved funding for this cross-disciplinary spanning project that reaches also on the impacts of technology implementation in society. Dresden, and its citizens have the ability not only to power up economic wealth, and understanding the dynamics behind it by using its technology-based engine, but combine it with its legacy in social sciences as well.

The newly put into operation of UNU-Flores (part of the United Nations University) at WTC Dresden in joint cooperation with TUD is focusing on the education around integrated resources management, and doesn't the described situation provide a chance of the future that could be no better?

Integrating the technology, engineering approach with entrepreneurial visionaries, and glueing both by learning to see, perceive and understand the underlying dynamics by establishing a new institution at the TUD that not only generates its "own funding" by enabling entrepreneurs (these can be very well be former PhD students, or graduate students as well as university personnel) to build their (even though small in the beginning) companies.

The VISION is there to set to work, and Dresden could not be a better place for what the founder of the field system dynamics, Jay W. Forrester, envisioned in his "System dynamics - the next fifty years" talk at the ISDC 2007 in Boston.

If a new cross-disciplinary institute focusing on system dynamics here in Dresden could be outcome from these rather unconnected looking events then a "small step today may lead to bold moves into the future" soon.

The Team of HTxA

Dresden - A World Microcosmos in a Nutshell

What doubts and reservations do you have on this idea?

What is the story you keep telling about the problems of this community (Dresden)?

Where do you see Dresden in five years time (all odds positively in tune)?

The region around Dresden on the outer Eastern part of Germany (sort of on the edge) has been a legacy of invention, entrepreneurship, and futuristic minds. What has driven it that far? Back in the days of August the Strong it was the urge to rise to intellectual and representative levels of the other kings and queens around Europe.

Dresden became the 'Florence of the Elbe' (Elbflorenz), not just because of the light, and the hilly mountains resemble the area around Florence in Italy, but due to the arts that are to be found at large here in the area. This reaching from one of the most remarkable opera houses, the Semperoper, to world-known museums, and not as quite as prominent in the general visibility: being a place of cutting edge technology, and science.

A few years back when Infineon (formerly Siemens) decided to catch upon the legacy of microelectronics that played a major part since 1961 in Dresden with Werner Hartmann setting the start.  Quickly other institutions followed in now making Dresden, known as Silicon Saxony, Europe's most buzzing science, and research hotspot on fields like nano, bio, mobile computing, in short, all fields that are driven by the effects of 'Moore's Law'.

What makes Silicon Saxony different from Silicon Valley?

Dresden in itself is already a microcosm representing the "world in a nutshell", neatly following the bends of the river Elbe the city spreads along roughly 20 km, and 5 - 10 km in broad. Instead of needing a car, the public transport system with Dresdener Verkehrsbetriebe AG running a 24-7-service (one of the few in the world) being its mobility backbone, or just take the bike.

Arts, science, and technology meet within the city limits constantly and create a state of serendipity as the interview between Kai Simons and William Forsythe in "Mental Leaps" (page 7 ff.) show. But that is just the beginning. The rising discussion about installing free public WiFi around Dresden, via various approaches, is giving new positive impulses to create a worldwide acknowledged hotspot of Abundance bringing citizens' creative power into being.

What doubts and reservations do you have on this idea?

What is the story you keep telling about the problems of this community (Dresden)?

Where do you see Dresden in five years time (all odds positively in tune)?

Bridging Across Boundaries, Technologies, and Cultures

"What role will social networks, and its underlying technologies play in the time beyond 2020, and today?" - this question should stick over the course of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Technology Time Machine on 23rd to 25th, May 2012 in Dresden. "During the panels, they will engage in an interdisciplinary dialogue, discussing the consequences of these new technologies on human society and how those technologies can contribute t,o solving great global challenges." [quoted from IEEE / TU Dresden Media Information 3/12]

Day 3 of #IEEETTM 2012 Dresden

Reflecting on the event with a picture of the last session by IEEE President Gordon Day envisions already #IEEETTM 2013 in Seattle, very much gives a sense from where IEEE Technology Time Machine has come from, it started in Hong Kong in 2011, and has accelerated in Dresden.

At its 1st birthday, it seems that Dresden could not compare with buzzing multicultural Hong Kong as the place of action. Don't get yourself wrong at this first impression. This culturally rich city of well over 500.000 inhabitants on the meadows of the River Elbe is largely based on the artifacts like Semperoper, Zwinger, Residenzschloss, or Deutsches Hygienemuseum. Yet the technology and science legacy of the city can't be underrated. An impressive overview of the various technology fields, Dresden is exceptionally strong in, can be found at '"Dresden is more technological"' (English/ Deutsch).

Sparked by Prof. Dr. Gerhard Fettweis, Vodafone Chair Mobile Communications Systems, Technical University Dresden, emerged the vision of making the "hidden champion" of emerging technologies within Europe the place of the 2nd IEEE Technology Time Machine. The event itself focused on what's achievable with technology beyond 2020, and it fits this year perfectly into the official motto of the City of Dresden "Dresden - City of Art and Science", and the  first private cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) by SpaceX one day prior to the symposium' start on Wednesday.

Well over 200 attendees, and speakers from the corporate world, C-level executives, and emerging leaders such as YFEL members of the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology met right downtown Dresden amongst the cobblestone roads of the past, viewing into the future.

All seemed very well organized, free WiFi-access for attendees in the conference rooms, Dresden - Magazine of the Capital of Saxony - Brilliant Moments in Arts and Science [the magazine is not available in the digital form presently] on the registration desk, and a pretty decent on-time agenda welcomed the future aware crowd on Wednesday morning. Due to the fact that the Hilton Hotel still asks for 17 € p.d. using their contracted provider's WiFi connection the technicians had set up a local WLAN network with LTE technology at the conference level, which after some initial difficulties ran flawlessly over the course of the conference.

Prof. Dr. Hans Müller-Steinhagen, Rector of the Technical University of Dresden, kickstarted the symposium with his presentation focusing on the alliances of academics, and industry to tackle the global challenges of the future. "Global challenges need global co-operations!", was his clear message to the audience. Focusing on multi-alliances through new concepts on how we communicate, resembling the internet itself, as the example he mentioned, the 'Pirate Party' drew out.

He namely mentioned 4 examples present in the region of Dresden (1) DRESDENconcept, (2) Dii, (3) Cool Silicon, and (4) "Region of Knowledge" (program by the European Commission to draw clusters tighter together). Ambitious projects to drive broader implementation of exponentially accelerating information technology which will greatly benefit from the potentially available entrepreneurial power of the region, which has held the "unique spirit" for centuries, even through the GDR-times, and the current financial, and economic turmoil that has hit so many regions of the world. Shall it be possible to set the four projects on "entrepreneurial fire?"

A question that resided in the mind till the next session by Jakob van Zyl, Associate Director of Project Formulation and Strategy at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA. He beautifully put it to the point during his presentation at the session 'Collective Intelligence', "Funding agencies do a bad job of what they are doing to the public. Those kinds of things we have to do a better job!". Hearing these words from a NASA engineer, and the director himself is not just astonishing, it opens the mind to what is possible to achieve putting the strengths of the different stakeholders in an elegant way together. A prominent figure and lately in the news is Peter H. Diamandis, founder of X Prize Foundation, co-founder of Singularity University (a university, founded in 2008, focusing on exponentially accelerating information technologies to solve humanity's grand challenges which are actually based at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California)). He has shown over the years that the co-operation with NASA, and other space agencies since 1986 has an immense impact. Back then he founded together with Bob Richards and Todd Hawley the ISU (International Space University) which is now headquartered in Strasbourg, France (as the result of a global competition). In other words, the combination of academics, industry, and passionate individuals, as the three graduate students back then represented, are the fuel to exceptional outcomes.

by @IEEETTM

From Thursday morning on the activity on Twitter accelerated up to unimagined heights, almost feeling like being at one of those tech-orientated bar camps, unconferences like Re:publica or Mobile Camp Dresden, where different media forms make the ongoing discussions available to all conference attendees.

The comparison of #IEEETTM to events like Re:publica, should, even more, play a role during the upcoming press conference around mid-day.

Following the so-called hashtag #IEEETTM on Twitter, one could find most interesting comments, links, or quotes from within the sessions, also by some of the speakers themselves such as Joe Weinmann (more storified coverage of the symposium on Slideshare).

by @IEEETTM

The press conference, organized by PR Piloten (now under the name WeichertMehner), one of the local communication partners of IEEE Technology Time Machine 2012, was well served also by local newspaper representatives. After the short overview of the intent of the event, Roberto de Marca, Executive Chair,  laid out the current achievements due to it (the first four on the list beside). Maurizio Dècina, General Chair, stated the general goal of the new event series, "listen to all the voices - to learn about what is going on". After that, the room was open for questions from the press body. One of the questions that came up by a representative by Technology Review was, 'What is the reason there had not been presented hot new technologies during the sessions, and secondly why the event is not a buzzing as the Re:publica in Berlin which attracts thousands of geeks, speakers, general public?'

What became quite clear was that engineers, as much as scientists, and researchers are in general, not the social network geeks, rather focused on getting the work done, finding technical solutions for pressing challenges. As shown here in Dresden, everybody was invited to join the conversation on Twitter, and learn from this experience, and after-conference reflections by all stakeholders. Without trying out new ways in a culture that is by far, and traditionally not as outgoing as marketing, and design folks are they won't come newly into the world - and the IEEE Technology Time Machine team certainly dared to take this next step into the future together with all stakeholders, attendees, and parties involved.

As Jakob van Zyl coined it to the point in his session, hours prior to the press conference, "We need the people in the middle that straddle the science and the business."

Artists by any means, whether painters, writers, or in the performing arts fields like Semperoper Ballett, and The Forsythe Company, that are both based in Dresden building on the rich technology, cultural, and arts legacy, are predominately prepared to play the "straddle" or "boundary spanning" role between science, and business. The Motion Bank project by William Forsythe capturing the choreographic and dancing legacies by technological means may open future opportunities to bring new emerging technologies into a new context, and build applications, services, etc. around it. Another connection string between art, and technology was laid out by István Simon, and Boglárka Hatala who work in a joint project initiated by Semperoper Ballett, and Technical University Dresden, especially on the question of how artistic creativity can be brought to scientific research fields to ignite hidden puddles of individual, and group creativity [the interview has been filmed by IEEEtv; parts of it will be available at a later time].

To wrap up on this most amazing conference in the center of Dresden, on the edge of Germany here four short questions, and answers:

1. What was good? Another terrific technology event based in Dresden, social network connection across boundaries, available WiFi, technology visionaries passionately talking about their work
2. What was tricky? Unstable WiFi due to unexpected usage, three days not enough, pre-conference social media activity low
3. What have I learned? Engineering communities are tapping into the power of social networks, a "damn question" can lead to profound change in behavior ("What is the official hashtag for the conference? Can you apply official info on it in some way?" on Wednesday, skyrocketing use of Twitter from Thursday morning on), boundary spanning/ straddle science, and business is not yet a common thing
4. Next action? Putting together a slideshow with tweets that were relevant during the three days from attendees, speakers, organizers, and others [to be found on Slideshare in a few days time], connecting with Amplifyfestival 2013

Updates on #IEEETTM in the press [some of the given links don't work any longer, probably to server shifts, website changes or else]:

- IEEE Spectrum
- Technology Review (via Heise; Germany)

- Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten (Germany)
- Computer-Oiger (AKA Heiko Weckbrodt; Germany)
- BINUS University
- IEEE Spectrum (USA)
- Uni UAE (United Arab Emirates)
- Neustar.Insights (USA)
- EE Times (Christoph Hammerschmidt; Germany)
- News Nepal (Nepal)
- Produktion (Germany)

Serendipity - the field, the emotions, the memories

On the flight back from Oman sitting next to Charles van der Haegen, I first learned about SERENDIPITY. A word that does not really exist in German language. Mostly "glücklicher Zufall" (lucky coincidence) is used and yet this diminishes the power of the concept the split second it reaches your audience.

Serendipity - unknown setting, known people, shaking emotions, upcoming memories

>>> MAGIC happens!

Let it allow to happen :)

Yesterday, once again for me, it happened here in Dresden during the reopening of the Army Museum redone by Daniel Libeskind. A short story Semperoper Ballett "On the Move" and ConfronTension Sparking to Think - and Act!

PS.: One question I do have to you - do you know of any good picture that frames Serendipity beautifully? Thank you so much.

Sensor-based Knowledge Networks - Mobile Camp Dresden 2011

Dresden not only attracts tourists that sprawl into the city center (or downdown as we say in the North American plains) - it is also an attractor to mobile computing developers, web designers, and researchers in the field.

Last weekend Dresden was for the third time hosting Mobile Camp (currently only in German, but at the closing ceremony the crowd pretty much favored the extension of the event into the international sphere (!)), where questions, new developments around mobile computing were the driving forces. All Friday already the venue of the Faculty of Computer Science of the Technical University of Dresden was flooded by hordes of IT folks, students, and lots of cool projects (cyber-physical systems, 3D visualizations of large-scale ionic accelerators, and the IT crowd of the region - named Silicon Saxony).

Faculty of Computer Science TU DD Copyright: Frank Hamm

So it became a "three-day event" covering from state of the art research via business development to barcamp-like venturing into the future. We soon realized that mobile devices play already a vital role in our daily life - which way is it to become in the near future?

For session (no. 4) I had invited David Orban, Advisor of Singularity University, just currently CEO of dotSUB, and actively researching and lobbying for the Internet of Things. He is very active in the sensor-based knowledge networks especially on the open source format #SPIME.

Copyright: http://transcendentman.com

Anyway due to schedule and timezone shift we decided to do session in Dresden, where Dirk Spannaus was grateful to help with his knowledge from his work at IBM and in Africa around mobile computing. As a side-effect I pretty intuitively decided during the session planning early on Saturday to ask the crowd whether there would be any interest to learn more about TranscendentMan and Ray Kurzweil's work. To my surprise a couple of dozen hands rose up - so a session was fixed for late afternoon.

While flowing around the vast area of the Faculty of Computer Science, meeting new and old friends and fiercely feeding the Twitterwall (#mcdd11) I could feel the "field" that enabled all protagonists of the days to co-create something not easily to catch in words - a "sense of future emergence".

After doing two sessions, the one on sensor-based networks and a second one on #Museum20, where together with Robert Badar of Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden we discussed in which easy to take steps new technology can be embedded in arts institutions, I had trained away my nervousness quite a bit (thanks you all of you, for making me grow on this :-)).

At 5pm I entered the large room where proper video coverage was possible and to my surprise around 30 people were awaiting the unexpected (the movie is yet not open to public in Germany). While doing the final installations I asked, who of the crowd would know about Ray Kurzweil. Roughly ten hands went up. I asked for someone who wanted to explain in his/her own words what Ray's work stands for - which was thankfully taken with no hesitation (there already was a sense of community, which I was missing during the first session in the morning on the sensors, where it half-way through the session was more a frontal lecture with no dialogue emerging).

Learnings from the two sessions on Sat & Sun:

• Good: even short clips of a few minutes induce vivid conversation, immediate feedback from audience on implications and thought side-effects, emotionally touching story (enabling much more open conversation - only what touches us is worth to be talked about)
• Tricky: not knowing how the audience reacts (as I had to cancel a semi-public event screening the complete movie just the week earlier, due to lack of interest)
• Learned: it doesn't need the complete movie to get the conversation going, focus of conversations shifts due to the experience and background of the people (Sat: more on implications on education, Sun: more the fear of "allowing" bots to capture our body (in a sense mobile phones already are an extension of our body ;-))
• Action: will provide more show times in Dresden (first of the movie clips & conversation on implications) >> restarting OpenCoffeeClubDresden (a loose meeting of students, entrepreneurs, citizens on relevant questions of today)