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human 2.0
tech trends to watch
agent of change
new world orchestra
a tale of future cities
blind data
return to the
tech frontier
News and insights
from The Economists
fagship event
human 2.0
Man and machine
become one
agent of change
Predicting the impact of
disruptive technologies
on the way we do business
new world
orchestra
Or how a cast of three
thousand strangers made
some beautiful music.
humanising
healthcare
High empathy
machines in medicine
the mind of
the consumer
Technology works
best when it gets
inside your head
technology
as a game
changer
Exploring new
business models
tech trends
to watch
The top ten
technologies
coming your way.
new money
Where next for
mobile banking?
workforce 2012
Can technology really
transform our working
lives? And will it be for
the better?
a tale of
future cities
A blueprint for the
intelligent metropolis
left brain,
meet right brain
When to go with creative
intuition, when to go
with the data
privacy and
protection
Revealing too much at
the click of a mouse
blind data
Information overload:
Sorting the wheat
from the chaff
2
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6 8
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www.technology-frontiers.com | Economist Conferences 2012 1
Technology is changing
our lives at a phenomenal pace.

In the past decade weve had the social media explosion,
the advent of personalised medicine, the big data challenge
...and of course, the ultimate comeback story encapsulated
by Steve Jobs Apple.
Just keeping up with these developments is tough, but we
have a higher ambition. At Technology Frontiers, over 250
business leaders and top thinkers shared their views on how
new technology will shape the years ahead. The conference
tackled many of the big technology debates of the day,
from data privacy to the future of mobile banking. But this
is no ordinary conference our goal is to inspire as well as
inform. How often do you get to meet a real-world bionic
man, or see people turned into living musical instruments
operated by crocodile clips and Play Doh? These were just
a couple of the standout moments from the inaugural
Technology Frontiers.
I hope you enjoy this collection of stories from the frontier
of science and innovation. See you at next years show!

Jonathan Dewe
Director
Economist Conferences
News and
insights from
The Economists
fagship event
Hugh Herr climbs on stage and kicks off his talk on
how technology is changing what it means to be
human. Hes a man who likes to think on his feet,
rapidly pacing the stage as he works the audience.
His speech is full of interesting ideas and insights.
But it is only when he pauses, then bends down to
pull up his trouser legs that the audience grasps
what a remarkable story our speaker has to tell.
There, wired up beneath his knees, are a pair of
bionic legs the like of which youve probably only
seen in a sci-f movie.
A world-class mountain climber, Herr lost both
his legs below the knee in 1982 as the result of
frostbite after becoming stranded for days in a
blizzard on Mount Washington in New Hampshire.
His subsequent experience with artifcial
limbs set him on a lifelong mission to develop
technologically advanced prosthetics. Today, he is
Director of Biomechatronics at the MIT Media Lab.
I predict that in this century advances in bionics,
genetics, and regenerative medicine will largely
eliminate disability,
Herr told the audience.
A large swathe of the
worlds population experiences a lower quality
of life due to mental or physical conditions,
but new technologies are emerging that could
transform these peoples lives in ways that were
hitherto unimaginable.
By way of demonstration, Herr showed how his
own prosthetic limbs allow him to run and jump
with extraordinary agility. But Herr can do a lot
more than pound a stage. For example, he owns
prosthetic devices that have enabled him to revive
his passion for climbing. In some circumstances
I can climb better than before. Through technology
I found I could augment my capabilities,
Herr reveals.
The technology is impressive and at times
controversial. South African sprinter Oscar
Pistorius is a double amputee and runs on two
prosthetic legs shaped liked curved blades.
He has been so successful that it was felt he had
an unfair advantage and he was banned from
all able-bodied athletics. Herr helped get this
decision overturned and Pistorius is now hoping to
compete at the London Olympics. The possibilities
are limitless an elderly person with arthritis
could replace their old arm with a better bionic
arm much in the same way that they might have
a hip replacement. But theres no doubt that
this new technology also raises some profound
questions about what it means to be human.
HUMAN 2.0
Man and machine become one
Today Im wearing
very high-tech legs
- coup de theatre at
#Techfrontiers as
Hugh Herr, double
amputee, shows off
his prosthetics.
Andrew Hill
@andrewtghill
I predict that
in this century
advances in
bionics, genetics,
and regenerative
medicine will
largely eliminate
disability.
Hugh Herr,
Athlete, Scientist,
Innovator, Futurist
Watch Hugh Herrs full talk >
1. MobILE baNkINg goEs WEsT.
Kenya is the world leader in mobile payments
its success is down to the fact that it fulfls a
real need in a developing society. While in the
rich world it may not be a necessity, it could
be of value, even if it is simply to save a trip
to the cash machine.
TECH TRENDS
TO WATCH
Tom Standage, The Economists
Online and Digital Editor,
outlines the top ten
technologies coming your way.
Enjoyed The
Economists
#techfrontiers event.
@tomstandage
should be cloned
and wheeled out
at every tech
conference.
Olivia Solon
@olivia_solon
Elon Musk wants to
retire on Mars. every
time I meet himhe
sounds less mad
says @tomstandage
#techfrontiers
Brian Millar
@arthurascii
Watch Tom
Standages
full talk >
10. PrIvaTIsED sPaCE TravEL.
spaceX, established by PayPal founder Elon
Musk, is on a mission to make low-cost space
travel possible. Musks Falcon rockets have
proved impressive, and now his capsule is
going to be used to transport cargo to the
space station, with a view to transporting
astronauts in the future.
9. augMENTED rEaLITy.
The likes of the star Walk app lets you
take a picture of the sky and fnd out what
constellation it is. Currently a novelty, this
will come into its own when plugged into
social networks.
8. soLar LIgHTINg.
Solar lamps have been around for some time, but now that the cost is
approaching $5 a unit, we can expect them to make a much bigger impact.
At this price there is potential to fnd business models that would enable
solar to really take off think of micro-entrepreneurs helping to prime
the pump on solar lighting in the way the microfnance model enabled
mobile telephony to take off in Bangladesh and Uganda.
7. sPy DroNEs.
A camera-enabled quadrocopter controlled by an
iPhone is proving more than just a novelty. Police
have been using themto monitor protestors, and
the protestors have been using themto monitor
the police. As they get smaller, the tabloid hack will
surely be tempted to spy on a celeb, the unscrupulous
tempted to use themfor industrial espionage.
6. MaN MEETs MaCHINE.
We are seeing a hybridisation of human and
machine intelligence. Amazon Mechanical
Turk, for example, is based on the idea
that humans can do some jobs better than
computers. Post a query online, such as
what is the object in this photo?, and the
technology corrals lots of brain-power to
tackle the task.
5. ENErgy sCavENgINg.
Scavenging ambient energy from the likes
of TV transmitters could be helpful in
powering small electronic devices.
4. DNa sEquENCINg
goEs MaINsTrEaM.
oxford Nanopore has created a
$900 DNA sequencer the size of
a USB memory stick. Cheaper,
faster technology could mean
that in 25 years everyone will
be sequenced as soon as they
are born.
3. EvEryTHINg as a sErvICE.
Technology enables us to rent out the things
we own. For example, Wheelz enables students
to share their cars with friends, or friends
of friends, on campus. It is only through the
combination of smartphones, the internet,
GPS and RFID that this kind of sharing can be
delivered as a service.
2. PrINT WHaT you DEsIrE.
3D printing is something weve been watching
for some time. Now its moving into the
mainstream and becoming increasingly
competitive on cost versus traditional
manufacturing methods. But new challenges
arise: for example, what happens when people
can download and print pirated designs of
their favourite products?
The future is
already here.
Its just not
evenly distributed.
William Gibson
www.technology-frontiers.com | Economist Conferences 2012 4 www.technology-frontiers.com | Economist Conferences 2012 5
If one were to ask corporate leaders to list the
megatrends that are shaping the business world
of tomorrow, three are likely to top most lists.
One is the accelerating shift in economic power
from West to East. Another is fnancial market
instability and recession, at least for those in the
worlds more developed economies. The third is
technological progress. Of these three, the last
is likely to have the most direct impact on how
businesses operate and how they are organised.
As diffcult as the task is, business leaders and
their teams must deploy their crystal balls and
think ahead about the types of changes that may
be wrought by technology-led innovation.
A new report from the Economist Intelligence
Unit (EIU) synthesises different views of how
technology changes will affect organisations
in the period between now and 2020. The report
predicts that technology innovation will continue
unabated, confounding the beliefs of some that
innovation and disruption are slowing. Keeping
pace will be tough: nearly four in ten survey
respondents worry that their organisations
may fall behind.
among the reports other predictions:
big data becomes big business.
Firms already collect vastly more data than they
did a decade ago, and new sourcesfrom smart
meters to smartphoneswill add much more
data to this fow. New or more advanced business
models based on specialist analytics services
are likely to emerge as a result. The European
Commission estimates that government data
alone could add some 40bn (US$55bn) a year
to the European economy by stimulating the
growth of new information services.
Mid-size companies will be less
common in 2020.
Technology advances will support a rise in
micro-entrepreneurs in the decade ahead,
and will enable these tiny businesses to act like
far larger ones. This has direct implications for
midsize companies, which will increasingly need
to choose whether to become larger to compete
on scale, or smaller to compete on speed.
Many will face this decision in the years ahead.
There will be less need for
middle managers.
Greater analytics capabilities and other
technologies will enable organisations to devolve
far more decision-making authority to managers
and employees at the periphery. Nearly two-thirds
of those polled see this happening, which in turn
will allow many to say goodbye to the generalist
middle manager of old.
Job growth becomes decoupled from
economic growth.
It is becoming clearer that the productivity gains
from technology are allowing frms to create
more output from less input. This is a triumph for
business, but will create a stark challenge for job
creation. Indeed, the technology advancement
to come will place a wider range of jobs than
ever under the threat of displacement. The very
same trends, however, will also create numerous
new occupations that do not exist today.
AgENT Of CHANgE
Predicting the impact of disruptive technologies on the way
we do business, based on the fndings from an Economist
Intelligence Unit report sponsored by Ricoh.
ClAyTON
CHRISTENSEN
ON INNOvATION
AND DISRUpTION
Clayton Christensen is a professor of business
administration at Harvard business school
and the bestselling author of The Innovators
Dilemma, among other titles. He is one of
the worlds leading authorities on disruptive
innovation.
Q
In your view, will technology-related
disruption continue as before, slow or
accelerate in the coming decade?
A
It will continue as before, but there is
a concern about a possible imbalance
between the three key types of
innovation. One of these is growth
innovation, which is disruptive. It
involves making what is currently an
expensive and complex technology that
is accessible to only a few people far
simpler and far more affordable. All
growth in jobs in the US has come from
such innovations. The next is sustaining
innovation, which improves good
products functionality or expands their
capacity. Most innovations fall into this
category; on average they do not create
new growth, but they are nonetheless
important to the economy, keeping
frms sharp. Finally, there is effciency
innovation, which is low-end disruption.
These are also important, but they
destroy jobs in the economy. When
Wal-Mart comes to town, for example,
they hire people but their model is so
much more effcient that they also put
many retail shopkeepers out of business.
Looking ahead, growth innovation must
outstrip the ability of the other two to
take jobs out of the economy. But in the
US and parts of Europe, businesses are
investing less and less in these kinds
of innovation, while engaging in more
effciency innovation.
Q
In our survey, many frms cited customers
as a major source of innovation in the
coming decade, ahead of more traditional
ones. What challenges does that hold?
A
As a general rule, if you listen to your
customers and follow their lead, they
help you with the sustaining innovations.
But for the innovations that create
real growth, customers are not very
articulate at what those things need to
be. If you just listen to them or follow
them, they will misguide more than
guide you. However, if you do not listen
to what they say but rather look carefully
at what they really want to get done in
their lives, and how, and you can create
a product or service that does it better,
at lower cost, then you can learn a lot
from customers.
agent of change: The future of technology disruption in business is an Economist
Intelligence Unit white paper, sponsored by ricoh. The fndings are based on expert
interviews together with a global survey of 567 executives, conducted in September
and October 2011, on their expectations of the impact that technology will have on
business between now and 2020.
Cheap smartphones
for all
business-oriented
social networks
Data mining for
behavioural insight
Cloud computing,
providing cheap
and nearly limitless
processing power
and storage
Immersive or
holographic 3D
video conferencing
augmented reality
interfaces
adoption of visual,
tactile and voice
interfaces in primary
computing devices
artifcial
intelligence
computers that
learn by themselves
You hail a cab. Half way into the journey you
realise you dont have enough money to pay so you
ask the driver to stop at the nearest cash machine.
Theres a long queue and all the while the meters
running and the cabbie is making a few extra
bucks at your expense. Far better if you could
simply pay by using your mobile to transmit
virtual cash to the driver. And yet mobile phone
payments are nowhere near as popular in the
rich nations compared to the developing world
at least, not yet.
safaricoms M-PEsa, a mobile-phone based money
transfer system, is now used by nearly half of
Kenyas population. There it fulfls a real need by
enabling those outside the traditional banking
system to send and receive money, whether that
means paying a bill, buying goods or receiving
their wages. Users create a virtual account
connected to their mobile number, then whenever
they want to add electronic cash to their phone, or
turn e-cash into actual money, they can do so at
one of 28,000 retailers.
Fears that the idea would be rejected on the
grounds that it suddenly meant its users and their
fnancial transactions could be tracked seem
to be without basis. We make it clear we have
obligations to report to authorities. But this didnt
matter to users as the value of the service far
outweighed any concerns, says Nick Hughes, the
driving force behind the project and now director
of Signal Point Partners, which advises and invests
in companies in emerging markets that use mobile
phones to deliver services.
Despite M-PESAs success, there have been
hurdles to overcome Safaricom had to convince
regulators that it wasnt creating a new currency,
arguing that every penny in M-PESA matches a real
world penny. Obstacles out of the way, Hughes
says it has even more potential: What is exciting
now is the business opportunities it creates. For
instance, many Africans are off the electricity
grid but they cant afford the one-off payment
for a solar-powered unit. Now they could put
down a deposit on the unit, which is embedded
with a mobile device, and each time they turn the
equipment on a small amount of money could be
taken from their M-PESA account. It breaks down
the affordability barrier.
But could electronic cash take off in the West,
where most people have bank accounts and
credit cards? Ije Nwokorie, Managing Director
of brand consultancy Wolff Olins London, asks:
How do you make it compelling here? You are
talking about replacing something deep-seated
we still get excited when we pull crisp notes from
a cash machine. He reckons the solution
lies in understanding the frustrations people
have with making payments and looking at how
virtual wallets could solve them. People want to
know they are getting the best deal, or that they
can make a payment quickly, without endless
forms to fll in. These are areas where these
platforms can play a role and add value.
NEW
MONEy
Where next for
mobile banking?
What is exciting now is the business
opportunities it creates.
Nick Hughes, Director, Signal Point Partners
We need to
go back to the
true meaning of
money: a token
of trust between
two parties.
Nick Hughes
#TechFrontiers
fabio sergio
@freegorifero
people want to know they
are getting the best deal.
Ije Nwokorie, Managing Director, Wolff Olins
What is
exciting
now is the
business
opportunities
it creates.
Nick Hughes, Director,
Signal Point Partners
the real world and online. With the evolution of
technology, services such as in-play betting
aims to add more to the experience, allowing
punters to bet on the outcome of each
and every ball in a cricket game, or even bet
throughout the 90 minutes of a football match.
Technology has also altered the way the company
operates its back offce. Over the last seven years,
the digital environment has changed the way in
which we collect data. We know every single bet
that comes through on a second-by-second basis
so we can run a better margin and offer better
prices to the customer and so earn their loyalty,
reckons Glynn.
But while the capturing of data through the likes
of its loyalty programme helps the business improve
its offering, it has to be careful about what it
captures in an industry where customer privacy
can be a particularly sensitive issue. It is big data
and not big brother. We make it clear what we are
collecting and we reward customers accordingly.
You have to remember the consumer has power.
Consumer technologies such as apps and social
networks are outpacing enterprise technologies
and transforming the way companies work. So says
Oliver Benzecry, Managing Director of Accenture,
UK and Ireland, who notes we are now at a tipping
point and there are many opportunities to reinvent
both the front and back ends of a business.
Examples include shopkick, a scheme which
uses smartphones to reward a shopper just for
walking into a store, providing new ways for
retailers to interact with potential customers.
At the back end, whole processes are changing.
In innovation, for example, Procter & Gamble
moved away from the traditional internal R&D
model and set up Connect + Develop, estimating
that for every P&G researcher there were 200
scientists or engineers elsewhere in the world who
could help the company innovate. Previously, less
than 10% of its new initiatives involved external
innovation partnerships. With its new programme,
by 2008, this was up to over 50%.
Traditional high street bookmakers provide
another example of how business models are
evolving, in their case to compete with online
gambling sites. Customers now have a great
amount of choice on how, when, and where they
place a bet our job is to over-service, says
Richard Glynn, Chief Executive of Ladbrokes. The
high street store is still a very important part
of what Ladbrokes offers, but the company now
seeks to create an entertainment and community
experience around the placing of a bet both in
It is big
data, not big
brother...
you have to
remember
the
consumer
has power.
Richard Glynn, Chief
Executive, Ladbrooks
TECHNOlOgy
AS A gAME CHANgER
Exploring new business models
Session sponsored by Accenture
you have to really
careful about
abusing peoples
data - richard
glynn - ladbrokes
#techfrontiers
- old days of the
smokey fat cap
are gone
Fiona Graham
@FionaGraham
benzecry: The
#consumer is
now much more
in control than
business and can
move at speed
and en masse
#TechFrontiers
@clearchannelint
Watch the full discussion >
Not that long ago, technologists predicted that
by the 21st century wed have nifty robots to do
the hard work, leaving human beings to live a
life of leisure.
As it turned out, the robots were slow to
materialise, while rapid advances in computing
revolutionised the workplace only not in the
way that most people expected. What has become
clear is that each new technology imposes fresh
demands on managers and workers, as well as
opportunities to make work more productive
and enjoyable.
Want to get away from it all? Head to the
bottom of the Grand Canyon, was how one
executive at Technology Frontiers summed
up the problem of being online and available
24/7. Managers are particularly hard hit: one
study indicates that they are interrupted once
every three minutes. Not before time, bosses
are trying to fnd the communication tools
that might help rather than hinder. Some are
developing unconventional responses: one
executive at the conference refuses to read
anything they are just CCd on, another has
banned email altogether.
While one group of employees worry about
technology impinging on their lives, generation
Y types are frustrated by their companies
sluggish adoption of new tools. Thanks to the
consumerisation of IT, many of them are using
more powerful technologies in their social lives
than are available at work.
One of the main claims for the new social
technologies is that they improve workplace
collaboration. This can certainly be true. When
used effectively, collaborative working brings
about open innovation across a company. But in
reality cross-organisation collaboration is hard
to implement, argues Lynda Gratton, Professor
of Management Practice at the London Business
School: It is not because there are different
nationalities or clashing personalities. People
from different disciplines have very individual
ways of working and use different technical
language. It is hard to bring about the level of
trust needed for tacit knowledge to be transferred.
It can be a big challenge as people dont know
each other, they dont have the social interaction,
and so it is hard to stimulate that environment,
points out David Mills, Executive Vice-president
of Operations, Ricoh Europe.
Gratton believes that the key is in creating a
question that is so interesting to all parties
that they cant stop answering it, in spite of any
communication diffculties. You also have to fnd
incentives this idea that you are working for
the greater good of the company is not enough.
In a later session, JP Rangaswami, Chief Scientist
at Salesforce.com, argued that enterprise social
networking is a valuable way to break down
hierarchies in an organisation. Before, you had
to make hierarchical assumptions about whether
people will work well together, now you just ask
if your guys can talk it over. It changes strategy
WORk
fORCE
2012
Can technology really
transform our working lives?
And will it be for the better?
Session sponsored by Ricoh
What is exciting now is the business
opportunities it creates.
Nick Hughes, Director, Signal Point Partners
Watch the full discussion >
on how to get the best people for the task. Plus,
a networked environment means decisions are
not made in a silo.
Technology also promises to make our working
lives more fexible. Julie Meyer, Founder and
Chief Executive Offcer at Ariadne Capital, who
works with entrepreneurs and start ups, notes
that, particularly in the under 30 age group,
the concept of employment is changing and
technology is enabling the change. They
dont have experience of working for one
organisation. They see themselves as their own
brand with their own responsibilities for P&L.
She paints a picture of a generation that is
working longer hours but feeling that they have
more freedom and want to manage their own
time. Work is something they do that they
love, not somewhere they go.
In this new world, managers worry about
potential conficts of interest and reduced loyalty
among employees. However, Gratton argues
otherwise: There is no evidence they are disloyal
but they are more conscious of the choices they
have. They have seen what has happened to the
baby boomers and the breaking of the job for life
contract. They want to stay, learn and develop
but realise they must stay mobile. And the
message to international companies they have
joined you because you are global and they are
expecting to move around the company.
It is hard to
bring about
the level of
trust needed
for tacit
knowledge
to be
transferred.
Lynda Gratton,
Professor of
Management Practice,
London Business
School
Lynda gratton,
a facinating
presentation on
the way people
will work in the
future - a bit scary
#TechFrontiers
Rachael HanleyBrowne
@leadmetoit
Lynda gratton
Lbs average time
of executives
not interrupted
is 3mins
#TechFrontiers
Helmut Fink
@helfnk
PaNEL sEssIoN
Lynda Gratton, Professor of
Management Practice at the
London Business School,
joins a panel discussion with
David Mills, Executive
Vice-president of Operations
at Ricoh Europe, Julie Meyer,
Founder and Chief Executive
Offcer at Ariadne Capital and
Mark Judd, Global Director
of Human Resources of the
shared services organisation
at Rolls-Royce.
Choir singers dont need to congregate together
to make music together. At least, not when you
have YouTube at your disposal, says Eric Whitacre,
a composer and conductor.
Whitacre has put together a virtual choir with
singers from around the world that he conducts via
video. The idea started life when Britlin Losee a
fan of Whitacres music recorded herself singing
one of his compositions and shared it on YouTube.
Her voice is sweet, but the bedroom recording is
pretty low-f. Even so, Britlins videoed audition
got Whitacre thinking. He sent out an appeal for
volunteers for his virtual choir, and worked with
producer Scott Haines to bring the video recordings
together with some impressive results.
At Technology Frontiers, Whitacre shows us how
the music comes to life. We watch individual
singers all over the world sitting in their bedrooms
or living rooms, watching their virtual conductor
intently and piping up for their particular
contribution. But the magic happens when all
these voices are brought together, transforming
the individual song lines into a rich and highly
textured piece of music. Cue gasps of awe and
delight from the audience.
Encouraged by his initial success, Whitacre upped
his ambition. The next project called for 900
people to record themselves singing his song
Sleep. Before long Whitacre had received
2,052 contributions from singers in 58 countries.
Whitacre isnt entirely sure where this is all
heading. Virtual Choir 3, Water Night launched
in April using 3,746 singers videos from 73
countries. But he says there is a lot more to it
than just the music.
Having asked for feedback from the singers via
Facebook and Twitter, Whitacre heard some of their
stories. There are people taking part in places in
Africa with no running water and rough Internet
connections. They are spending days uploading
their video.
I started as a music nerd to see what I could
come up with but it is far bigger than that.
It is about peoples desire to connect.
NEW WORlD
ORCHESTRA
Or how a cast of
three thousand
strangers made
some beautiful music.
Watch Erics
full talk >
Water Night launched in April using
3,746 singers videos from 73 countries.
I started as
a music nerd
to see what
I could come
up with but it
is far bigger
than that.
It is about
peoples desire
to connect.
Eric Whitacre, composer
and virtual choirmaster
Eric Whitacres
virtual choir at
the #techfrontiers
conference was
quite mesmerising!
Michael Anyfantakis
@MAnyfant
Watch the video for Sleep >
top 20 of the worlds most liveable cities, says
YB Senator Dato Raja Nong Chik, Minister of Federal
Territories and Urban Wellbeing. The city is working
hard to get there. For example, Kuala Lumpur
suffers from both traffc congestion and fooding
caused by heavy rain storms problems which have
prompted the construction of a new smart tunnel.
Most of the time, this tunnel is used by traffc, but if
fooding is predicted it closes and is used to manage
water levels instead. Other schemes include a Mass
Rapid Transit system, and the regeneration of the
rivers and surrounding areas.
Crucial to the success of such projects is the
private sector, he adds. It has to be a government
initiative, but they then need to incentivise the
private sector and help facilitate the project.
We have to be smart in our integration with
other partners whether they be the landowners,
local authorities, or the transport providers.
Ratti believes that to develop smarter cities,
governments need to make their data available
and allow anyone to build apps for it, in much the
same way that the data.gov.uk project is doing.
Bottom-up innovation is the way forward.
Our cities have become living computers in which
the digital and physical worlds merge together
to offer a better life for the people that descend
on them daily. This is the image created by Carlo
Ratti, Associate Professor and Director at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technologys SENSEable
City Laboratory.
Its projects have included the quirky such as
a digital water pavilion in Spain, where the
buildings walls, which are made of nothing else
but water, appear and disappear when the pavilion
opens and closes. Others have more practical
applications: LIVE Singapore! collates real-time
data on urban activity to help people make better
decisions based on what is actually happening at
any one time in the city. One of the applications
looks at how taxi and rainfall data can be
combined to help manage supply and demand for
cabs in bad weather. Then theres the Copenhagen
Wheel, which transforms ordinary bicycles into
hybrid e-bikes controlled through a smartphone.
They capture the energy dissipated while cycling
and braking and save it for when the cyclist needs
a boost. They also collect data on pollution
levels, traffc congestion, and road conditions
in real-time.
Kuala Lumpur is also looking to technology to help
make it one of the best cities in the world to live.
We are now number 78 (in the EIUs ranking of
liveable cities) and by 2020 we want to be in the
A TAlE
Of
fUTURE
CITIES
A blueprint
for the
intelligent
metropolis
Totally want
a Copenhagen
wheel now...
really interesting
presentation from
Carlo ratti and MIT
#TechFrontiers
Laura Scott
@Laura_Scott
PaNEL DIsCussIoN
Carlo Ratti, Associate Professor and Director, MIT SENSEable City Laboratory, discusses the future
of cities with YB Senator Dato Raja Nong Chik, Minister of Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing,
Malaysia, and Peter Geuns, Technology Leader, Europe, Middle East and Africa, GE Power and Water.
The Copenhagen Wheel transforms
ordinary bicycles into hybrid e-bikes
controlled through a smartphone.
THE MIND Of
THE CONSUMER
Technology works best when
it gets inside your head
The social graph
is not enough to
predict infuence.
aleks krotoski
#TechFrontiers
Herve Lilliu
@hlilliu
@boninbough
says tech is
changing us.
google search
is rewiring us
to short mssg.
Mobile phones
as addictive
as cocaine
#TechFrontiers
Claudia Girrbach
@ClaudiaGirrbach
Watch Bonin >
Watch Aleks >
Watch Charlie >
Apple has it down to an art form how to get
inside the heads of its customers. You may be
old/bald/unpopular but buy me and you will
be cool again, was how Charles Leadbeater, a
leading authority on innovation, strategy and
education, summed up why Apples brands have
become hotter than Hades.
Marketers may well look to replicate the
companys success but understanding what makes
a product popular in the tech sphere can prove
elusive. Leadbeater contends that for a piece
of technology to become successful, it has to
become part of the furniture. Technology has
to ft in naturally and be adopted into normal,
everyday life, he says. One strategy is to make
the new seem ultra-simple an iPad stylus
that allows you to write as much as you would
with a traditional pen, for example. Crucially,
technology needs to have empathy and be
designed in a way that understands human
needs. What we get now is so far short of a
human experience, says Leadbeater.
Bonin Bough, Vice-president of Global Digital and
Consumer Engagement at Kraft Foods, agrees:
When technology began to look more like us
it took off and became cross generational so
you have grandparents keeping up with their
families lives through the likes of Facebook
and Skype. He notes that every successful
technology changed our lives without us knowing
There is the assumption
that an online connection
= friendship
= infuence.
It is much more
nuanced than that.
Aleks Krotoski, technology academic
and freelance journalist
Technology has
to ft in naturally
What we get now is so far
short of a human experience.
Charles Leadbeater, author on
innovation and creativity
it. The clock is a case in point before its
invention, we would wake and sleep naturally but
now our lives our dictated by it. The Web is doing
the same. It could even be reprogramming our
brains without us knowing it as we are becoming
less used to digesting long-form content.
Not only does technology have to mesh itself into
our lives seamlessly, but it also has to have a buzz
around it. Marketers are keen to exploit the idea
of infuence and how that might play out in the
digital world. But Aleks Krotoski, an academic,
journalist and social psychologist, says that the
way some businesses are looking at how people
infuence each other online is crude. There is
the assumption that an online connection =
friendship = infuence. It takes complex human
beings and reduces them into a relatively simple
series of ingredients that you can pour into a
recipe and, hey presto, they can be infuenced.
But it is much more nuanced than that.
Further observation would yield more
accurate results if two people use multiple
communication platforms such as Facebook,
SMS and chat, then they are likely to be close
and have more infuence with each other.
Or if a person receives more requests to connect
through a social media platform than those
reaching out to them, they are likely to be
more infuential. But there is a caveat: anyone
can manipulate their identity online.
Charlie Leadbeater:
ryanair sell you
a ticket, and then
they declare war on
you #Techfrontiers
TomStandage
@tomstandage
Food at a
Farmers Market
comes with
narrative.
@wethink on
the empathy
systems of oddly
shaped potatoes.
#techfrontiers
Aleks Krotoski
@aleksk
When to go with creative
intuition, when to go
with the data
Creativity challenges technology and technology
inspires creativity, says Sir John Hegarty,
Worldwide Creative Director and Founder of
Bartle Bogle Hegarty. To make the most of
technology, businesses need to get creative. But
often they get so involved with the technology
that it takes a while before someone comes up
with the creative insight about how to apply this
technology to human needs.
There is a schism between technologists and
creatives, but we are also in cohesion with
each other, he adds. Marketing, in particular,
can be transformed by technology. Today the
way you can communicate with people can be
done economically and in an exciting way. But
what we are seeing is very conventional and
disappointing. Regardless of the technology,
Hegarty reckons success lies in storytelling. The
invention of flm was revolutionary but who would
want to go and see a movie without a story? The
same is true for the technology we have today,
with the likes of social media enabling businesses
to tell a compelling story or start a conversation
with its customers.
But technology enables more than just the telling
of a story or the igniting of a debate. We can use
technology to connect us to the crowd whether
that is customers, suppliers, or bloggers, says
PANEL DISCUSSION
Sir John Hegarty, Worldwide
Creative Director and Founder
at Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH),
Geoff McGrath, Managing
Director at McLaren Applied
Technologies, and Neil Rimer,
Co-Founder and Partner at
Index Ventures look at how
technology can be used for
competitive advantage.
Watch the
discussion >
Watch Sir
Johns talk >
Neil Rimer, Co-founder and Partner at Index
Ventures. They can operate like simultaneous
focus groups, you can have customers support
each other, and even open up competition for a
new design.
Geoff McGrath, Managing Director at McLaren
Applied Technologies says that user-driven
innovation is becoming very much part of the
mix in product development. The company works
with pioneers in the feld such as cyclist Mark
Cavendish, who shows just what is possible,
as well as the public.
We design products for humans and so we have
to fnd an environment where we combine man
and machine, says McGrath of how McLaren
uses technology.
Brian Millar, Director of Strategy at Sense
Worldwide, later commented in a session on
social media that we should be encouraging the
involvement of creative consumers such as the
endurance athletes that hack their shoes. In a
focus group, you might get 50 and a pizza. Here
you are contributing to a better running shoe.
Participants also get bragging rights and there are
a tonne of talented people out there without jobs
who can add this project to their CV. They certainly
dont feel as though they are being used.
There is
a schism
between
technologists
and
creatives,
but we
are also
in cohesion
with each
other.
Sir John Hegarty,
Founder of Bartle
Bogle Hegarty
anyone not
watching
#TechFrontiers can
do now at: http://t.
co/u8gDfzJu - even
if just to see John
Hegartys suit!
a creative winner...
Sarah Caddy
@caddster
storytelling will
always be the
greatest form of
communication -
sir John Hegarty
from bbH
#TechFrontiers
Simon Meredith
@simon_meredith
Image fromSir John Hegartys presentation
MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machines
have massively improved diagnosis of many
diseases. But having a scan can be a huge ordeal
for patients, particularly for children. New
generation machines now provide high quality
imaging with a more patient-friendly experience.
With the help of an iPhone, patients can control
the lights, the pictures and even the scents
while they are in the MRI suite. Crucially, such
developments also mean you are less likely to
have to sedate a frightened child.
Such examples are part of big trend to humanise
medical technology. Mike Harsh, Chief Technology
Offcer at GE Healthcare, explains how they use
storytelling to make MRI less frightening. Children
become part of an interactive tale, which begins
in the waiting room with a jungle or pirate theme,
and is continued right through the scan. There
is a part in the scan where the patient has to hold
their breath to get clear image and so we have even
made that part of the story. It is important to move
It is important to move away from
these cold technical machines and
bring humanity to the experience.
Mike Harsh, Chief Technology Offcer at GE Healthcare
HUMANISINg HEAlTHCARE
High empathy machines in medicine
away from these cold technical machines and bring
humanity to the experience.
This is just one example of how the future could
be shaped by so-called high empathy machines.
While technology has transformed healthcare,
the next stage is actually making it more patient-
focussed and looking at what the experience is
for the end-user.
Fabio Sergio, Executive Creative Director at Frog
Design, which works with companies to design
new products and services, says that attention
to detail is crucial, and sometimes it has little
to do with the technology itself. For example, in
the process of designing a machine that enables
diabetics to test their blood sugar, it was realised
that in some cultures, users had a problem with
touching the measuring strip which would have a
trace of their blood on it. A simple low-tech eject
button that eliminated the need to touch the
strip was the solution. Technology is sold as the
key value but it is not always the case human
nature has to shine through.
While the future promises to empower patients,
the danger of information overload also has
to be tackled. One example of how this could
be avoided is the chip in a pill that transmits
information to a patch attached to the patients
skin, which then relays it to a mobile phone so
that doctor can accurately measure if a drug is
being taken properly.
Panellists felt that healthcare has to move away
from process and protocols. Think people not
patients, was the message.
Mike Harsh, Chief Technology Offcer, GE Healthcare, Antonio Hidalgo, Executive Vice-president and
Chief Innovation, Marketing and Strategy Offcer at Philips Consumer Lifestyle, and Fabio Sergio,
Executive Creative Director at Frog Design, look at how technology can be made more user-friendly.
great story from
mike harsh: MrI
scans for kids
made fun with
a pirate story.
Hope they call
it M arrrrrgh I
#techfrontiers
Brian Millar
@arthurascii
Watch
the full
discussion >
pRIvACy AND pROTECTION
Revealing too much at the click of a mouse

The Web is awash with all kinds of free services
that beneft peoples lives. Smartphones now put
a wealth of nifty apps at our fngertips, often for
less than the cost of bag of chips. Even so, some
experts say these tools come at a cost. Often
unwittingly, consumers enter into a bargain in
which personal data is the new currency.
Cory Doctorow, science fction author and
Co-Editor of Boing Boing, reckons that while
most people genuinely care about their privacy,
we are bad at assessing the long-term
consequences of our disclosures. No one would
eat cheesecake if it immediately turned into
cellulite, no one would smoke if it immediately
caused a tumour, he says, pointing out that this
time lag between cause and effect applies just as
much in the world of data as it does health.
Doctorow believes that technology can now be
used to solve the privacy problem it has created.
In the past, an epidemic of pop-up ads that
plagued every website was quelled after Mozilla
won plaudits for putting a pop-up blocker into its
Firefox browser. In the same way, we need to make
it as easy to manage cookies through our browsers.
Says Doctorow: The privacy bargain is a myth
it claims that people consent to being tracked
as they dont reject the cookies. But it is hard to
selectively allow the cookies that will be useful to
you. The trouble is, nobody knows how to use their
browser so companies can take their data for free.
However, others argue that most consumers
understand that if they want a service for free,
they will have to give up their data. Even so, the
transaction needs to be more explicit: customers
volunteer basic information in return for a service,
and if a company wants to know more then they
need to negotiate. This was the view reiterated
several times by participants at Technology
Frontiers consumers need to be savvier when
it comes to what they give away, but businesses
also need to innovate in how they reward their
customers for the data they part with.
Some governments are more concerned about the
current state of play than others. The European
Commission believes its citizens need protecting
and is proposing a new regulation that would
become law in the member states. We need to
establish trust. People dont know what happens
to their data, says Franoise Le Bail, European
Commission, Director General for Justice.
The ECs new regulation has four aims. First,
it would mean that people have a right to be
forgotten (that is, to have their online information
removed). Second, explicit consent would need
to be given in order for information to be stored.
Third, people must have a right to know what data
is held about them. And fourth, any data breach
must be notifed to the data protection authority
within 24 hours.
Strong enforcement will be vital to make the
rules stick: transgressors can expect fnes of up
to 1m euro or 2% of the global turnover of a
company. The EC reckons the proposals will not
encroach on other rights such as freedom of
speech or burden global business operating
within the EU. As ever in these matters, its
unlikely that everyone will feel reassured.
Cory Doctorow, science fction author and Co-Editor of Boing Boing,
leads the discussion with David Greenberg, Executive Vice-president, LRN
and Mark Stevenson, author of An Optimists Tour of the Future.
Thought provoking
perspective on
privacy issues from
Cory Doctorow
#TechFrontiers
Wolff Olins
@WolffOlins
Watch Corys
talk on privacy >
Watch the panel
discussion >
The privacy bargain is a myth it claims
that people consent to being tracked.
Cory Doctorow, science fction author and
Co-Editor of Boing Boing
BlIND DATA
Information overload:
Sorting the wheat
from the chaff
Session sponsored by Huawei
It is said that big data has the power to solve
some of the worlds most pressing problems,
from climate change to AIDS. Whether or not
that will transpire, we are certainly seeing an
unprecedented explosion in the sheer scale
of information that is now captured.
Having all this data is one thing, making sense
of it is quite another, and many businesses
are vexed as to how to tackle the mountain of
information they collect. Most companies are
random screeners of their data or they screen
everything which is rather like looking for needle
in a haystack, says Heidi Messer, Chairman of
Collective i. But doing nothing is not an option
either data can provide huge insight so ignore
it at your peril. Every fawed decision has
tremendous ramifcations. Every wrong choice
made can undermine millions in terms
of marketing investment, she says.
Messer compares the dilemma with that faced by
airports. When it comes to security, one option
might be the random screening of passengers
but this is subject to human bias. But if you
screen everyone, the process is extremely time-
consuming. A third way, and by far the most
successful, is combining business intelligence
with human intelligence. Airlines screen
passengers before they even get to the airport,
the data fags up potential security concerns,
Heidi Messer, Chairman of
Collective i, Kirk Dunn, Chief
Operating Offcer, Cloudera,
John Frieslaar, Chief Technology
Offcer, Huawei Western
Europe and Nigel Shadbolt,
Head of Web and Internet
science group, University of
Southampton, look at some
of the challenges companies
face in extracting value from
their data. Instead of
focusing on
the size of
data, focus
on the answers
you want and
the tools that
will get you
those answers.
Heidi Messer,
Chairman of Collective i
#techfrontiers
Collective(i)
chairman Heidi
Messer rightly
bemoans marketing
depts shift to
managing data
instead of
creating value
@onyeije
Nigel shadbolt:
Most data of value
is locked away
in spreadsheets
#TechFrontiers
Ricoh Europe
@ricoheurope
People have an
infated idea of
what digital data
is worth, John
Frieslaar of Huawei
at #TechFrontiers -
argues for more
data sharing
ifs Financial World
@_FinancialWorld
Watch the full
discussion >
Watch Heidis
presentation >
and airline personnel look at the risk factors and
make the further checks necessary.
Instead of focusing on the size of data, focus
on the answers you want and the tools that will
get you those answers, says Messer. For most
organisations, that requires a seismic shift as the
culture is not geared to analytically-driven decision
making. A business needs to train people about
applying human intelligence on top of the data.
We are in the digital dark ages when it comes to
data, reckons John Frieslaar, Chief Technology
Offcer at Huawei Western Europe, who argues
that we are not using data creatively enough.
We should be collaborating and problem-solving
but no one wants to share their data. They have
an infated idea of what their data is worth.
But it is only by sharing that the real value will
come in.
Nigel Shadbolt, Head of Web and Internet science
group at the University of Southampton concurs:
Data becomes useful when it becomes actionable
information. Shadbolt and Tim Berners-Lee have
been appointed Co-Directors of the new Open
Data Institute, which will help businesses make
use of UK government data. There is a lot of high
quality information often sitting locked away in
spreadsheets in government. The public sector
should see itself as a platform for data and allow
others to innovate around this data.
Image fromHeidi Messers presentation
Image fromHeidi Messers presentation

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