Michael Edson: Where do we go from here?

“We live in a time of relentless and accelerating change. Long established conventions in business, economics, medicine, education, science and government are all under assault by this thing we amorphously call technology. What’s going on? And what does it mean for the trusted institutions that once formed the bedrock of our society? How should they change?”

Michael Edson, the Smithsonian Institution’s director of Web and New Media Strategy

Mr. Edson began by stating, "...let us go boldly in the present..." Its a struggle for everyone just getting by in their everyday likes to stay current let alone look into the future, if we can get to the present, we've done something.

Mr. Edson pointed out how few organizations can successfully implement a strategy which he defined as strategy is work that matters, it establishes a common vocabulary. An important part of the strategy is making it workable. What separates the leaders from the people implementing the strategy? Mr. Edson used the term thermocline, which if you've read a Tom Clancy book you're aware this is a boundary layer between two layers of water with different temperatures. This boundary reflexs sonar effectively hiding whats happening underneath it.
While business leaders are frantically trying to decide what an appropriate use of say twitter might be, the people under them, hidden from their view are already using it, applying it in ways their leaders never thought of.
The Smithsonian is working to set free the knowledge and information they have on a wikispace with which he stated, with an impish smile, that he hopes people use to increase and abuse knowledge.

I really enjoyed and learned more from Mr. Edson than the previous speakers in this series, not that they were lacking in any way, its just they keep getting better and better.

This is crazy and I know doesn't mean anything, but before the talk I was introduced to Michael Edson and he asked me about my camera and we geeked out on it and the iPhone camera which he says he uses almost exclusively now.
Sorry, a little nerdom from a nerd.

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