Nine Shift

Thanks for a Great NineShift Year!

For the 19th straight year, Thank You for a great year with NineShift.  

Over 335 people have visited the blog here JUST in the last 5 days ! 

We now enter the last year of the 2000-2020 transition from the Industrial Age to the Knowledge Society.
All 9 of the major shifts we predicted are taking hold on society.
And over 500 hundred NIneShifters continue to read our book, attend NineShift presentations, read this blog, and tell us how meaningful NineShift has been to their lives.  

Here's the Top 5 NineShift Stories of the Year. 

Top 5 Stories of the Year 2018

#5  Net Neutrality Law Passed By California.

Joining Canada and Europe, California passed a law preserving Internet Neutrality for the state.
The "state" is 10% of the U.S., the sixth largest economy in the world, and generally sets the trends for the rest of the country. 

Net Neutrality means you and I, and your lifelong learning program, will have equal access to the Internet no matter how small or poor you, I or your program is. 
In contrast to big corporations buying up bandwidth and making it hard or impossible for people to download your videos, your podcast, your online course, etc.

It will be difficult for corporations to have two sets of rules, one for other states and one for California.  Generally companies just adhere to the California laws across the board.

It's a huge big win for people, democracy, nonprofits, education, freedom of speech and more........  It's what Tim Berners-Lee intended when he invented the World Wide Web 25 years ago.

Image: Lady Ada Lovelace, inventor of the first computer in 1842.

#4 Story of the Year

Freelancers and entrepreneurs, the "gig economy," now estimated at 36% of the workforce.

The new economy is taking hold employment-wise, with people working from home, people working from a distance, people on contract, entrepreneurs and freelancers. This new flexibility is a win-win for workers and companies.  Companies need specific skills for specific periods of time.  Workers need upward mobility, sideways or horizontal mobility, geographic mobility, work-life balance, second or third careers, control over their careers.  

And that new economy is based on the Knowledge Worker, someone with a college degree working with a computer to produce something intangible.  The Knowledge Worker has now clearly replaced the manufacturing worker of the Industrial Age of the last century as the most important work sector in the economy. 

Photo: Knowledge workers meeting on a train in Spain. 

#3 Story of the Year

The 'Data Subject' privacy law passed by Europe protects Americans.

Europe is leading the way in passing legislation to make society work in the 21st century. 
The 'Data Subject' privacy law says that an individual's data (you and I are 'data subjects') is subject to protection by law. 

And it includes Americans!
Within a week of the law being passed LERN had to sign an agreement regarding privacy in obtaining some free software from Europe, even though we are only using it here in the U.S.
And here's a terrific example:  say you fly American Airlines from Wichita to Dallas.  American Airlines has offices in Europe.  They can download your data to their computers - - they do it all the time.  BUT since that data enters Europe, it must meet the European guidelines, even though you may never go to Europe. 

This is another example of the new legislative and governmental infrastructure being created to make the 21st century work for society.  

#2 Story of the Year

The $15 an hour minimum wage made big strides this year.

Some 20 states increased their minimum wages, and Amazon, Charter Communications, Target, and other corporations are moving their minimum pay up to, or close to, $15/hour.

Countries with less inequality do better economically, and so reducing inequality in the United States means good things for everyone.  
Photo: NineShift co-author Julie with a Fight for 15 advocate.

The Invention We Had Hoped for in 2001

Remember in 2001, the Internet/World Wide Web had just blown us away, the new century had just begun, and Dean Kamen said he would announce an invention of enormous impact. 

Everyone speculated and speculated about the new Kamen invention, and everyone widely expected and hoped it would be a solar battery, giving power to villagers in Africa. And so it was so disappointing when Kamen revealed his invention was the Segway, which was received modestly and all but disappeared from the race for the next-big-thing since. 

And now, 17 years later, we finally have it!  Only now it is not being greeted by societal-wide acclaim and jubilation.  No, it has been buried in the news. Only 2% of people at the live NineShift presentation in Savannah in November even had heard of the invention. 

But no matter, science does not depend on opinion polls. And so, with great excitement and jubilation we present the #1 Story of the Year for 2018.

#1 Story of the Year

A zinc-air battery, capable of providing power with just sunlight, is the Top Story of 2018.

It was announced several months ago by Patrick Soon-Shiong of NantEnergy, which created it several years ago.
The zinc-air battery has been in testing for several years and:

-It already powers villages in Africa serving over 200,000 people a year. 
-It powers some cell phone towers in the U.S. and other countries.

It has the potential to make homes self-sufficient energy-wise and keep power on for 72 hours after a power outage.
It has the potential to reduce our carbon footprint and save the planet from global change/warming. 

Maybe this exact invention won't be the answer, but it is so close that THE answer is not far away, giving us all hope for the future. 

Funny Ending to Draves' 2 minute Introduction

From last month's live Nineshift for 2019, here's how the presentation started.  
The ending is worth the 2 minutes, according to NineShifters.
And thanks to the 150 people who signed up for the NineShift webinar Dec. 12 !! 

 

 

The New Transportation System for America

The new transportation system for America became clear last month. 
Here it is:  airports with high speed rail connections to other cities.

Here's the news:
Virgin Atlantic just invested in the new highly successful Brightline passenger train company, renaming it Virgin Trains USA.

The trains will go from Miami to Orlando, and from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. 
Point:  Virgin Airways has flights into all four cities.  Look for a merged airline-train schedule and ticketing coming soon.