Information and Flash Mob Tactics - Plus Paul Revere's Speed

Recently anti-mask and anti-testing activist, using mobile phones, video and social media platforms, called for a flash mob style protest at the Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center emergency room in Vancouver, Washington.  They were protesting against the hospital's requirements that patients be tested for Covid-19 upon entering the hospital.

The anti-maskers that organized the 15-20 person flash mob protest stated their goal was to be able to "push a button on their mobile phone" and send information that would summon 10 activists in 10 minutes, 100 in 100 minutes and 1,000 in 1,000 minutes."  A speed they hoped would be fast enough to surprise the targets of their protest.

That got me thinking about information and "summoning" speed.   I wondered how long it took the American colonists to distribute information and summon their militia to meet the British in Lexington, Massachusetts on April 19, 1775?  

Here is what my research found.  Paul Revere's 12.5 mile ride on a horseback to warn the colonists that the British were coming took approximately one hour.  Paul arrived in Lexington about 12:30 AM on April 19.  

Once the colonist received the warning information that the "British were coming!" they got dressed, grabbed their weapons and ran, walked or rode their horses to meet the British in Lexington.  The "shot heard around the world" was fired just after dawn in Lexington.  Based on these records it appears it took around 6 hours to distribute information and summon 500 colonial militia to confront the British.

One of the anti-maskers stated goals was the ability to summon 1,000 protesters in 1,000 minutes (16 hours). With today's social media, internet and mobile devices is that a stretch goal? In about 6 hours the American colonists had gathered approximately 500 militia, and the information was distributed on horseback. 

At least in this instance, it appears Paul Revere's team and their horses beat the "summoning" speed goals of today's anti-maskers.  Paul's team was able to carry information out and summon more people at a faster rate.

I recognize this certainly will not always be the case, but that doesn't stop us from enjoying this bit of silly trivia.

Don't forget to subscribe or follow me if you want more silly trivia, plus not so silly discussions on the future.

 

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Kevin Benedict

Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Rethinking Universities - Thoughts from Four Experts

In this episode, we talk with four experts, from three different countries, on how universities' business models, purpose and paradigms might need to be re-thought in the future.  Our experts are:

• Renee Altier, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Business Education and Careers at Wiley
• Greg Morrisett, Dean and Vice Provost at Cornell Tech
• Mark Bramwell, CIO at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
• Susan McCahan, Vice Provost, Innovations in Undergraduate Education and Vice Provost, Academic Programs at University of Toronto

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Kevin Benedict

Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Facebook Decides What People Think

The preamble to the United States constitution is so 1787.  Back then our founding fathers wanted important decisions about our nation's future to be decided by "We the people."  Today, however, we have opted to let social media and big tech companies make some of our most important societal decisions without us.  I'm quite certain that is not what our founding fathers intended.

Here is a excerpt from an article in the New York Times today, "The social network [Facebook] announced on Wednesday that it had started changing its algorithm to reduce the political content in users’ news feeds. The less political feed will be tested on a fraction of Facebook’s users in Canada, Brazil and Indonesia beginning this week, and will be expanded to the United States in the coming weeks, the company said."

Emerging Complexities with COVID-19 Variants

In this short video we examine the increasing complexity that COVID-19 variants will introduce to our ecosystems.  Multiple variants of COVID-19 introduce different infection rates, different vaccine efficacies and different vaccine supply chains, logistics, storage requirements, schedules, recommendations and advice.  

It's important that we recognize these additional and emerging complexities as early as possible so we can begin thinking through their implications and impacts and taking the necessary steps to be prepared.

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Kevin Benedict

Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

The University "Campus" of the Future

During this pandemic year many university students were sent home to study online.  How will this pandemic experience change the design of the university campus of tomorrow?  In this episode, I ask this question to four brilliant experts in higher education.

• Renee Altier, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Business Education and Careers at Wiley
• Greg Morrisett, Dean and Vice Provost at Cornell Tech
• Mark Bramwell, CIO at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
• Susan McCahan, Vice Provost, Innovations in Undergraduate Education and Vice Provost, Academic Programs at University of Toronto

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Kevin Benedict

Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Creating a Valued University "Experience" both During the Pandemic and Post-Pandemic

In this interview compilation, we take a a deep dive into the post-pandemic university of tomorrow. In Part 2, I ask the question, "How will universities continue to provide a valued “university experience” when increasingly classes are moving online?"  Learn from experts:

• Renee Altier, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Business Education and Careers at Wiley
• Greg Morrisett, Dean and Vice Provost at Cornell Tech
• Mark Bramwell, CIO at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
• Susan McCahan, Vice Provost, Innovations in Undergraduate Education and Vice Provost, Academic Programs at University of Toronto

************************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

How is the Pandemic Impacting Universities?

In this deeply insightful series we ask our experts to share their experiences and observations on the current and future state of universities.  Our guests represent three major universities in three different countries.  I hope you learn as much from these experts as I did.

• Renee Altier, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Business Education and Careers at Wiley
• Greg Morrisett, Dean and Vice Provost at Cornell Tech
• Mark Bramwell, CIO at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
• Susan McCahan, Vice Provost, Innovations in Undergraduate Education and Vice Provost, Academic Programs at University of Toronto

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Kevin Benedict

Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Selling During Boycotts, Buy-cotts and Disinformation

Two jobs I really wouldn't want this week.  One, being the manager of the Mar-A-Lago Club and the other is being the sales manager at Goya, the privately held Latino food products company.  Mar-A-Lago for environmental reasons, and Goya because their CEO, Robert Unanue, has a hobby of sharing conspiracy theories and disinformation with all who will listen.  His disinformation campaigns have not only generated threats of violence against the owners, but have also inspired bean "boycotts" from Democrats, and "buy-cotts" from Republicans plus increased calls to fire him.  If you were the bean sales manager at Goya, how would you possibly forecast demand in this chaotic environment?

Last week I published an article titled Mixing Business and Politics Requires a Strategy.  In the article I posited that companies should have a strategy and carefully consider their purpose, brand, reputation, board, workforce and market before deciding to possibly share disinformation and disputed conspiracies.  Businesses should also decide if they want their executives speaking on controversial topics without board approval.  It's a quick way to chaos without a plan.

In the case of Goya, the board ordered their CEO to stop talking about two specific items - conspiracies and the company!  How can you act as CEO if you are not allowed to speak for it?  The reason for all this chaos was his advocacy of conspiracy theories and disinformation.

Also this week the CEO of MyPillows Mike Lindell, was banned from Twitter and retailers have stopped carrying his products.  The purveyor of fluffy pillows had championed disinformation and conspiracies in support of the former president.  In this case as with Goya, it has meant chaos for his business and his workforce, and now an uncertain future. 

Controversy, however, is not always bad for business as many social media influencers have demonstrated.  Many professional agitators have made millions by inspiring anger in their audience.  Anger has been found to open pocket books.  It is a great motivator and inspires people to buy a lot of products. 

The former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and now media pundit is being sued by the voting technology firm Dominion for $1.3 billion.  Dominion claims Giuliani made a great deal of money selling products and services through his media work by spreading disinformation about their company and products.  The more Giuliani promoted disinformation, the larger his audience grew.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the courts.

Now let's move down south.  Last week the Texas Supreme Court allowed three defamation cases filed by Sandy Hook survivors against conspiracy and disinformation purveyor, Alex Jones.  The law suites claim he promoted disinformation to sell merchandise to his conspiracy vulnerable audiences.  It might be easy to share disinformation and make money off it, but it's not always easy to keep it.

In all of these cases, the choice to spread and promote disinformation impacted their businesses.  The problems now faced by these companies are not about the quality of products and services.  They aren't about pricing, customer experience or customer service.  They are about making a choice on what kinds of information or disinformation to promote.

Read more on the Future of Information, Truth and Influence here:

• The Vulnerable Targets of Social Engineering and Mind Manipulation
• How Social Engineering Works on Our Brain
• Disinformation is Both Expensive and Deadly
• Social Engineering Escapes the War Zone
• Fooled by Psychographic Profiles and Social Engineering
• Social Engineering - Mind Manipulation at Scale
• Conspiracy Theories and Their Impact on Employment Opportunities
• Ideas as Competitive Advantages
• Facebook Decides What People Think
• Twenty-One People Who Control the World
• The Utility of Truth
• Human Thinking as Friction
• Selling Beans During Boycotts, Buy-cotts and Disinformation
• Mixing Business and Politics Requires a Strategy
• Swarming and the Requirement for a Chief Values Officer 
• We Can be Silent No More - Influencer Strategies and Responsibilities
• Our Minds on Facebook Algorithms
• Secrets, Brands and Global Swarming
• Facebook's Infodemic on the Pandemic
• Reality is Required
• Covid-19 and the Value of Ideas

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Kevin Benedict

Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

The 21 People Who Control the World

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has appointed twenty members to his new "Oversight Board." This board decides what Facebook's 2.7 billion users can read, watch, listen to and share on the social media platform.  They also decide which world leaders are allowed on the platform and what they can say.  

One of the Oversight Board's most significant upcoming decisions is whether to allow former US President Donald Trump, who is currently being impeached and on trial for starting an insurrection, back on Facebook where he can share his views of the world with billions of people.

Given the power of social media to alter people's thinking and behaviors, organize agitation and incite insurrection, this is a lot of power to leave in twenty Facebook appointed people's hands.  Have you ever stopped to think about the implications of that power?  These board members were not elected by citizens, but rather appointed by one person, Mark Zuckerberg.

Citizens have spent decades and even centuries organizing, debating, designing, writing and amending constitutions, protecting liberties, developing regulations, laws, processes and policies to manage and operate their Nation State.  Then along comes Facebook, a for-profit-business, which now will be making the most basic decisions on what information the citizens of these Nation States can read and share, and which global leaders are allowed to address them. That places Mark Zuckerberg in the consequential position of information "Kingmaker" to the world.  Are you OK with that?  Do you trust Zuckerberg with the health of your democracy and the minds of your citizens?  

No serious observer of recent history can question social media's ability to influence people's thinking and behaviors.  In the hands of expert influencers and propagandists true information becomes fake, and fake information true.  Are we OK with leaving that kind of power and influence over our lives, citizens and Nation States in the hands of one Silicon Valley technology executive and the twenty Oversight Board members he appointed?

Information is critical as is the appropriate management of it.  What are your thoughts?

Read more on the Future of Information, Truth and Influence here:

• The Vulnerable Targets of Social Engineering and Mind Manipulation
• How Social Engineering Works on Our Brain
• Disinformation is Both Expensive and Deadly
• Social Engineering Escapes the War Zone
• Fooled by Psychographic Profiles and Social Engineering
• Social Engineering - Mind Manipulation at Scale
• Conspiracy Theories and Their Impact on Employment Opportunities
• Ideas as Competitive Advantages
• Facebook Decides What People Think
• Twenty-One People Who Control the World
• The Utility of Truth
• Human Thinking as Friction
• Selling Beans During Boycotts, Buy-cotts and Disinformation
• Mixing Business and Politics Requires a Strategy
• Swarming and the Requirement for a Chief Values Officer 
• We Can be Silent No More - Influencer Strategies and Responsibilities
• Our Minds on Facebook Algorithms
• Secrets, Brands and Global Swarming
• Facebook's Infodemic on the Pandemic
• Reality is Required
• Covid-19 and the Value of Ideas

************************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

The Utility of Truth

I have the good fortune to meet with and interview many distinguished business and technology leaders in the normal course of my work.  One of the most common subjects of discussion is the increasing importance of data and data analytics.  Everyone needs data and an understanding of what it means to operate today.  Data is captured and analyzed to determine facts, and the facts are weighed and measured to derive the truth.  Without data, facts can’t be supported, truth can’t be determined and effective reasoning cannot be applied.

Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the first to see clearly that knowledge of science would have to come from repeated experiments done, not unproven ideas. He was also the first scientist that correlated mathematics and science.

Most people recognize the role of truth in reasoning.  Reasoning without truth is like programming without logic.  It doesn’t work.  Computers run on logic as does nearly the entire world as a result of digital transformation. Truth and logic allow others to replicate your processes by following the logic, testing it, and debugging any issues.  That is why it is so critical, in an advanced digital society, to respect and honor the value and utility of truth and logic.  Without truth scientific breakthroughs and processes can’t be delivered, digital systems and economies can’t operate, and governments cannot sustain the trust and cooperation of their citizens.

If a person rejects data, denigrates facts and devalues truths, then their ability to use logic and reasoning to make good decisions is severely limited as is their ability to lead.  In the absence of reasoning, superstitions, bias, false narratives and prejudices find room to grow.

Galileo was one of the first modern thinkers to clearly state that the laws of nature are mathematical.

When I ask business leaders to identify emerging technologies they feel will have the biggest impact on their business in the near future they most often list technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT, automation, robotics, personalization, etc.  All of these emerging technologies and their potential value to society are fully dependent on data, data analytics, determining facts and the revealed truth, and then using truth within logic systems to build cool things like autonomous self-driving cars!

Given the absolute centrality of data, facts, truth and logic to our current and future quality of life and common good, it would seem we could all agree on their value and utility, but alas we seem to be experiencing a crisis in truth and reasoning.  Truth today, rather than being the highly valued output of a reasoned and logical process is increasingly being supplanted by unsupported opinions, superstitions, bias and emotions - that require no data, facts or revealed truth to support them.

People will generally accept facts as truth only if the facts agree with what they already believe. ~ Andy Rooney

Rather than finding ways to utilize truth for the common good or at least to gain an economic advantage, some seem committed to destroying the utility of truth.  We see this demonstrated in the politicalization of news, data, facts, science, research, healthcare, education, etc.  It seems many forget that the quality of life before science, scientific processes and good engineering, wasn’t so great and often very short.

In this time of global pandemic, it is of the utmost importance that we all lean on data, scientific processes, analytics and truth derived from reason.  Covid-19 will ultimately be overcome with virology, epidemiology, physics and behavior. To reject science, scientific thinking, accumulated knowledge and experience in favor of superstitions and gut feelings today is to reject the very foundations of our civilization.

Don't prejudice my opinions with your facts. 

When significant portions of our population harbor a distrust for truth, and the trusted and reasoned processes for determining it - we are in serious crisis.  Our ability to compete globally is largely determined by our ability to innovate based on sound science and engineering principals.  Truth, and the benefits realized by having a proven and logical system to derive it, are essential to our society's common good and future.

Read related articles:

• Mixing Business and Politics Requires a Strategy
• Swarming and the Requirement for a Chief Values Officer 
• We Can be Silent No More - Influencer Strategies and Responsibilities

************************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.