The changing nature of work

noosquest: No #collectiveintelligence... Futurists...and the 'End of Work' I was watching Jaron Lanier, an early Internet pioneer, talking with FT Business about the new digital economies, and why free information is not a good idea. Mr. Lanier says he was one of the first in advocating digitizing the music industry and he used to argue that free music would enable artists to make money from live shows and merchandising. The benefits of digitization are numerous. He now says that this did not turn out well and that information should not be free because it doesn't create sustainable economies. Three wishes... Good luck putting the Genie back into the bottle. The benefits of digitization are numerous. Google does it all the time, other companies do it too, giving away content, apps, etc, that other businesses used to sell. Take a look at Craigslist, which cherry-picked free-classifieds and didn't have to produce the journalism that helped sell the classifieds ads. It is clearing about $103m a year in profits -- not bad for a private firm employing just 35 people.

Sustainable lifestyles and the future of work Learnings from "The Employment Dilemma and the Future of Work" Comment on 1996 draft report to the Club of Rome by Orio Giarini and Patrick Liedtke MandateRecognition of concrete possibilities vs. aspirationsNew understanding of wealthNew understanding of workNew understanding of employmentGlobalization as global opportunity? "Unemployment begins in the minds of men, and it is in the minds of men that sustainable lifestyles must be constructed" (adaptation of a key phrase in the constitution of Unesco) Mandate The report starts with the comment: "the future of work and the employment dilemmas are some of the most pressing issues that the world has to face". The report "aims at disclosing some of the weaknesses and shortcomings of present concepts, proposing a different, alternative view of present and future economic activities that will enable us to meet today's and tomorrow's challenges with more adequate insight. Recognition of concrete possibilities vs. aspirations For whom?

The Future Of Work Is Play Humans love games. Just check the current news cycle for evidence: The Xbox 360’s sleek, new controller-free gaming device, Kinect, is the fastest-selling consumer electronic product ever. Foursquare has attracted millions of badge-seeking users and aspiring “mayors.” And new programs like Quest to Learn are bringing game dynamics into our educational system. What is it about games that makes them so appealing? And how can we translate our enthusiasm for play into the workplace? What’s the most basic definition of a game? I’m partial to the definition put forth by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman in their book Rules of Play: A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome. What are some examples of how I could use the power of games to keep myself motivated during a long, personal project (say, making a documentary film)? Smaller self-imposed challenges can spark your creative drive in ways you don’t expect.

Our future depends on the humanization of work One of the reasons that my focus is increasingly shifting to the future of work is that it is in fact a large part of the future of humanity. And if we don’t get this right it might not look pretty. The two primary drivers of a changing work landscape in coming years remote work and work automation. Almost all work will be able to be done anywhere, and a growing proportion of today’s jobs will be supplanted by machines. The replacement of human workers by machines is of course a large part of human history, and so far we have consistently created new jobs faster than old jobs have disappeared. However machine capabilities – including robotics, spatial cognition, and natural language processing – are developing so fast that there is a real chance that there will be insufficient new jobs to replace the ones that disappear. John Hagel of Deloitte’s Center for the Edge has made a great video responding to the book’s ideas. But the business environment is substantially different today:

Livable4All : Job Fairy or Universal Livable Income: What is More Realistic? Work Hell Myth: "People enjoy their jobs" In 2001, the UK government announced plans for a "work first" culture. Ministers spoke of how work "holds communities together" and "gives life meaning". Meanwhile, back in the real world... • In 2002, the Work Foundation reported that "job satisfaction has plummeted", and that so-called "high performance" management techniques made workers deeply unhappy and failed to raise output. • In January 2004, a marketing director at Prudential was reported as saying: "Our research shows that an alarming number of people appear to be unhappy in their employment and unfulfilled by their work". • A British Social Attitudes survey revealed that 6 in 10 British workers are unhappy in their jobs, with a majority reporting feelings of insecurity, stress, pointlessness, exhaustion and inadequate income. • A Samaritans survey found that jobs are the single biggest cause of stress – and that the link between work and suicide is likely to be underestimated.

Réseau Français pour le revenu de baseStress, maladies, suicides: l'organisation criminelle du travail L’organisation du travail tue le travail : telle est la conclusion qui s’impose lorsque l’on regarde de près les études de plus en plus nombreuses qui décrivent l’évolution dramatique du bien être au travail : fatigue, stress au travail, manque de sommeil, maladies professionnelles, dépression… Une étude publiée le mois dernier montre que le stress au travail augmente le risque d’infarctus. Elle pose en réalité la question plus large des rapports entre santé et travail. 23% des salariés subissant un stress négatif au travail ont plus de risques de mourir d’un infarctus. Si l’on en croit les résultats d’une étude récente du groupe Malakoff Médéric, 70% des salariés Français se disent « épuisés nerveusement par leur travail« . Mais au delà de cela, le stress au travail génère aussi de graves psychopathologies. Mais le stress dans l’entreprise n’est qu’un des aspects du problème. N’oublions pas les chômeurs Des maladies économiques Vivement le revenu de base ! Crédit photo : sun dazed