by JAK | Sep 13, 2015 | culture, general business
I am so pleased that when I want news I can generally get it direct from the journalists anywhere in the world. Like many I follow news makers on twitter and these days I am more likely to be reading global media like the Guardian, the Economist, the NY Times and...
by JAK | Sep 9, 2015 | culture, industry futures, music
Ever since technology disrupted the distribution business that the music industry had become many have wondered what the future of music looks like. Among the good changes is that many musicians can use social media to engage and represent themselves much more...
by JAK | Aug 25, 2015 | culture, industry futures
Nearly every week there seems to be a story on the topic of “will robots take my job?” – that is an interesting question but there are more important questions to ask before that. In my view the more important issue is not so much jobs but being able...
by JAK | Aug 9, 2015 | big ideas, culture, industry futures
Much has been written about the future of music over the past 20 or so years as the internet has made universal distribution a technical possibility. Despite a few breakthrough success stories like Justin Bieber (discovered on YouTube) and Lorde the increased...
by JAK | Jul 22, 2015 | big ideas, TEDx, video
Paradoxically when our older population retires they have more time and resources to live. It’s just that we expect them to fade from view and “retire from life”. We often place them in retirement villages in the country or at least away from the...
by JAK | Jul 16, 2015 | big ideas, culture, films, industry futures, video
Some days I want to remix everything. I’ve been like that for 40+ years (for me) and now the technology makes it easy to do.* It started with music. After a few listens to a track I always want another version. Am I a creative megalomaniac? Not really it’s...
by JAK | Jul 10, 2015 | culture, films
This will be my first film festival since getting Netflix. It makes picking which films to see a bit different as a fair number of the documentaries will turn up. Sure I like to see film on a big screen and the non English language ones are less likely to make it to a...
by JAK | Jun 9, 2015 | general business, industry futures
Much to the surprise of IT folks the tax department in NZ has decided to pick a little known IT firm in Colorado to replace the current tax system. The NZherald reports US firm wins contract in $1b IRD project “The Inland Revenue Department has selected Fast...
by JAK | Jun 2, 2015 | culture, video
Back when I was a teenager in rural New Zealand I voraciously read the novels of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I started with One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, The First Circle and Cancer Ward. In a 1970’s world we were still concerned with the Soviet Union and...
by JAK | May 30, 2015 | big ideas, industry futures, video
At TEDxAuckland 2015 -two of the most outstanding talks were about health issues. Prof Grant Schofield spoke about putting the public into public health, and Dr Hong Sheng Chiong on Fighting blindness with $20 and a smart phone Grant told a story about a diabetes...
