Toys and children plays are predicting our future

Toys are telling about our history. Now kids are playing with video games. Drawings and cartoons are low-cost items that also can be used to sketch coming times.

I work with the future idea of Eco City along with the concept of Digital Villages.

Let’s take a look at very ordinary everyday tasks. Going to a bank teller to pick some pocket money is a routine operation but it hasn’t been around for more than twenty years.

Phone boots were located all around cities but I suppose there aren’t a single one in Finland anymore.

My view about Digital Villages has changed during the past ten years. The first ideas were drafted over twenty years ago but Wirby the Global Village became the first prototype 1998.

We’ve much more experience and better tools and networks for distance work. The idea of networking villages emerged 2001 to 2005 but the realization of all the ideas is more realistic today. It takes years to work out and test a new community concept.

Expedia Press Room - Press Releases

Expedia connected to me via Twitter. There was a link that caught my eyes. The travel industry isn't according to this doing so badly. Is there still some power left in the economic engine?

Expedia Press Room - Press Releases: "Despite Tough Economy, 'Tis Still the Season for Holiday Travel | Updated Nov. 19, 2008.

BELLEVUE, Wash., Nov. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Expedia®, the world's leading online travel company, today released the new issue of the quarterly Expedia Travel Trendwatch®, focused on the holiday travel season. Most notably, this issue of the Trendwatch predicts that the upcoming holiday and winter travel season will not differ greatly from previous years, and with fuel prices declining in recent months, many airfares are the same or even lower than the 2007 season. The report also highlights the 'peaks and valleys' of holiday travel prices this year, as well as suggestions for making holiday travel budgets stretch.

'The holidays are always the busiest and most expensive time of year for travel,' said Chris McGinnis, editor, Expedia Travel Trendwatch. 'Initially, it looked as though holiday travel prices would be significantly higher this year, but we are finding that rates are, in fact, on par or in some cases, even less than last year.'"

Obama Vows Swift Action on Vast Economic Stimulus Plan - NYTimes.com

I'm reading The New York Times November 22, 2008. Not the paper version but the digital version that feeds to my Gmail. The new US president is going to face though uphill battle from the first day in charge. The US and global economy isn't giving an easy start. He will need all his persuasion power and speaking talent to get people behind his plans. What will happen to GM, Ford and Chrysler before that. The Citygroup bank is on the brink of a collapse.

He promises 2,5 million new jobs.

Obama Vows Swift Action on Vast Economic Stimulus Plan - NYTimes.com: "In the Democrats’ weekly radio address, Mr. Obama said he would direct his economic team to craft a two-year stimulus plan with the goal of saving or creating 2.5 million jobs. He said it would be “a plan big enough to meet the challenges we face.”

Mr. Obama said he hoped to sign the stimulus package into law soon after taking office on Jan. 20. He is already coordinating efforts with Democratic leaders in Congress, who have said they will begin work next month.

Advisers to Mr. Obama say they want to use the economic crisis as an opportunity to act on many of the issues he emphasized in his campaign, including cutting taxes for lower- and middle-class workers, addressing neglected public infrastructure projects like roads and schools, and creating “green jobs” through business incentives for energy alternatives and environmentally friendly technologies.

In light of the downturn, Mr. Obama is also said to be reconsidering a key campaign pledge: his proposal to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. According to several people familiar with the discussions, he might instead let those tax cuts expire as scheduled in 2011, effectively delaying any tax increase while he gives his stimulus plan a chance to work."

The global economy

In the global economy, collaboration within groups of geographically dispersed knowledge workers is quickly becoming the locus of creativity and innovation. Advanced Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that enable e-Collaboration enhance group work, especially when teams must share information and make decisions across business and national boundaries, provides numerous new ways of networking on a global level.