Toward Society 3.0:
New futures for human
capital development
John Moravec, Ph.D.
November 8, 2008

Disclaimer
The “dot-zero-ization”
of everything has
become the mullet of
the 21 st century.

Disclaimer
I take a human capital
development perspective.

Agenda
Socie?es 1.0 – 3.0
So what?
What now?

Society 1.0

Agricultural (18th century)
• Family based enterprises
• Kids learned at home
• Kids worked at home
• Kids were engaged cross‐genera?onally
• Adults could learn from kids
• Kids contributed at all economic levels

Industrial (19th and 20th centuries)
• Industrial economy
• Job/wage/salary based enterprises
• Kids learned increasingly at schools
• Kids worked at low level, some?mes
dangerous jobs
• Kids were engaged cross‐genera?onally as
chaRel, hirelings, or de facto (and de jure)
slaves
• Kids learned from adults within division of age
and labor formats
• Kids s?ll contributed at all economic levels

Informa?on Age
• Interpreted data
• Hierarchical
• Siloed jobs and roles
• Chaos and ambiguity are eschewed

Society 2.0

Knowledge Age
• Interpreted informa?on
• Personally‐constructed meanings
• Socially‐constructed meanings
• Chaos and ambiguity are managed

A cut‐and‐paste culture
• Hip‐hop
• YouTube
• Blogs
• Wikis

Examples of Society 2.0 cultural
products:
• This presenta?on
• Frank Sinatra’s “Duets”
• Wikipedia

140

Ci?zen Scien?sts
• Audubon society’s bird count
• SETI@Home, Folding@Home,
Stardust@Home, etc.
• Moonshot

Ci?zen Capitalists in Democra?zed
Markets
• Global markets for ideas
• Global markets for talent
• Global markets for products
• Global markets for capital

What drives Society 2.0?

Globaliza?on
Dichotomies
• Local vs. global
• Homogeniza?on vs. heterogeniza?on
• Periphery vs. core

Looking back at our home in the 20th century…

Concerns
• Piracy
• Loss of literacy
• Loss of cultural heritage
…and, change, change, change, and change

Piracy is as American as…
• The Star Spangled Banner
• 19th century industrializa?on
• Edison’s phonograph
• Hollywood
Ma8 Mason’s book talks about this (and Pirates 2.0!):
Mason, M. (2008). The pirate's dilemma: How youth culture reinvented capitalism
(1st Free Press hardcover ed.). New York: Free Press.

How do organiza?ons make the most
from a cut‐and‐paste society?

Society 3.0

Three drivers of Society 3.0
1. Accelera?ng change
2. Con?nuing globaliza?on
3. Innova?on society fueled by knowmads

Accelera?ng
change

AcceleraEng change,
Level of Advancement AcceleraEng returns
J‐curve
Time

What is the Technological
Singularity?
• The Singularity is the complex, seemingly chao?c
outcome of converging technologies (i.e.,
nanotechnology, molecular biology, virtual reality,
robo?cs, and human integra?on with all of the
above) … and social change.
• The Singularity is producing Trans‐Humans and
within a few decades may be expected to produce
Post‐Humans.

Looking back at our home in the 21st century…

Earth
Jupiter
Callisto
Europa
Ganymede

Innova?on Age
• Contextually applied knowledge
• Horizontalized diffusion of knowledge
• Heterarchical rela?onships
• Chaos and ambiguity are embraced and
aRended to

Paradigm
Domain 1.0 2.0 3.0
Fundamental Complex crea?ve
Simple Complex
relaEonships (teleological)
ConceptualizaEon of Inten?onal, self‐
Hierarchic Heterarchic
order organizing
RelaEonships of parts Mechanical Holographic Synerge?c
Worldview Determinis?c Indeterminate Design
Causality Linear Mutual An?causal
Change process Assembly Morphogenic Crea?ve destruc?on
Reality Objec?ve Perspec?val Contextual
Place Local Globalizing Globalized

Sources of innova?on in Society 3.0:

(access)

Open
knowledge is
the energy of
the 21st
Century.
– Cristóbal Cobo

Crowd
sourcing

Pre‐1.0 Nomads

3.0 Knowmads

Knowmads

Accelera?ng change impacts the
half‐life of knowledge.
• The amount of informa?on available doubles
at an increasing rate
• The half‐life of knowledge is decreasing
exponen?ally

So?

Let’s contextualize this for a
moment.
(remember when I men?oned I’m big into human capital development?)

Society 3.0 drives Educa?on 3.0.

EducaEon 1.0 EducaEon 2.0 EducaEon 3.0
Socially constructed and
Meaning is… Dictated Socially constructed
contextually reinvented
Confiscated at the
Cau?ously adopted Everywhere (ambient,
Technology is… classroom door (digital
(digital immigrants) digital universe)
refugees)
Teacher to student,
student to student,
Teacher to student and
student to teacher,
Teaching is done … Teacher to student student to student
people‐technology‐
(progressivism)
people (co‐
construc?vism)
Everywhere (thoroughly
In a building or online infused into society:
Schools are located… In a building (brick) (brick and click) cafes, bowling alleys,
bars, workplaces, etc.)
Parents view schools A place for them to learn,
Daycare Daycare
as… too
Teachers are… Licensed professionals Licensed professionals Everybody, everywhere
Hardware and Are purchased at great Are open source and Are available at low cost
soTware in schools… cost and ignored available at lower cost and are used purposively
As ill‐prepared assembly
Industry views As co‐workers or
Assembly line workers line workers in a
graduates as… entrepreneurs
knowledge economy

3.0 schools
• Produce knowledge‐producing kids, not
automatons.
• Share, remix and capitalize on new ideas.
• Embrace accelera?ng change rather than
figh?ng it.

3.0 schools are not…
• based on hardware
• based on sohware

3.0 schools are built on mindware.

Ambient compu?ng
O’Reilly: We really are moving beyond the era
of the PC into the era of ambient compu?ng,
where we’re interac?ng with the global
network through devices that are sprinkled
throughout the world, smart objects, and I
think the next big thing is really not to do with
the Web at all. I think the next big thing has
not to do with the Web at all. I think it's
beyond the Web.

Ambient awareness is socially‐distributed thinking.

Ambient educa?on means 3.0
schools are located in:
• Bricks • Taquerías
• Clicks • Universi?es
• Bowling alleys • On our phones
• Coffee shops • On television
• Parks • In our
• Subway sta?ons imagina?ons
…everywhere!

Caveat:
Technology is key, but…
1. Technology is not the answer.
2. Technology must be purposive.

“Technology is a word that describes something
that doesn’t work yet... We no?ce things that
don’t work. We don’t no?ce things that do.
We no?ce computers, we don’t no?ce
pennies. We no?ce e‐book readers, we don’t
no?ce books.”
– Douglas Adams
JavaOne Keynote, 1999

For a good discussion on e‐competencies see:
www.e‐competencies.org
[ ]

A global race for educa?onal innova?on…

So what?

Society 1.0 schools cannot teach 3.0 kids.

No matter how hard
we try to cover up
19th century
institutions, they
will still be 19th
century institutions.

Las?ng legacy of Society 1.0:
USA in the 21st century
• Emerging knowledge/innova?on economy is stunted
• Integrated ac?vi?es between adults/kids are highly
limited
• Kids and adults learn less and less from each other
• Adults anxious about/fear learning from kids
• Kids separated from adults, following legacy
industrial economy model
• Kids work mainly at menial tasks
• Kids s?ll contribute to all economic levels, but at far
lower levels than possible, feasible, and desirable

Key point
Schools should not use
new technologies to
teach the same old crap.

Key point
and universities
Schools should not use
new technologies to
teach the same old crap.
(Remixed by Elena Benito-Ruiz)
http://maberui.webs.upv.es/index.php/2008/10/dot-the-i-on-technologies-in-the-classroom/

We all co‐invent the future.

We’re all white belts.

Let’s start now.

The New Paradigm of Society 3.0
• Increasing importance of crea?ve human capital
• Increasing rates of change
• Increasingly inaccurate predic?ons
• Increasing need to create preferred futures
• Increasing sense that kids must share crea?on of
new futures with adults

…also…
• Today’s kids par?cipate in an increasingly globalized
world
• Industrial society has given way to the knowledge‐
based society
…which is already star?ng to transi?on to an
innova?on and crea?vity society (3.0!)

So, shall we live in the past or create the
future?
• In which paradigm do we place our kids?
• In which paradigm do we place adults?
• Where do each of us fit?

To move from legacy millstones to new
futures we must all learn to…

Leapfrogging…
• means leadership rather than catching up.
• means using advanced, purposive technologies to
assist students and teachers
• technologies permit moving from memoriza?on to
crea?ve and innova?ve knowledge produc?on
• greatly enhancing human capital

Leapfrogging just ahead of change
J’ J
Level of Advancement
Time

“New” workforce:
21st century– Global Leapfrog
• Emerging knowledge/innova?on economy can get a quantum boost
• Integrated ac?vi?es can partner kids with adults
• Adults are eager to learn from kids
• Kids and adults learn more about each other
• Kids and adults partner and collaborate, teaching to and learning from
each other
• Kids work increasingly at crea?ve tasks
• Kids s?ll contribute to all economic levels, but with beRer distribu?on of
effort than in the past

Leapfroggers also think…
• Kids (of all ages) should mirror the crea?ve workforces first
and foremost
• Func?onality should be emphasized first and foremost
• Technology supports reliable func?onality
• Each kid and adult is a crea?ve
• Each kid and adult is an innovator

The future we create can…
• Help change schools to create the future
• Help lead the world in educa?onal change
• Help bring people of all ages into the knowledge
workforce
• Help kids and adults work together crea?vely

“Innovate, baby, innovate!”

No failures.

Thank you!
EducaEon Futures
www.educa?onfutures.com
Leapfrog InsEtutes
www.leapfrogins?tutes.org