1. The Digital City project &
the psychology of Jobs of the future
Marc Canter
Digital City Mechanics
Cog Sci colloquium series
CWRU Nov. 10th
, 2010

2. Jobs of the future
• Not what they are today
• P-t, not 40 hours a week, project based
• Virtual – work at home or tele-commute
• Status quo world of jobs is not counting these
new kind of jobs in their #’s
• Transparency, trust, accountability and loyalty
take on new meanings
• Workers are “on their own”

3. Jobs as an issue
• Workforce growth, not development
• Educational system not doing a good enough job
• Do what you like to do, not what you HAVE to do!
• Encourage entrepreneurism

4. Free Agent Nation
- is now International
• Global economy + 24/7/365
• Partnering across time zones
• Outsourced expertise
• Independent workers
• Companies take on a new role

5. Jobs won’t be full-time, they’ll be
project oriented

6. New kinds of Jobs
• Flex hours, fit into your lifestyle, not work driven
• Independent – not associated with a company
• Hi-tech, on-line skills, real-time digital technology
• Basic usage patterns via computer tools:
– Backups
– Project mngt
– Scheduling
– Book keeping
– Organizing, planning
– Design

7. Intangibles become increasingly
valuable
• Self motivation and management
• Creative and Innovative thinking
• Accountability to tasks and schedule
• Loyalty to people, not entities
• Ability to organize
themselves

8. Techniques to employ
• Reward systems, points
• Self guided projects, learn by doing
• Real-time video help
• No pieces of paper allowed
• Encourage responsibility through volunteer tasks
• Help others by teaching what you just learned
• Work with media – “imagine yourself getting
paid to……”
– Play with YouTube and Facebook all day long
– Make your own video or song
– Take your photos, make a book out of them

9. New methodology
• Train for these new kinds of jobs
– implement principles of “21st
century skills” (p21.org)
• Reward with internships
• Use points and contributions by the trainee to
progress through the system
• Utilize wide range of projects:
– Multimedia production work
– Live local events
– Multimedia business directory
– Live video help operators

10. Digital Jobs
• Event planners and producers
• Writing, editing, ad management
• Video editors, logging, scripts, production
• Music production, sound EFX, recording
• Photography, retouching, data management
• Viral social marketing, promotions, campaigns
• Book keeping, project management
• Web site master, PC repair, support
• Interactive designer, User Experience &
Interfaces

11. Will not be true for 100%
• Not everyone gets the great job
• Many left behind, stuck in old models
• Takes a generation to leave old patterns behind
• Opposite of LNCB – vets out the best and
brightest – regardless of background or
demographic
• Builds leaders, entrepreneurs and risk takers

12. Digital Citizens
need
Digital Jobs
in a
Digital City

13. Many definitions of Digital City

14. Varying factors to what constitutes
a Digital City
• Economic
• Technological infrastructure
• Educational
• Sociological
• Human services:
– Health
– Safety
– Energy
– Entrepreneurial

15. Cities are still analog

16. Infrastructure
today is a mess

17. Closed vs Open
HTML5

18. Digital City ‘market’
• Songo, Korea
– $35B city from scratch
– Cisco telepresence in every home
• IBM will give away $500m in free consulting to
municipalities (Smarter Planet)
• Going beyond just hardware infrastructure

19. Software Infrastructure
• In the 1990’s = Internet access, wifi
• In the 00’s = email, social media, Facebook acct
• In the next decade = shared servers w/Open APIs
– Federated IDs shared throughout the city/region
– Historical timelines
– Location pages
– Activity Streams
– Citizen dashboards
– Multimedia business directory

20. Open Source, Open Standards
Open Data
• All code available for free
• All the ideas and processes given away – as well
• Support all current standards, support new ones
• Two-way APIs on all content
• Build an open platform

21. Digital City stack
Solutions: community programs, sports, games, meetups,
location services, training, contests, directories, local events,
digital citizenship, workforce growth, volunteerism
Applications and Services: on-line tools, web sites,
ecommerce, utilities, content = all available from dashboards
Middleware: Cloud storage, computing, back-end
processes, rendering, Open APIs, ID and Geo services, servers
Connectivity: DSL, mobile, Wifi, Wimax, Cable modem
Hardware: PCs, laptop, pads, mobile devices, OLPC, kiosks

22. Everyone working together will
make a Digital City
• Government
• Proprietary solutions, brands, business
• Open standards, Open Web, Open Data
• Education, Non-profits, Foundations
• Citizens of all kinds

23. What is the role of government?
• Provide level playing field
• Open Data = relevant info, for each citizen
• Support for entrepreneurism
• Job growth
• Public safety
• Municipal infrastructure

24. Citizen Dashboards
• Government would provide citizens dashboards
• Municipal, small biz, regulations, fines, taxes
• Local events, resources, schools, health
• An open standard to “mesh” vendors together

25. Haves helping the Have nots
• Volunteer to mentor and train others in your
own area of expertise and knowledge
• Volunteer to operate live video help
• Even trainees and interns
volunteer, to help with
local community tasks

26. Help, support, mentoring, internships

27. Help those below you

28. Compelling experiences for
Citizens!
• Jobs
• Education
• Health
• Safety
• Entertainment
• Engaged Democracy
• Public service
• Efficient Energy

33. Collaborative Platform to help
Entrepreneurial activities

37. On-line world connects to the real world
• Getting people comfortable with computers
• All jobs in the future will require tech skills
• Human facilitation = “secret sauce”

38. 3:1 sustainable model
• To create Digital Jobs
– Producing large-scale multimedia projects
– Which train others in those same job skills
– And places the content onto shared public servers
• Games, simulations
• Charts, diagrams
• Visualize info and
ideas with on-line
multimedia

40. Digital Bureaus and Jobs
• 20 machines, 20 employees (8 f-t, 12 interns)
• Virtuous circle of training and volunteerism
• Regional nodes, all hyper-local
• Tie in local biz and independents
• Real-time video support
• Stage local events

41. Upgrading the Wikipedia
• Over 3.4m items
• Most just text + one photo
• Centralized, single vendor
• $1T worth of multimedia

42. Multimedia Projects
• On-Line Interactive Content
• Compelling interactive games, simulations and
visualizations
• Multimedia encyclopedia
• Training, tutorials
• How to videos….
• On open shared servers

43. Polymer multimedia encyclopedia
• Polymer Valley Alliance
• Visualization, simulations, games, learning tools
• Case Western Reserve University & U Akron
• Polymers earn $89B in Ohio, #2 industry
• Sponsor driven ->non-profit (tax writeoff)
• 3:1 model:
– Build MM content
– Train workers in those job skills
– Place content onto open servers with APIs
return

46. Webcams and Location pages
• See top 16 webcams, editorially selected
– Rotate throughout the day
• Click on webcam, go to a location page
• Location pages:
– Who lives by
– Photos, videos
– Other webcams
– Leave comments,
Reviews, Media, Links
• On shared servers

47. A Community Activity Stream

48. Citizen Dashboards are
“Digital Lifestyle Aggregators”
• Integrated environment
• Aggregate:
– Social Media
– Content
– Services
• Highly customizable:
– What content , groups or social graph (friends)
– What modules, apps and services

49. Virtuous Circle
• Training methodology designed to get workers
using hi-tech, on-line jobs skills in a wide range of
job categories
• Brings Volunteerism and Social Media to
education
• Utilizes Points for incentives and rewards
• Integrated program management features
• Utilizes live Video Help to intern and train

66. Customize Digital City
• Timeline of the City and Region’s People
• Cultural guide, music, cuisine, dance, art
• Populace: the kind of people, where they
came from
• Industry: local to the region, large employers
• Political and Cultural History: war, growth

67. Study - Research - Stats
• 5k jobs in 5 years
• Research grants
• Government grants
• Private Foundation grants
• Equity investment in for-profit entity
• Results PROVE the ability to create jobs
• Turn it into a Phd.

68. Grants to apply for…..
• Education:
• Cognitive Science:
• Business:
• Economic growth:
• Computer Science:
• Multimedia visualizations:
• Community history and engagement for jobs:

69. Build - Entrepreneurism
• My second $1B+ company
• Family based, organically grown
• Virtual – International
• Cleveland & NEO are the pilot

70. New kind of system Integrator
• Produce local events
• Get deals, biz dev, viral marketing
• Produce large scale multimedia projects
• Training, internships, mentoring
• Manage digital bureaus
• Produce custom software, portals, social nets
• Promote, grow entrepreneurial efforts
• Create and evolve software platform
• Customize Digital Cities around the world