While most of the furor over the the new iPhone has died down around these parts, Apple has announced that a few new markets will be able to get their proverbial hands on the iPhone 4S very shortly. The 4S is poised to hit 15 new countries by November 11, including major Asian markets like South Korea and Hong Kong.
Outside of Asia, the 4S is slated to hit Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Malta, Montenegro, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Portugal, and Romania.
A very sincere sorry goes out to all you folks in Albania, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malta, Montenegro and Panama — unlike the other countries on the list, you won’t be able to lock in your iPhone 4S pre-order come November 4, so you’re pretty much stuck slugging it out for one at your favorite local iRetailer.
Apple just recently released the iPhone 4S in 22 additional countries, so they seem to be well on their way to executing the “fastest rollout ever” as promised at their launch event. That’s got to be grin-worthy news for Apple’s top brass, but they can’t stop to breathe just yet — they still need to deliver the 4S to around 30 more countries by the end of the year.
What does it take to craft a career that is likely to stand the test of time? In my new book The Shift: the future of work is already here, I talk a great deal about the five forces that will shape work and careers:
Taking this rich cocktail of forces into consideration here are my 10 tips about skills, networks and choices.
1. Don't be fooled into walking into the future blindfolded. The more you know what's in store, the better able you will be to meet the challenges and really capitalize on your options. So keep abreast of the forces that are shaping work and careers in your part of the world and think about how they will impact on you and those you care for. Making wise choices will in the end come from your capacity to understand – don’t rely on governments of big business to make the choices for you.
2. Learn to be virtual. We are entering a period of hyper technological advancements - avatars, holographs and telepresence are all just around the corner. If you are a young ‘digital native’ you are already connected to this – but if you are over 30 the chances are you are already behind on your understanding. Work will become more global and that means that increasingly you will be working with people in a virtual way – its crucial that you learn to embrace these developments and don't let yourself become obsolete through lack of technical savvy.
3. Search for the valuable skills. Think hard about the skill areas that are likely to be important in the future - for example sustainability, health and wellness, and design and social media are all likely to be areas where work will be created over the next decade. Also remember that jobs that involve working closely with people (chef, hairdresser, coach, physiotherapist) are unlikely to move to another country.
4. Become a Master. Don't be fooled into spread your talents too thinly. Being a 'jack of all trades' will mean you are competing with millions of others around the world who are similar. Separate yourself from the crowd by really learning to master a skill or talent that you can develop with real depth. Be prepared to put your time and effort into honing these skills and talents.
5. Be prepared to strike out on your own. There will always be work with big companies - but increasingly the real fun will come from setting up your own company. We are entering the age of the 'micro-entrepreneur' when ever decreasing costs of technology will significantly reduce the barriers to getting off the ground, and when talented people across the world will be connected and keen to work with each other.
6. Find your posse. To create valuable skills and knowledge you will need to quickly reach out to others who can help and advise you. This small 'posse' of like-minded and skilled people is a network that will be central to your really building speed and agility in your career. Don’t leave it too long to find and cultivate it.
7. Build the Big Ideas Crowd. The future is about innovation, and sometime your best, most innovative ideas will come as you talk and work with people who are completely different from you - perhaps they have a different mindset, or come from a different country - or are younger. It is this wide network, the 'big ideas crowd' that will be a crucial source of inspiration. Make sure that you don’t limit yourself to working only with those who are just like you.
8. Go beyond the family. Your career success will depend in part on your emotional well being and resilience. In a world of ever shifting relationships, it's important that you invest in developing deep restorative relationships with a couple of people - this is your 'regenerative community' and they are crucial to your well being and happiness. Make the investment as soon as you can and make an effort to maintain and build these relationships over decades.
9. Have the courage to make the hard choices. Your working life will be shaped by the shifting patterns of longevity (you are likely to live considerably longer than your parents) and demography (in many regions there will be a much higher proportion of people over 50). So you need a strategy for the long term. You have three hard choices: 1. Build a career that enables you to work longer (at least into your late 60's or early 70’s), 2. Be prepared (like the Chinese who save around 40% of their income) to save a significant proportion of your income throughout your working life, 3. Consider ways to reduce your consumption and live more simply. It does not matter which hard choice you make – but you are going to have to make at least one of them.
10. Become a producer rather than a simple consumer. And finally... the old deal at work: 'I work, to earn money, to buy stuff, that makes me happy' is rapidly becoming obsolete. Engaging in meaningful work where you can rapidly learn will become a priority (although fair pay will always be important). So think hard about sharing and great experiences rather than simply building your working life around consuming.
Today the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) is launching The Open Course Library, a resource of open course materials from the top courses in the system, set to save nearly half a million students (and taxpayers who support many of them in financial aid) nearly a thousand dollars each every year.
But it's not just about savings--it's also about improving and customizing resources for better quality learning resources. The goals of The Open Course Library are to improve course completion rates and provide new resources for faculty. They approached openness in education based on four benefits:
"It's an effort to take the highest enrolling and most critical 81 courses, and create openly licensed content for every course," said Tom Caswell, Open Education Policy Associate, SBCTC. Washington State set aside $750,000 for the initiative, which receives matching support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. About 90 community and technical college faculty are now involved across the state. The open courses have already been adopted by the creating faculty, who in one year who will have realized savings of $1.2 million--nearly enough to cover the cost of the entire first phase.
Courses are designed using existing OER whenever possible. "We didn't slam the door on publishers," he said. "We told them, 'We want all comers. We want to be able to work with high-qualtiy educational content, but $200 textbooks don't work for us.'" So they capped the textbook price at $30. Publishers responded well in working with them to meet that requirement. For students, that means a huge savings on the $1,000 a year they might have to spend on textbooks, which could be as much as a fourth of the cost of a two-year degree.
The Open Course Library differentiates itself from existing open courseware through a different workflow. The typical open courseware goes from content creation with the faculty to a support staff that turns that content into an organized, open course. OCL asks the faculty to use existing OER and fill in the gaps wiht their own materials to create an open course and teach directly from it, resulting in a more straight-line workflow. The organization doesn't have funding to keep a typical open courseware site alive, so they took this different approach in an attemp to jumpstart a cultural change instead. The ultimate model is two steps only: a master course and open course materials are linked, and the faculty course designer updates them both together.
Phase 1, featuring the first 42 courses is available today. The next 39 courses will come with Phase 2, available in Spring 2013. Also in that second phase, the project information will be better consolidated, and the project will use Google Docs and Google Sites for collaboration and sharing that are easier for faculty who many not be accustomed to an LMS.
Courses are primarily introduction-level "gatekeeper" and pre-college courses in subject areas across the board, from accounting and economics to languages, history, math and sciences.
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