Down the Rabbit Hole with David Galipeau
A meeting organised by the London Communicators & Engagement Group 27/01/01
The evolution of the internet is entering a new and much darker phase. Decision making will become centralised. Totalitarian and not so overtly totalitarian regimes (such as the French apparently) are engaged in a vicious regime of cyber attacks and counter hacks. Industrial and of course political espionage is rife. Not even our secular deity Google is immune. Established ivory towers of corporate power will be consumed by the billowing cloud; it’s a winner takes all game fought in cyberspace and brought to your door by crowd sourcing. The echoes of this battle are already reverberating across our screens; that slowing of Twitter feeds and Facebook updates you experienced yesterday was the fallout from 40,000 DOS attacks taking place across the world. The good news is, we are lucky to be alive right now, to witness the dying embers of individual freedom. Enjoy it while it lasts.
With the arrival of the new internet protocol (IPv6) we will enter an ‘Internet of Things’ where ‘Locality’ is all and every pebble and household implement will have its own IP address. Your door knob will be engaged in a dialogue with your refrigerator and, should you be foolish enough to step on the bathroom scales, a Denial of Supper attack will inevitably follow. We should be worried. You have been warned. It’s time to brush up on your Mandarin.
中国下一代互联网
Though some of us struggled to grasp the central premise of David Galipeau’s presentation, the influence of technology on management structures, we knew we were in the presence of someone who has their finger firmly on the fibre optic pulse, who advises governments and corporations on how to concisely time their communications to exploit the Earth’s rotation to avert financial meltdown. We were all so impressed none of us thought to ask, ‘So what should we do?’
Just as were about to reach for the Prozac who should appear like a knight in shining armour but John Smythe, doyenne of employee engagement. The idea that decision making is becoming centralised is complete piffle; everyone knows that the most successful companies have democratised the decision making processes. When challenged to cite his research that proved the opposite, Darth Veda could only mumble vague references to unpublished research commissioned by the very same forces of darkness that are plotting our digital enslavement. Smythe had tasted blood and challenged Galipeau to a public debate, which he somewhat grudgingly accepted. Watch this space.
#rabbithole
January 28, 2010
The ‘Darth Vader’ reference had me laughing out loud.
January 28, 2010
Absolutely love the write up Jonathan
January 28, 2010
Well-said Jonathan – an amazingly good ‘capture’ of what at times seemed deep, dark and dense. But I think we must agree David Gallipeau had some fascinating insights to share – stuff we need to know about how the world is changing, and just one view of what could happen in the future. But it was equally interesting that, after the presentation, people around the audience were heard asking, ‘What-was-that-all-about?’ questions.For example,thanks to Alan Richardson’s simple translation of what a ‘dark-hat’ is, those left feeling ‘in-the-dark’ began to understand. It proved that good communication, the unscrambling of the complex into clear messages that people can easily understand, will still be a vital service we communicators can offer, whatever the world looks like in 2020. And one which the clever bods with minds like planets will need if they are to reach the audiences they really want to influence.
January 28, 2010
Now I’m even more gutted at my inability to attend!
Sounds like a very interesting and thought provoking evening was had by all, I shall have to keep an eye out for the possible public debate.
January 29, 2010
Yep, some of what David said had we wide eyed (eared?), and there was some pretty exciting stuff in there. But it was at such a high level, I wonder how I apply it to my own role as an Internal Communicator. I think this may have been why there were only a few questions from the floor.
Anyway, must dash, I need to check my slippers’ Twitter feed…