The future of work

I would like to take a break from education to look at what comes after education - the world of work, and how technology is likely to disrupt the traditional (in the mass-industrial era) patterns of employment.

The industrial notion of a stable job in a large corporate, with its clear hierarchy and defined experience, is being replaced by an ever shifting landscape of nomadic individuals combining in flexible and fluid organisations.

There are a number of key forces acting on society's current economic reorganisation, including

• decreasing costs of organisation
  
• declining capital costs of tools of value creation
• rise of the creator economy
  
• expansion of education
  
• extension of working life

I will try to look at these over the next few posts, and seek to identify how technology is shaping organisations - both from the social perspective of the individual (i.e. relationship with employer) and from the managerial perspective of the organisation (relationship with employee).

The future of education; education as our future?

While researching my previous post on Teachstreet, I came across Edufire.

While Teachstreet generally focuses on offline 'extracurricular' learning (e.g. cooking, music), Edufire offers online video classes (mainly based around languages or exam preparation).

Seeing Edufire in action got me thinking about Chris Anderson's answer to the annual Edge Question, "What will change everything?" - that a web-empowered revolution in teaching will change everything by unlocking the potential of a higher proportion of the world's population.

Anderson suggests that knowledge and inspiration will be the catalysts for this 'great awakening' of human potential

If you learn of ideas that could transform your life, and you feel the inspiration necessary to act on that knowledge, there's a real chance your life will indeed be transformed.

There are many scary things about today's world. But one that is truly thrilling is that the means of spreading both knowledge and inspiration have never been greater

Anderson is the founder of TED, which clearly aims to offer inspiration, while Edufire is looking to provide the knowledge element of the equation

Certainly Edufire is still in its early stages - the class focus remains very narrow, the audience is unlikely to be children in Africa overlooked by traditional education. But the potential is there.

If companies like Edufire can develop a sustainable business model, then the global rollout of online education may be only delayed by technological limitations, and as Anderson says, "a young girl born in Africa today...might just end up being person who saves the planet for our grandchildren"

Teachstreet - made for the 'Experience Economy'

Teachstreet is a great example of a business that has positioned itself to tap into consumer demand for experiences rather than mere products or brands.

While Trendwatching identified this movement towards skill based status back in the boom-time of late 2006, this trend is only likely to increase as people turn away from conspicuous consumption.

Indeed, as consumers refocus on value, learning new skills offers long-lasting value that few other purchases can match.

As the backlash against credit card debt increases, and people have more free time to occupy themselves they will look to activities other than 'shopping'.

The boom in 'craft' activities and education reflects people's desire to leave behind the throwaway excesses of consumer culture and hark back to a simpler time

Teachstreet's beauty is that they not only encourage community involvement through their now-standard 'social networking' features, but also that their feedback system allows would-be students to overcome their fear of being out of their depth, or ripped-off. Another previously opaque industry gets a light shone into it

Teachstreet's position at the convergence of these trends mean that they have every chance of succeeding if they can generate critical mass