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(OFF) Thanks very much...

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(David Price) This is the 
ever-shrinking presentation.

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It was originally 25 minutes,
last night it was 23,

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now it's 22.

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I've got a 40-minute presentation.
I'm just going to speak twice as quickly.

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No, I'm only kidding, it's only 
20, 22 minutes.

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And I've got a thing to time it 
to make sure I don't go over.

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About four months ago, I was diagnosed
with cancer of the colon.

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And what was it, seven weeks ago,
I had the operation

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which kind of went okay, 
got rid of the tumor.

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But when the colon was reconnected,
it sprung a leak

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and I got a thing called sepsis, 
which I later discovered,

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is fatal in 60% of the cases.

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What essentially happens with sepsis is

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the organs start to pack in, 
one after the other,

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so my heart was fibrillating,


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I lost, kidneys stopped working,

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lungs stopped working, 
so they put me on a ventilator.

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And my wife Claire 
who's here somewhere

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was told to bring the family around, 
because they didn't expect me

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to get through the weekend.

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As you can see, I survived, and this is
actually the first talk I've given

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since I was in intensive care.

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I was in intensive care for a week.

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So, when a sick, no, no honest.
(Applause)

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But when I say I'm delighted to be here,
I'm not just being polite.

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(laughter)

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I'm talking existentially 
rather than conversationally.

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But I wanted to start with that story
because, in that process of the journey

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from diagnosis to operation,
I met with some remarkable people:

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on forums and interest groups,
but I also visited and interviewed people.

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So I interviewed some people 
in the Netherlands

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who are treating their loved ones,
who've got end-stage cancer.

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They are lay people, computer technicians,

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who, frankly, conventional medicine's
given up, they're stage 4,

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they said there is nothing more we can do,
so they're administering

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intravenous cocktails of drugs,
some of which are approved,

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some of which are off-patent,

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some of which are off-label.

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I visited a clinic, here in Germany,
which I can't name, because

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they're kind of operating in the shadows
in fear that they'll be closed down.

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And what it seemed to me,
once I looked beyond health

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is that this is a phenomenon

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which is happening
in all kinds of areas of public life,

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that we're seeing what I call 
people-powered innovation.

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And I think it presents a real challenge 
for institutions and organizations.

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So, why is it important?

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I think it's important because it's
kind of a natural consequence

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of the issues I talked about 
in my book "Open"

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where, now that we're able to share and
exchange knowledge, we're now at a point

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where we want to do something about it,
and we want now

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to be more in control of our own lives.

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But I think it's particularly important
for the people who are in this room today:

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educators and human resource people,

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because one of the things that we're 
seeing is a major shift in the way

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in which we accredit knowledge
and competencies.

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I don't know if any of you have read


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Phillip Brown's excellent book

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called "The Global Auction," but he talks 
about how our graduates are facing

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a high-skilled, low-income future

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because of globalization 
and a whole range of other issues.

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And recently, Laszlo Bock who is in charge
of People Operations at Google said this,

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"Your degree is not a proxy 
for your ability to do any job.

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"The world only cares about 
and pays off on

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"what you can do with what you know

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"and it doesn't care how you learned it."

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So my point, I guess, is that 
unless we change the product,

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we risk being dis-intermediated.

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By that, I mean learners
can find other ways

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to get the knowledge and skills 
that they need.

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And let's face it, the product hasn't 
really changed much in decades.

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So I'd argue that the best way 
to stay relevant

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is to involve users 
in the process of innovation.

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So this is what I mean by 
people-powered innovation,

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a process where users lead users, 
accelerate innovation

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by either advocating 
for new products or services,

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tinkering with existing products
and services,

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or creating new products 
and services from scratch.

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That's my kind of working definition,
based partly

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on Eric von Hippel's definition 
of people-powered innovation.

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So here's some examples.

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The potato crisp, 
the humble potato chip

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was invented in 1853 by a chef 
called George Crum

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who worked at a restaurant in Saratoga.

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Now he gets the credit for inventing it,
but I think

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it should go to the disgruntled diner 
in that restaurant

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who kept sending the potatoes back, 
said that they were too thickly sliced.

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And this kept going backwards 
and forwards

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and eventually George Crum got really
pissed off about this

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and cooked them as thin as he could,
burned them to a crisp,

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smothered them in salt 
and then sent them out.

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And the diner loved it.

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So he thought, oh, 
we're on to something here

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but he didn't take out a patent, in fact,
none of these examples have been patented.

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So, 1853, we've always had 
people-powered innovation.

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In fact, you could argue that up until
the Industrial Revolution,

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that's all we had, we had 
people-powered innovation.

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But if you bring it a wee bit
more up to date

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I don't know if you know 
the story of the skateboard

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but it was something that surfers, facing 
a window where they couldn't surf,

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it was the best kind of substitute.

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So they took a pair of roller-skates, 
chopped them in two,

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put wheels on either end of a plank
of wood, and you had a skateboard.

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So the skateboard industry is now worth
$4.8 billion a year.

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And a similar story happened 
with the mountain bike.

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It was basically cannibalized from 
other forms of bikes

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and developed entirely by users.

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To bring it even more up to date,

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I don't know if you're aware 
of this thing called Patreon?

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It's been set up by Jack Conte
who is a musician.

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Certainly, he wouldn't have thought 
himself as a kind of entrepreneur

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but it kind of recreates 
in the digital age

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the 18th century notion 
of patronage for artists.

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So you pay up artists, 
because you like their work.

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And it has been a hugely successful 
venture for Jack.

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And then one of the few companies
that have really latched onto

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people-powered innovation 
at a very early stage

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is Proctor & Gamble, who have developed 
a thing called Connect and Develop

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and that service now, 
which brings in innovations

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from outside of the organization,

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that constitutes about half 
of all their innovations.

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So much so that Proctor & Gamble say:
"Proudly found elsewhere."

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That's their motto.

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And I wonder how many of us working
in universities could say the same thing,

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or how many of us who are 
learning officers in companies?

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So, where do we see 
people-powered innovation?

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Well, you can go to any maker space 
and you'll see it,

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visit forums or interest groups,
even groups like Anonymous,

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whatever you may think 
of their philosophy,

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you can't deny their ingenuity
and innovation.

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And I've looked at a number of examples

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and I've identified 
four common characteristics.

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I'm going to quickly go through them.

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The first is need.
The second is jugaad.

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Don't worry if it's not 
a familiar term to you.

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Third is the hacker ethic 
and the fourth is a sense of agency.

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Right. Very quick examples.

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It's a cliché, but it's a cliché 
for a reason,

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that invention is indeed the mother
of necessity.

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And you get people-powered innovation
where the need is greatest.

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So it's no accident that some of the
most innovative things that we now see

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now are happening in the developed world
in slums and favelas.

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So 85% of mobile transactions 
have actually originated

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in developing countries.

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And 50% of them were created by users.

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And if you think about it, that's kind of
paved the way for things like

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Apple Pay and Samsung Wallet.

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The first use of mobile banking
was actually in the Philippines,

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and what people did there was to take
pay-as-you-go top-up vouchers,

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take the code from them, text them
to their friends and family

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in other parts of the Philippines, and
they used it as a kind of currency.

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But they're not just turning air time 
into money,

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they're turning shit into money too.

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This is a genuine sign, 
I didn't make this up

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but it says, if you can't read the bottom
it says,

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"Shit Business is Serious Business".

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And there's a guy in Lagos in Nigeria

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and Lagos has a big 
public health problem

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because people are using 
the streets as a toilet

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but there is a graphic artist 
called Isaac Agbetusin

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who invented a thing that he called
the Dignified Mobile Toilet.

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They look like the kind of Portaloos 
that you see on building sites

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but he's designed it, built it, 
delivers it to communities

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and then they charge people 
ten cents to use them.

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But that's only part of the story, because
then the waste is collected

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and turned into biogas which is sold
to energy companies.

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It's ingenious. He's getting profit at 
both ends of the transaction.

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So that leads us
to the second characteristic.

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And it's this word jugaad.
And if you're not familiar with it,

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it's a Hindi term which kind of means
it's making the most of what you've got.

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So I don't know if you can see
the photograph on the right.

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That's an ox-powered two-story truck.

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During the rainy season,
of course people get drenched

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so somebody found the cabin
from an old truck, put it on.

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There are people on the top deck
of the truck, people on the bottom,

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and they're staying dry.
Making the most of what you've got.

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But it's also this sense of jugaad
as meaning "good enough".

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What you see on the left
is the world's first clay refrigerator.

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It was created, again,
by just an ordinary user.

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And of course it doesn't work
as well as a powered refrigerator

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that we might have in the West.

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It's cooled by cold water
which cools the clay.

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But when you've got temperatures
of 45, 50 degrees in summer,

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it's good enough.
It keeps the produce cool enough

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to be used, and it doesn't go off.

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Here's some very quick examples
of jugaad as well.

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Guy on the top left, 
he's frying his breakfast

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while he's listening to his MP3 player.
(audience laughing)

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Guys on the top right have designated
the compartment a sleeper compartment.

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They took a blanket and put it up
as a hammock.

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Guy at the bottom right.
This is fascinating.

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He's turned what we call in the U.K.
a flip-flop, Australians call them thongs,

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he's turned it into a gun holster.

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I don't know what he's doing
with the other flip-flop.

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And the guy on the bottom left
has invented a kind of hands-free kit.

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(audience laughing)

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It's just a handkerchief with 
a mobile phone.

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I hope to God he's cut a couple
of holes out in the front.

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But what we're seeing is that
jugaad principles

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are now being adopted 
by Western countries.

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And if you think about it, 
a company like Google

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when it talks about everything's 
(mumbles), fail fast and integrate

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that's a kind of jugaad approach
to innovation.

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And when jugaad meets 
the next characteristic,

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I think things get really interesting.

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So when you combine a hacker ethic
with jugaad,

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I think you then start or rub up against
what I would call

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one of the biggest blockers
to people-powered innovation,

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and that's a kind of overly-strict
regulatory framework.

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And it's put there on the premise
of protecting us and maintaining quality.

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Now I'm assuming you all know the story
of Wikipedia, so I'll give you

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the truncated version.

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When it was first started,
it was called Newpedia

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and they commissioned a bunch
of academics to write articles

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which were then going to be
peer-reviewed to maintain the quality.

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And two years into its existence,
Newpedia had to close

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cause it had a grand total of 25 articles,
cause people had spent all that time

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arguing about whether 
the article was good enough.

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So it became Wikipedia,
and as you know, Jimmy Wales then said,

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"To hell with this. 
I'll make it open source.

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"Anybody can write this.
It will be good enough.

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"And people can hack it 
and improve it."

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But what's less commonly known
is that Wikipedia wasn't

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the kind of direct successor
to Newpedia.

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It sort of forked, and alongside Wikipedia
was a thing called Citizendium.

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Now, could you just put your hand up
if you've ever used Wikipedia?

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Yeah, pretty much everybody.

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00:12:50,407 --> 00:12:52,888
Can you put your hand up if
you've used Citizendium?

229
00:12:54,238 --> 00:12:59,075
Yes, and that's because 
they insisted on peer review.

230
00:12:59,075 --> 00:13:03,575
And if you go on the Citizendium website,
they've got something like 160,000 articles

231
00:13:03,575 --> 00:13:09,247
which have been commissioned,
and 106 of them, I think it is,

232
00:13:09,247 --> 00:13:13,171
have actually been released for citation.

233
00:13:13,171 --> 00:13:16,669
So, I don't know what's happening
for all the rest, but it seems to me

234
00:13:16,669 --> 00:13:20,475
there's a lesson here 
for academic publishing

235
00:13:20,475 --> 00:13:24,143
because I don't believe peer review,
unless it's open source,

236
00:13:24,143 --> 00:13:30,322
does anything other than obstruct
research and innovation and not advance it.

237
00:13:30,322 --> 00:13:33,197
So here's an example from education,

238
00:13:33,197 --> 00:13:35,924
which is what I'd consider 
to be jugaad in the hacker ethic.

239
00:13:35,924 --> 00:13:39,425
There's a college in London 
called the School for Communication Arts.

240
00:13:39,425 --> 00:13:43,450
It's run by a maverick called Marc Lewis,


241
00:13:43,450 --> 00:13:48,250
and it serves the advertising industry.

242
00:13:48,250 --> 00:13:53,300
Now, it provides tertiary-level courses
but they're not degrees

243
00:13:53,300 --> 00:13:55,483
because he can't get validated.

244
00:13:55,483 --> 00:13:57,141
Why can't he get validated?

245
00:13:57,141 --> 00:14:01,260
Because Marc invites people
to hack its own programs,

246
00:14:01,260 --> 00:14:04,954
and he does it via this.
He has a thing called the Curriculum Wiki.

247
00:14:04,954 --> 00:14:07,945
So if you're in the advertising industry,
and you think that there's

248
00:14:07,945 --> 00:14:12,779
a particular skill which is not being developed,
or there's some new processes and practices,

249
00:14:12,779 --> 00:14:15,765
or if you're a student,
or indeed a member of the public,

250
00:14:15,765 --> 00:14:20,408
you can put up on the Curriculum Wiki
what you think should be taught,

251
00:14:20,408 --> 00:14:23,425
and Marc and his staff there
will guarantee to turn that

252
00:14:23,425 --> 00:14:26,247
into a set of learning outcomes
with a syllabus.

253
00:14:26,247 --> 00:14:29,246
And they'll have it up and running
within six weeks.

254
00:14:29,246 --> 00:14:32,283
Now of course, that means 
that it can't get validation,

255
00:14:32,283 --> 00:14:34,759
because in the U.K.,
universities want to know

256
00:14:34,759 --> 00:14:37,370
what your program's going to be
in five years' time.

257
00:14:37,370 --> 00:14:40,748
He doesn't know what they're going
to be doing in five weeks' time,

258
00:14:40,748 --> 00:14:43,670
but he doesn't care because 
all the students get jobs.

259
00:14:43,670 --> 00:14:46,670
They've got 100% employability rate.

260
00:14:46,670 --> 00:14:49,762
So that's a case of, I think,
the kind of regulatory frameworks

261
00:14:49,762 --> 00:14:54,551
that we've got coming up against
innovation and people-powered innovation.

262
00:14:54,551 --> 00:14:57,616
And it seems to me that
that sense of agency is really important.

263
00:14:57,616 --> 00:15:00,742
In most examples of formal learning, 
it seems to me we've promoted

264
00:15:00,742 --> 00:15:03,307
a kind of learned dependence.

265
00:15:03,307 --> 00:15:05,767
We're the experts.
You're the learners.

266
00:15:05,767 --> 00:15:08,102
And if you want to progress 
to the next level,

267
00:15:08,102 --> 00:15:09,878
then you're going to need us.

268
00:15:09,878 --> 00:15:13,155
And then along came the biggest, 
disruptive innovation

269
00:15:13,155 --> 00:15:17,543
since chewing gum in education, 
and that's YouTube.

270
00:15:17,543 --> 00:15:21,593
And everybody suddenly went, 
"Hmm, maybe we don't need you guys

271
00:15:21,593 --> 00:15:23,397
"as much as we thought we did."

272
00:15:23,397 --> 00:15:25,242
And YouTube begat MOOCs.

273
00:15:25,242 --> 00:15:28,449
And then the new mantra became
"Any lecturer that can be replaced

274
00:15:28,449 --> 00:15:32,960
"by a YouTube video, will be."

275
00:15:32,960 --> 00:15:38,557
But whilst MOOCs and online learning allow
learners to hack their education, sort of,

276
00:15:38,557 --> 00:15:42,423
they don't yet build community
or a sense of learner agency.

277
00:15:42,423 --> 00:15:45,994
And I believe that building learner 
agency will be the next big development

278
00:15:45,994 --> 00:15:50,626
in learning, because that's what we see
in social learning now.

279
00:15:50,626 --> 00:15:53,333
And learners expect that
that agency in formal learning

280
00:15:53,333 --> 00:15:55,354
is also going to be there.

281
00:15:55,354 --> 00:15:58,482
So, it's not hard to do.

282
00:15:58,482 --> 00:16:03,186
We just need to adopt social learning's
six key motivations

283
00:16:03,186 --> 00:16:04,818
which I talk about in the book.

284
00:16:04,818 --> 00:16:07,431
And there's a whole other talk
to go through these

285
00:16:07,431 --> 00:16:09,395
but I'll just quickly list them.

286
00:16:09,395 --> 00:16:10,842
So, a sense of do-it-yourself.

287
00:16:10,842 --> 00:16:13,386
There's a great deal of autonomy
in social learning.

288
00:16:13,386 --> 00:16:16,375
You all know that because
that's how you communicate.

289
00:16:16,375 --> 00:16:18,692
I know I'm preaching to the converted here.

290
00:16:18,692 --> 00:16:20,082
Second is immediacy.

291
00:16:20,082 --> 00:16:24,098
There's what Lillian Katz called 
a horizontal relevance about learning

292
00:16:24,098 --> 00:16:27,093
because you're getting the knowledge
that you need now

293
00:16:27,093 --> 00:16:29,511
to solve the challenge
that you've got

294
00:16:29,511 --> 00:16:33,182
rather than just-in-case
at some point in the future.

295
00:16:33,182 --> 00:16:36,241
There's an obvious sense 
of collegiality, do it with friends.

296
00:16:36,241 --> 00:16:38,719
It's now the case that if you're
on Twitter or Yammer,

297
00:16:38,719 --> 00:16:41,742
you've probably got your closest
collaborator on the other side

298
00:16:41,742 --> 00:16:45,281
of the world, rather than
on the other side of the office.

299
00:16:45,281 --> 00:16:49,077
And then, there's a sense of playfulness
about all of this stuff.

300
00:16:49,077 --> 00:16:51,622
Then we get into the contentious ones.

301
00:16:51,622 --> 00:16:52,757
Do unto others.

302
00:16:52,757 --> 00:16:56,999
Now, I know that social media
has got bullies, got trolls,

303
00:16:56,999 --> 00:16:59,857
and there are bad people out there
who do bad things,

304
00:16:59,857 --> 00:17:02,117
but that's the stuff that gets reported.

305
00:17:02,117 --> 00:17:05,336
What doesn't get reported
are the million random acts of kindness

306
00:17:05,336 --> 00:17:08,589
which happen every day because of
that sense of generosity

307
00:17:08,589 --> 00:17:10,619
which is powering the learning.

308
00:17:10,619 --> 00:17:12,381
And similarly, for the last one.

309
00:17:12,381 --> 00:17:15,249
There's a high visibility about the 
learning which is happening

310
00:17:15,249 --> 00:17:19,138
in the social space which isn't
being replicated, I would argue,

311
00:17:19,138 --> 00:17:21,497
in the formal learning space.

312
00:17:21,497 --> 00:17:24,615
Companies and universities
get very nervous about the learning

313
00:17:24,615 --> 00:17:28,220
being open to the rest of the world.

314
00:17:28,220 --> 00:17:32,348
But I think these six qualities
of social learning are

315
00:17:32,348 --> 00:17:37,040
the means by which those communities
develop a sense of agency.

316
00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:40,234
And I'd argue that we need to think
about how many of these

317
00:17:40,234 --> 00:17:43,159
we can bring in to our formal
learning programs.

318
00:17:43,159 --> 00:17:47,370
And it's really encouraging to see
the presentations that are scheduled

319
00:17:47,370 --> 00:17:50,174
for the next couple of days,
particularly the ones which

320
00:17:50,174 --> 00:17:52,005
are about peer learning.

321
00:17:52,005 --> 00:17:54,127
So they're the four kind of 
common characteristics

322
00:17:54,127 --> 00:17:55,873
behind people-powered
innovation.

323
00:17:55,873 --> 00:17:59,055
I'm now, only got a couple of 
minutes left, so let's just finish

324
00:17:59,055 --> 00:18:01,531
with perhaps three things
that we could do

325
00:18:01,531 --> 00:18:04,248
to develop more people-powered
innovation.

326
00:18:04,248 --> 00:18:06,845
First is don't be afraid of the pro-am.

327
00:18:06,845 --> 00:18:10,316
The poster boy these days
for the pro-am is this kid.

328
00:18:10,316 --> 00:18:13,409
Just put your hand up 
if you recognize this kid.

329
00:18:13,409 --> 00:18:15,437
Oh, not many.
His name's Jack Andraka.

330
00:18:15,437 --> 00:18:18,336
When he was fifteen,
he came up with a biomarker

331
00:18:18,336 --> 00:18:21,040
for pancreatic cancer because
the need was there.

332
00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:23,838
A close member of his family died
of pancreatic cancer

333
00:18:23,838 --> 00:18:25,932
because it wasn't spotted early enough.

334
00:18:25,932 --> 00:18:29,644
So Jack came up, did all his research
on Google and Wikipedia.

335
00:18:29,644 --> 00:18:32,501
He calls them "teenager's two best friends."

336
00:18:32,501 --> 00:18:35,455
And then he reached a point where
he needed lab space.

337
00:18:35,455 --> 00:18:39,093
So he wrote to 200 universities 
in America

338
00:18:39,093 --> 00:18:42,633
and 199 of them turned him down.

339
00:18:42,633 --> 00:18:46,402
They couldn't see what a 15-year-old
could possibly tell them

340
00:18:46,402 --> 00:18:49,977
about pancreatic cancer, I mean,
he didn't even have a master's.

341
00:18:49,977 --> 00:18:52,096
So how would he possibly be able
to help them?

342
00:18:52,096 --> 00:18:55,806
Now fortunately, one did,
and that was Johns Hopkins.

343
00:18:55,806 --> 00:18:59,214
And it's ready to go into production now,
this biomarker.

344
00:18:59,214 --> 00:19:02,468
But here again, he's come up,
he's incredibly frustrated

345
00:19:02,468 --> 00:19:05,104
because he's come up against
regulatory framework

346
00:19:05,104 --> 00:19:07,745
which is not allowing this thing
to be made available

347
00:19:07,745 --> 00:19:10,866
because of the ridiculous clinical
trial system that we've got.

348
00:19:10,866 --> 00:19:13,248
And it's going to be five,
possibly ten years,

349
00:19:13,248 --> 00:19:15,827
before this is now made available.

350
00:19:15,827 --> 00:19:18,325
And as Jack says, "How many 
more people are going to die

351
00:19:18,325 --> 00:19:20,625
"as a result of that?"

352
00:19:20,625 --> 00:19:22,654
So that's one,
don't be afraid of the pro-am,

353
00:19:22,654 --> 00:19:25,321
and obviously,
de-regulate where possible.

354
00:19:25,321 --> 00:19:27,798
Welcome those education hackers.

355
00:19:27,798 --> 00:19:31,954
But then finally, I think we've just
not got to be in denial about this.

356
00:19:31,954 --> 00:19:34,972
Since "Open" was published,
I've worked with a lot of companies

357
00:19:34,972 --> 00:19:38,677
and universities, and I go in 
and I tell them about the risks

358
00:19:38,677 --> 00:19:40,866
of being dis-intermediated.

359
00:19:40,866 --> 00:19:44,437
But I sense this kind of collective
denial going on.

360
00:19:44,437 --> 00:19:46,596
And it's understandable because
for a long time,

361
00:19:46,596 --> 00:19:49,043
learners had nowhere else to go.

362
00:19:49,043 --> 00:19:52,935
And we've had a kind of monopoly
for the past hundred years or more,

363
00:19:52,935 --> 00:19:57,479
but the time to open up education
is here and it's now,

364
00:19:57,479 --> 00:20:01,816
and we have to involve users
in redefining what we do.

365
00:20:01,816 --> 00:20:04,530
So I began by talking about 
my recent cancer treatment.

366
00:20:04,530 --> 00:20:10,541
And when I was first diagnosed, I had
my first meeting with the oncologist.

367
00:20:10,541 --> 00:20:12,925
And as you can imagine, 
I had done a ton of research

368
00:20:12,925 --> 00:20:16,208
because I'm a hypochondriac,
I don't mind admitting it.

369
00:20:16,208 --> 00:20:18,842
The only consolation about 
being a hypochondriac

370
00:20:18,842 --> 00:20:22,977
is that eventually you're proven right.
(audience laughs)

371
00:20:22,977 --> 00:20:29,219
So I was talking to the oncologist, and I 
said, "What are the alternatives to surgery?"

372
00:20:29,219 --> 00:20:33,495
"What are going to be the side effects
of chemotherapy, if I have to have it?"

373
00:20:33,495 --> 00:20:35,072
And he was getting more 
and more frustrated.

374
00:20:35,072 --> 00:20:37,136
I asked about holistic treatments.

375
00:20:37,136 --> 00:20:38,998
Eventually, he kind of snapped
at me, and he said,

376
00:20:38,998 --> 00:20:43,794
"Look, just have the surgery.
Don't overthink this."

377
00:20:43,794 --> 00:20:47,621
Now, when a doctor tells you
to not overthink it,

378
00:20:47,621 --> 00:20:51,358
I would strongly recommend 
you find another doctor,

379
00:20:51,358 --> 00:20:52,934
because that's the kind of 
Apple philosophy.

380
00:20:52,934 --> 00:20:55,280
"You know, we've done 
all the research and the design.

381
00:20:55,280 --> 00:20:58,468
"You should just be grateful
that we're letting you buy it."

382
00:20:58,468 --> 00:21:02,917
But one of these forums that I was on,
the one I was telling you about

383
00:21:02,917 --> 00:21:06,836
that are operating kind of 
on the boundaries,

384
00:21:06,836 --> 00:21:10,760
go on there regularly, and this oncologist
joined in on the conversation.

385
00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:12,502
And people woke up smart, 
and they said,

386
00:21:12,502 --> 00:21:16,109
"But we never get professionals
coming on this forum."

387
00:21:16,109 --> 00:21:18,138
And the oncologist said, "Well,
it's really important

388
00:21:18,138 --> 00:21:19,934
"that this dialogue takes place."

389
00:21:19,934 --> 00:21:21,745
And I remember what he said.

390
00:21:21,745 --> 00:21:26,930
He said, "Those who seek answers
need to be part of the solution."

391
00:21:26,930 --> 00:21:30,589
So I hope you'll think how you
can bring more people-powered innovation

392
00:21:30,589 --> 00:21:35,358
into your own learning programs, and
enable people to be part of the solution.

393
00:21:35,358 --> 00:21:36,705
Thanks very much for listening.

394
00:21:36,705 --> 00:21:38,260
(applause)

395
00:21:45,540 --> 00:21:49,073
- David, thank you very much, indeed.
You're great, at 23 minutes,

396
00:21:49,080 --> 00:21:51,271
so thank you very much indeed
for making that happen.

397
00:21:51,271 --> 00:21:53,823
And some of these questions
actually will be applicable

398
00:21:53,823 --> 00:21:57,064
for Cory and for Ian as well, so you
may want to pick them up

399
00:21:57,064 --> 00:21:58,713
in your remarks too.

400
00:21:58,713 --> 00:22:01,215
But let me just reflect some of 
the comments that we've been getting,

401
00:22:01,215 --> 00:22:02,437
and there you can see the address.

402
00:22:02,437 --> 00:22:03,890
I can take many more if you want.

403
00:22:03,890 --> 00:22:06,654
This one from Alejandro Molini.

404
00:22:06,654 --> 00:22:12,561
The shift to a new age of opportunity,
what exactly is this shift towards?

405
00:22:13,961 --> 00:22:15,601
- Well, I think that's a bigger question.

406
00:22:15,601 --> 00:22:20,624
That's a question that I asked myself when
I looked at the overall theme for today.

407
00:22:20,624 --> 00:22:26,190
But certainly as far as the thing that I
was talking about, for me

408
00:22:26,190 --> 00:22:29,514
it is this shift towards knowledge
is becoming more open.

409
00:22:29,514 --> 00:22:33,626
It's a curious kind of battle which is
constantly taking place

410
00:22:33,626 --> 00:22:38,007
cause I think Cory will be talking
to some extent about institutions

411
00:22:38,007 --> 00:22:41,775
and how they're making it difficult
for that knowledge to be shared.

412
00:22:41,775 --> 00:22:45,890
But I think what we've seen over
the past ten years, is a desire

413
00:22:45,890 --> 00:22:48,242
for people to have more control
over their lives,

414
00:22:48,242 --> 00:22:52,172
and the implication behind all that,
which is why I think dis-intermediation


415
00:22:52,172 --> 00:22:55,647
is such a powerful implication.

416
00:22:55,647 --> 00:22:59,122
If you're part of the music industry,
you never thought that you'd be done out.

417
00:22:59,122 --> 00:23:02,309
If you were a travel agent, you never
really thought that people

418
00:23:02,309 --> 00:23:04,463
would want to organize their
own holidays.

419
00:23:04,463 --> 00:23:08,422
If you're a taxi driver, you probably
didn't see Uber coming.

420
00:23:08,422 --> 00:23:10,573
But that to me is part of that shift.

421
00:23:10,573 --> 00:23:14,645
- What about this comment from
Maria Ebro?

422
00:23:14,645 --> 00:23:19,047
A very interesting talk, but how do
you ensure confidentiality?

423
00:23:19,047 --> 00:23:22,844
How do you balance control
versus innovation?

424
00:23:22,844 --> 00:23:26,420
- Yep, there is no easy answer to that.

425
00:23:26,420 --> 00:23:33,019
And when I talk about regulatory 
frameworks, of course you wouldn't want

426
00:23:33,019 --> 00:23:36,398
to get on a plane and wonder if 
the pilot was actually somebody

427
00:23:36,398 --> 00:23:39,033
who previously was sitting 
in the back row.

428
00:23:39,033 --> 00:23:42,838
There are some needs for that 
regulatory framework,

429
00:23:42,838 --> 00:23:44,504
but I think we've gone too far.

430
00:23:44,504 --> 00:23:49,430
And now that knowledge is
everywhere, it's possible that

431
00:23:49,430 --> 00:23:51,910
the next big breakthroughs 
in a lot of these areas

432
00:23:51,910 --> 00:23:53,232
will come from laypeople.

433
00:23:53,232 --> 00:23:57,026
I just think that what happens currently
is that we shut those people out

434
00:23:57,026 --> 00:24:01,630
of the conversation, and we need to work
with them, as Proctor & Gamble did.

435
00:24:01,630 --> 00:24:05,906
- But do you see this as a genuinely
serious problem, the issue of balancing

436
00:24:05,906 --> 00:24:07,842
control and innovation?

437
00:24:07,842 --> 00:24:11,160
- Well absolutely, but we were just 
talking about this earlier when we

438
00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:15,405
were talking about the Google DNS thing,
and Google then potentially have access

439
00:24:15,405 --> 00:24:18,654
to a lot of confidential information.

440
00:24:18,654 --> 00:24:22,039
There's almost a sense in which, I think,
the younger generation,

441
00:24:22,039 --> 00:24:29,310
anybody under the age of 20-25 has almost
given up on the notion of confidentiality.

442
00:24:29,310 --> 00:24:34,719
I think people, and it's not always in 
their best interests, but I think people

443
00:24:34,719 --> 00:24:40,523
are recognizing that perhaps they've just
got to give some of that information away,

444
00:24:40,523 --> 00:24:43,182
and you have to trust some of those
organizations,

445
00:24:43,182 --> 00:24:45,179
but there's no easy answer to this.

446
00:24:45,179 --> 00:24:49,813
I think it's constantly in play, it's 
constantly in flux, this tension.

447
00:24:49,813 --> 00:24:52,556
- All right, I'm trying to reflect as many
of your thoughts as are coming to me

448
00:24:52,556 --> 00:24:55,195
at the moment, so we're moving 
all over the place.

449
00:24:55,195 --> 00:24:58,734
What about this from Alex Anesteciadas.


450
00:24:58,734 --> 00:25:05,013
Where do we see people-powered
innovation going now?

451
00:25:05,013 --> 00:25:08,581
- I'd love to see more of it in education
because I think it is one of the areas.

452
00:25:08,581 --> 00:25:10,060
- How can that be achieved?

453
00:25:10,060 --> 00:25:14,211
- How can it be achieved?
It can be achieved by strategic decisions

454
00:25:14,211 --> 00:25:16,953
by organizations that they're going 
to work with.

455
00:25:16,953 --> 00:25:20,713
I just started working with the largest
bank in Ireland, and they took

456
00:25:20,713 --> 00:25:26,158
a conscious decision their services
hadn't changed much in about 30 years.

457
00:25:26,158 --> 00:25:30,118
And so they need people to help them
redesign those services.

458
00:25:30,118 --> 00:25:33,525
But that has to come from the 
senior management,

459
00:25:33,525 --> 00:25:37,709
recognizing that in most cases,
the rate of innovation

460
00:25:37,709 --> 00:25:40,353
cannot possibly keep up with the
demand for change

461
00:25:40,353 --> 00:25:42,990
that customers are exercising.

462
00:25:42,990 --> 00:25:45,792
- There's a comment here which is really
based around the generational challenge,

463
00:25:45,792 --> 00:25:49,299
I suspect, from Ben Fisher.

464
00:25:49,299 --> 00:25:53,520
How do we get all teachers now to work with
this new reality, the new media,

465
00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:56,447
the new digital space, to work 
with these new opportunities?

466
00:25:56,447 --> 00:25:59,435
And it's something which I'm sure Cory
and Ian would address as well.

467
00:25:59,435 --> 00:26:01,174
Your view, David, at the moment.

468
00:26:01,174 --> 00:26:08,163
- What I always say, and I do a lot of work
in schools, and when people are trying

469
00:26:08,163 --> 00:26:11,642
to bring in new innovations, particularly
technologically-based ones,

470
00:26:11,642 --> 00:26:16,176
is work with the enthusiasts and don't
waste your time with the people

471
00:26:16,176 --> 00:26:20,008
who are just not going to want to change
no matter what happens.

472
00:26:20,008 --> 00:26:22,568
We were having a conversation with a
colleague from Australia.

473
00:26:22,568 --> 00:26:24,489
(applause)

474
00:26:24,489 --> 00:26:29,856
I can see people have got the scars
where they've tried.

475
00:26:29,856 --> 00:26:33,105
Colleague last night had just that problem.

476
00:26:33,105 --> 00:26:37,360
You know that there are some people,
and you can see the challenge.

477
00:26:37,360 --> 00:26:42,435
They're in their 50s, 60s, and they've 
just decided they've learned enough stuff.

478
00:26:42,435 --> 00:26:43,954
You know, it's like 
the Homer Simpson thing.

479
00:26:43,954 --> 00:26:46,628
Every time I get a new piece of 
information, some more stuff

480
00:26:46,628 --> 00:26:49,292
has got to go out of the brain
to make way for it.

481
00:26:49,292 --> 00:26:51,935
- You're being very defeatist, 
aren't you?

482
00:26:51,935 --> 00:26:55,769
- I'm not. I'm just know that if you
want innovation to happen,

483
00:26:55,769 --> 00:26:57,732
you've got to protect it 
and nurture it,

484
00:26:57,732 --> 00:27:01,748
and that the best way to do that
is to create a safe space for innovation.

485
00:27:01,748 --> 00:27:05,099
So I've worked in schools that will create
these innovation pods,

486
00:27:05,099 --> 00:27:08,474
and they have a simple rule where they 
say, "You don't have to be part

487
00:27:08,474 --> 00:27:11,477
"of this innovation if you don't want to.
The only thing you can't do

488
00:27:11,477 --> 00:27:15,206
"is to say anything or do anything which
is going to prevent it from taking place.

489
00:27:15,206 --> 00:27:19,395
"If you don't want to be part of it, then
at least step out of the way."

490
00:27:19,395 --> 00:27:23,290
So I think that, 
because it's really hard

491
00:27:23,290 --> 00:27:25,869
to get new innovations
to happen in education.

492
00:27:25,869 --> 00:27:31,619
Education has always progressed
incrementally, and the problem is now,

493
00:27:31,619 --> 00:27:34,485
the world's moving so fast that
that incremental shift

494
00:27:34,485 --> 00:27:36,160
isn't going to cut it anymore.

495
00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:38,448
- This is coming through as a theme
which I'm sure is in the back

496
00:27:38,448 --> 00:27:41,348
of almost everyone's mind in the 
audience here, all the delegates,

497
00:27:41,348 --> 00:27:44,271
but this is continuing this, David.

498
00:27:44,271 --> 00:27:48,871
How can we integrate the shift in the
organization's core as mainstream?

499
00:27:48,871 --> 00:27:52,290
How can we change 
the working way of people,

500
00:27:52,290 --> 00:27:54,700
change, appreciate the opportunities?

501
00:27:54,700 --> 00:27:57,638
I'm interpreting now, this question.

502
00:27:57,638 --> 00:28:00,947
- Well, again I come back 
to involving the learners.

503
00:28:00,947 --> 00:28:06,367
I've kind of been involved in music
education for a while

504
00:28:06,367 --> 00:28:09,570
because I was a musician 
before I got a real job.

505
00:28:09,570 --> 00:28:17,883
And one of the programs
I introduced was pretty radical

506
00:28:17,883 --> 00:28:20,195
because it was about starting
with the kids' musical interests,

507
00:28:20,195 --> 00:28:22,641
and at the time, teachers said,
"But we don't know anything

508
00:28:22,641 --> 00:28:24,210
"about hip-hop."

509
00:28:24,210 --> 00:28:26,320
And I'd say to people, "Yes, 
but you've got a pair of ears.


510
00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:28,116
"You can help these students."

511
00:28:28,116 --> 00:28:32,526
I think what happens is that when
educators see the impact

512
00:28:32,526 --> 00:28:36,417
that it's having on students, that 
innovation is having on their lives,

513
00:28:36,417 --> 00:28:41,734
you hope that most of them
will accept the need to change.

514
00:28:41,734 --> 00:28:44,600
And in the process of changing,
it seems to me that

515
00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:46,852
you're not just changing 
the pedagogy, 


516
00:28:46,852 --> 00:28:50,645
you're changing the relationship 
with your students.

517
00:28:50,645 --> 00:28:55,665
And that is the big emotive pull,
it seems to me, for educators.

518
00:28:55,665 --> 00:28:58,560
When you become a learner
alongside those students,

519
00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:02,296
that fundamentally changes
the nature of that relationship.

520
00:29:02,296 --> 00:29:07,964
But we've become so used to seeing
educators as the experts

521
00:29:07,964 --> 00:29:12,080
that most people are terrified 
of taking that particular hat off

522
00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:13,951
and putting the learner hat on.

523
00:29:13,951 --> 00:29:17,646
- All right, David, one last question.

524
00:29:17,646 --> 00:29:20,807
When will companies step up 
to the plate, based on something

525
00:29:20,807 --> 00:29:25,952
you were saying earlier, and truly hire
based on competence and not degrees?

526
00:29:25,952 --> 00:29:27,570
That's from Daniel Evans,
last question.

527
00:29:27,570 --> 00:29:31,910
- Yeah, well, Google has now got,
I think, Cory would know this.

528
00:29:31,910 --> 00:29:35,357
Is it 14% of their hires now
don't have a degree?

529
00:29:35,357 --> 00:29:38,447
- I don't know the number,
but what they've decided

530
00:29:38,447 --> 00:29:41,765
is that they can get around the
tight labor market,

531
00:29:41,765 --> 00:29:43,886
where they're competing with
Facebook for every new hire

532
00:29:43,886 --> 00:29:46,872
and bidding them up, by hiring 
people Facebook wouldn't hire,

533
00:29:46,872 --> 00:29:49,484
people without degrees who
nevertheless do good work.

534
00:29:49,484 --> 00:29:51,609
And they did double-blinded
experiments internally

535
00:29:51,609 --> 00:29:54,084
with their HR department that
showed that the degrees

536
00:29:54,084 --> 00:29:55,624
were irrelevant to the performance.

537
00:29:55,624 --> 00:29:58,300
And so, they're doing what's 
commercially smart.

538
00:29:58,300 --> 00:30:00,911
- Yeah, and I think there's a kind of
trickle-down effect,

539
00:30:00,911 --> 00:30:05,579
so Ernst & Young have said they are no
longer going to hire people on degrees.

540
00:30:05,579 --> 00:30:08,921
They've got other ways of assessing
their competence and capability.

541
00:30:08,921 --> 00:30:12,344
So I think we'll start to see this,
increasingly so.

542
00:30:12,344 --> 00:30:18,077
And also, as the currency of the degree,
as what it means, diminishes,

543
00:30:18,077 --> 00:30:22,351
and I do believe it will diminish,
I think that people will start to say,

544
00:30:22,351 --> 00:30:27,659
"Well, hang on, why are we simply
hiring on the basis of a degree?"

545
00:30:27,659 --> 00:30:32,326
So, I think it will take time,
but it's on its way and it's inevitable.

546
00:30:32,326 --> 00:30:34,546
- All right, David, thank you
very much indeed.

547
00:30:34,546 --> 00:30:35,510
- Thank you.

548
00:30:35,510 --> 00:30:38,441
(applause)