Situation Normal, Everything Must Change - Simon Wardley Keynote

From OSCON 2015 in Portland: From Portlandia’s capa chuchu chuchu tea to Texas where “Everything is so BIG” that they only have data, OSCON is moving. In this farewell talk to Portland, we will cover the history of navigation from stories to maps, the unexplored lands of open source’s future and the territories open source has already conquered.

About Simon Wardley:
Simon Wardley is a Researcher for CSC’s Leading Edge Forum, a global research and thought leadership community dedicated to helping large organizations become more successful by identifying and adopting Next Practices at the growing intersection between business and information technology. Simon’s focus is on the intersection of IT strategy and new technologies, and he currently leads our research entitled The Clash of the Titans.

Simon’s most recent published research (December 2014) is entitled Of Wonders and Disruption where he attempts to predict the nature of technological and business change over the next 20 years. His previous research covers topics including The Future is More Predictable Than You Think: A Workbook for Value Chain Mapping. Simon has also covered topics including Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts: Strategies for an Increasingly Open Economy, Learning from Web 2.0 and A Lifecycle Approach to Cloud Computing.

Simon has spent the last 15 years defining future IT strategies for companies in the FMCG, Retail and IT industries. From Canon’s early leadership in the cloud computing space in 2005, to Ubuntu’s recent dominance as the No 1 Cloud operating system.

As a geneticist with a love of mathematics and a fascination in economics, Simon has always found himself dealing with complex systems, whether it’s in behavioural patterns, environmental risks of chemical pollution, developing novel computer systems or managing companies. He is a passionate advocate and researcher in the fields of open source, commoditization, innovation, organizational structure and cybernetics.

Simon is a regular presenter at conferences worldwide, and was voted as one of the UK’s top 50 most influential people in IT in ComputerWeekly’s 2012 and 2011 polls.

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[ivankaramasov]

This is an entertaining lecture. I urge anybody to read his book on mapping. You can download it for free or buy it at Amazon. It is by far the best book on strategy I have read. Very clear and informative. Wardley is a great and entertaining teacher.

[lillianlaura]

Ok, how about a situational awareness when the open source GMO construct developed in a garage and chucked down the toilet starts being taken up by bacteria in the water? Is this a fun thing to be part of and an awesome future? I suppose it depends what happens. If it just poddles along doing not much or if it causes disease or the breakdown of systems that we depend on will matter a lot. It was funny presentation but what is it trying to achieve? A culture where humans of all kinds flourish, and so does the non-human world we depend on? How is it that games appear? Are we stuck in a boys bedroom with battles and games?Or is it about making sure we don't lose the 21 century equivalent of Thermopolyae? Isn't that to stop destroying the climate? To create a culture that limits stupid showing off behaviour that neglects the whole (no matter how beautifully mapped? Or have I missed the point?

[hybmg]

He seems like a great guy and gives some great insights but he is a researcher and there is no evidence that he has executed this value mapping himself first hand. Usually this is the first thing I look for when reading an article or a book. Check the author's background and has she/he directly applied what they claim and has had success in that area? This part is not clear from Simon.
All things aside he is a great speaker and I love this!