I am currently researching trends in micro computing and the evolution of the desktop/laptop to a portable operating system. The portable operating system could live on a flash drive, your smart phone, a card, or even on the key chain. My theory is that in the near future ~5plus years we will take our computer with us in miniature form and plug it into open ports that have keyboard or touch screen, remote control capability. Houses and office space will be wired with open ports so you can plug in and access your pc and data from anywhere - even the household products like a television, heat pump / AC, or refrigerator. I think the initial push for this comes from the current mobile phone evolution and smart phone capability. My little Centro is as almost as powerful as my laptop and I can connect a Bluetooth keyboard to and a portable projector making it as good if not better than my laptop for travel and business meetings away from the office. I would be interested in this groups thoughts on barriers to this evolution or alternate views.

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I wanted to use the "further references" material but for the Technology Forecast for example Price Waterhouse is keeping me out for not having a subscription to their services. This way the references seem advertisments rather than info sharing. Can we agree to post only references to materials that can actually be consulted?

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Organizations have spent much time and effort building walls to keep secrets and remain enigmatic. This has lead to a great deal of posturing and double guessing. I would cite as an example the way that retailers treat many of their suppliers. On a day to day basis they concentrate almost entirely on short term issues - what is your best promotional price, how can we get more funding from you for promotions, what unique packs / promotions will you produce for our customers? The result is teams of intelligent people who find their energy sapped and have no time or inclination to look to the future. Do we need to change the paradigm? Should we concentrate more on cooperating on key issues such as environment, energy utilization, smart packaging? I am not asking for collusion but I am asking for shared vision and cross company / industry teams with shared challenging objectives.
The discussions about deal prices will always go on but there should be much more to corporate life than that - shouldn't there?

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Hi Maree, one of our next enhancements to the Practical Foresight guide is to create a comprehensive set of visual models of each stage of the process. We have already had some help with this but thought it would be worthwhile to show where we need help below, highlighted with question marks. We are not looking for photographs but really useful, energetic and informing conceptual drawings. Can anyone help? If so, the best way is to visit the guide, read the scripts and offer a matching concept at http://www.shapingtomorrow.com/content.cfm?webtext=11

Guide contents:
o Introduction - concept kindly supplied by Ian Miles
o Practical Foresight - concept found
o Key questions - ?
o Benefits: ?
o Approaches: concept kindly supplied by Sheila Moorcroft
o Assumptions: ?
o Getting started: concept found
o Outcomes: ?
o Scoping: concept found
o Stakeholders: concept found
o Methods: ?
o Management: ?
o Presentation: ?
o Horizon Scanning: ?
o Strategic Thinking: ?
o Action Planning: ?
o Networking: ?
o Implementation: ?
o Review: ?
o Foresight Futures; concept kindly supplied by Heiko von der Gracht

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