Panelists: Mashhuda Glencross, Geraldine Fitzpatrick, and Jon Whittle (with moderator Aaron Quigley)
The distribution of the human species across the globe means that today there are people living in every single time zone on Earth. Some of these zones are sparsely populated due to their geographic location within large open ocean areas. Other time zones are densely populated. All areas need the demarcation of time zones to accommodate national and international priorities. Being in the same time zone as an economically powerful economy can have significant advantages for a developing economy. At the same time, governments whose countries span multiple time zones need to think carefully about the associated costs of not having your entire population within a single time zone. This gives rise to unusual choices for people living on the edge who may have extreme sunrise and sunset times – these decisions are needed simply for economic or political reasons. Nonetheless our distribution can be a source of strength and resilience for our species. People in certain geographies with skills and experiences can find themselves acting as social and economic bridges between different regions of the world. Entire businesses operate in certain geographic and temporal regions simply to service the 24 – 7 needs of the consumer globally.
In this talk we meet with a set of academics from the future. 17 hours from the future to be precise if you are living in San Francisco. Or 14 hours in the future if you are in New York or eight hours in the future if you’re in Germany. In this conversation we will discuss the future of work where our global distribution across economically developed and developing economies can be harnessed for our mutual benefit and what the implications are for the future of Human-Computer Interaction and the future of work.