It started innocently enough: let's get an open-source conversation going about the implications of a world of ubiquitous interconnectivity, a world in which people, place and need are linked up to data, information, and to everyone else. A world in which the digital and the physical fuse into a new kind of substance and space. A world of "augmented reality" and intelligent services that almost work like a 6th sense, monitoring our patterns and adapting to our needs.
It seemed to us that a new epoch was about to begin, and we gave it a name: Real Time. And we were pretty sure of one thing: we wanted to launch an Idea, not an Entity.
Weeks in to our conversation, something has emerged from it. A new kind of company. A company the likes of which the world has never seen, and consequently, a company that no one is qualified to start.
As this new kind of company emerges from our project, it's happening in realtime. We aren't doing it in secret -- it's all out in the open. Even our office at Hub Culture Pavilion in central London is one that we share with other entrepreneurs. It is, in effect, public (though for politeness' sake we keep our voices low, even when we get into heated debate or have an energizing breakthrough.) We are bouncing ideas off of a group of friends and colleagues who we trust to give us painfully honest feedback. We are probably making fools of ourselves. We know no other way.
Someone recently asked me if I was having fun.
Yes and no. On one hand, it's a joy to invent, re-imagine, and create. On the other hand, it's amazing how quickly one's to-do list fills up with phone calls, emails, administrative details, meetings, and the like. As I frequently say, we created something, and then it hired us. And I wasn't even looking for a job.
The day I woke up and thought "shit, I'm late for work" I knew something had changed.
The company is an experiment, like the Real Time Project itself. We figure, so much of the world of business is in retrenchment mode, or just plain broken, that there's nothing stopping us from innovating not only the company itself, but the way in which the company forms itself.
Just as the original stock market emerged from a London coffee shop centuries ago, we are convinced that a new kind of business ecosystem -- perhaps one as culturally and economically significant -- will emerge just a neighborhood away, here in the overcaffeinated heart of the West End. Thus, our company begins with a community, a shared vision, a crackling debate. Technology connectivity means that everyone and anything is just a hyperlink or tweet away, and social networking enables us to collaborate with people around the world. Right now, we don't need capital. Just people and ideas. There are a lot of both, freed from the confines of traditional work, right now. This is the fertile environment in which the next great thing begins.
Many do not understand what we are doing. They want us to "be concrete." They are not sure what Real Time or Realtime (I'm leaning toward one word -- think weekend, homework, fairground) really is, or how it could drive a new kind of business.
I find this comforting. It means we've got some lead time. (oops, that's two words.) Because to be honest, I'm paranoid that someone else will come along, seize the language, claim the thinking, and then -- the worst part -- not make the most of it.
There is no doubt in our minds that something new is about to happen, involving the convergence of people, ideas, data, context, and physical place. An explosive change that will seem to have, once it happens, snuck up on us. A moment when everything, everyone and everywhere truly all connect. This moment will be dangerous -- for the politically oppressed, for personal privacy, for advertising agencies to name but a few constituencies. It will also herald a new realm of possibility for everyone. Depending upon what we do with the next wave of communications capability.
Realtime has not, as some have suggested to us, happened yet. Indeed, aspects of it are in place. The web. One billion mobile devices. Global financial networks. RFID chips. GPS systems. Aspects are about to be in place: Multisensory devices. Artificial intelligence. Wearable computing. Ubiquitous computing. Linked data. But what isn't in place is potentially worrying: a new bill of rights. New rules of engagement. Cultural sensitivity. Business organizational structure. Governmental organizational structure.
But the opportunities are huge, and for optimists like us, they far outweigh the scary aspects of realtime. New ways to spread learning far and wide. Eliminating latency in the service supply chain. Entertainment that's engaging, physical, social. Business innovation opportunities that are resource efficient and thus truly sustainable. A renaissance of human creative development. Aid distribution that really works. And so on.
It will take more than Big Thinking to make such things happen. It will take, among other things, leadership. Action. A movement. And new kinds of companies.
We'll model that new kind of company, we'll do our best to practice what we preach, to be it rather than say it.
And that's why we were caught off guard by our own realization. Our realization that, in these perplexing days of change, these months of "wintry inactivity" as I recently heard said, that we have an obligation to give birth not only to ideas, but to an entity that can activate them.
Winter eventually becomes spring, after all.
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