SDF

Our technology is exceeding our imagination. Yet notwithstanding the countless advancements technology has enabled, unforeseen problems have surfaced and some of our most pressing and daunting tasks remain unresolved: the generation gap continues to widen; new communication tools pose new concerns regarding privacy and other social issues; life is becoming more competitive, and less relaxing; the warning signs of impending financial and energy crises, climate change, inequality, and geopolitical unrest still persist.

What then are the solutions for a better tomorrow? Marking a decade of vision making, SDF2013 aims to canvass possible solutions by paying closer attention to the direction, not the pace, of technological advances. Moving beyond fierce competition and conflict, there are growing calls for creating shared value based on mutual understanding, participation and a collaborative ecosystem. With transitions in global leadership and governance changes around the corner, ‘collaboration’ has now emerged as a key mantra for impelling all nations, races, genders and classes to coexist.

Changes are afoot. The traditional zero-sum equation in which my gain requires your loss is gradually giving way to a new notion that one’s happiness stems from the happiness of others. The win-win model is supplanting the winner-loser dynamic; antagonistic competition is making way for the ecosystem of reciprocity. Now the time has come for ECOllaboration, empathy-based collaborative efforts that lay the foundation for a symbiotic ecosystem.

Examples abound. Spontaneously organized ‘crowds’ are pushing the boundaries of the collaborative ecosystem, from startup funding and investment to content production; individual developers and tech giants are together building win-win business models, while cross-industry and cross-genre collaborations are creating a new wave of innovation. ECOllaboration is reshaping the way we produce, distribute, consume and live our lives.

What are our shared values conducive to ECOllaboration in the face of the widespread sense of looming crises? What digital technologies will help establish the very nature of this new zeitgeist and how will they evolve? How will the future of TV and journalism unfold and what new roles and responsibilities will emerge for media in the epoch of ECOllaboration?

SDF2013, bringing together many of the world’s most creative and influential dreamers, thinkers and doers, will provide a rare space to ponder the conditions for and promises of ECOllaboration, and carve out solutions for a sustainable future for humanity.