As recently as 25 years ago, there were three commercial TV networks, plus PBS. There were a few major publishers of books, magazines, or newspapers. Radio stations essentially played a limited range of music formats based on content from a dozen or so record labels. Today, all of that is changed. Now, nearly anyone can publish nearly anything via any medium — and most of the growth is in media formats that didn’t exist a decade ago. What does this mean for traditional media companies and for the new entrants? We’ll explain.

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Instead of money or health insurance benefits, one of the most effective ways to motivate employees today is by giving them greater control of their time and the life-work balance. And, most of all, they want to derive greater personal satisfaction from their work. What does this mean for you as a manager, employee, or investor? We’ll explain.

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Despite the inroads made by traditional Database Management systems, analysts estimate that some 85 percent of corporate data still sits in unstructured form outside of databases. Now IBM and other companies have begun offering open-source tools to help companies deal with this problem. What will this mean for your company? We’ll explain.

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Voice recognition, with applications as varied as automated transcription and voice-operated appliances, has been sought-after since the earliest days of computing. To date, progress has been slower and more limited than nearly anyone foresaw. But now, practical applications are beginning to make a real impact on productivity, in everything from hands-free cell phones to medical records transcription. Where is this technology going now, and what are the remaining limitations? We’ll show you.

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Despite its many scientific and political detractors, the idea of a national missile defense system remains extremely popular with voters. How did we get to where we are? Where is this technology going? How should missile defense be viewed in today’s world of terrorist networks and rogue nation-states? We’ll provide the answers.

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As we define it here, subliminal marketing isn’t “brainwashing.” It refers to a host of new techniques and technologies that smart marketers are using to cut through the clutter in an advertising-saturated world. It involves everything from product integration to video news releases, and sensory manipulation to buzz agents, product seeding, and neuro-marketing.

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The brief slow-down in fourth-quarter GDP growth, resulting largely from the lagging effects of the third-quarter hurricanes, is now behind us, and the great 21st century productivity boom is moving into high gear. We’ll take a look at the reality behind the numbers.

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