MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
The Challenge of Culture to Realize Visions of the Future
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
The Challenge of Culture to Realize Visions of the Future
by Arthur Brant Abilene Christian University ACUTA President , 2016 – 2017
It ’ s a bit surreal to consider that the year 2020 is just three short years away . This year , which will signal the start of a third decade of the 21st century , has been portrayed to varied degrees of gloom and awakening by science fiction movies .
In the 2000 release of Mission to Mars , a manned mission to Mars in 2020 reveals that life on Earth originated on Mars . In the 2002 release of Reign of Fire , the year 2020 is when humans kill off dragons which had been dormant until they were awakened during the digging of the English Channel Chunnel . In the 2005 release of Stealth , an artificial intelligent stealth fighter becomes “ aware ” following a lightning strike . In the 2011 release of Real Steel , in 2020 the sport of boxing has robots being remotely controlled by humans .
In the 2013 release of Pacific Rim , in 2020 alien monsters have infiltrated the Earth through an inter-dimensional portal at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and the world constructs their own monsters to combat the alien monsters . In the 2014 release of Edge of Tomorrow , in 2020 an invincible alien race known as the Mimics has invaded the Earth , until a Major William Cage is able to relive the same day hundreds of times in order to kill the “ omega ” queen of the alien race .
While these Hollywood stylings have made for some thrilling movies , there have been other interesting predictions related to what the year 2020 will hold for us . In 2009 , Ericsson ( a multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company ) socialized a vision labeled the “ Networked
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Society ” with the estimation that there would be 50 billion connected devices by the year 2020 . In 2015 , the company revised their connected devices estimate to 26 billion by 2020 .
Another recent prediction for the year 2020 is that 60 percent of the global population will have mobile internet access . Cellular pundits believe that by 2020 , the much anticipated 5G ( fifth generation mobile networks ) will be rolled out . Cisco has indicated that there will be 432 million public Wi-Fi hotspots by 2020 , a seven-fold increase from the number available in 2015 . Elon Musk , founder of Tesla Motors , has suggested that by 2020 , a battery powered car will be able to travel 1,200 km ( over 745 miles ) on a single charge .
Gartner ’ s predictions for the year 2020 include more compute power will be sold via the cloud than what is deployed in customers ’ on-premises data centers , and 40 percent of employees will be able to cut their healthcare costs by wearing a fitness tracker .
The software company Intuit , known for its financial and tax software , has predicted that by 2020 40 percent of the U . S . workforce will be so-called contingent workers ( freelancers , independent professionals , consultants , and / or contractors ). I ’ ve also heard that around 2020 , the FCC may be ready to allow phone companies to stop maintaining the old public switch telephone network ( PSTN ).
As the director of enterprise infrastructure at Abilene Christian University , I ’ m hopeful that 2020 will be marked as the year that I retire the PBX , which ACU has operated since July 2001 . The significance of this milestone is that I don ’ t believe we ’ ll be replacing the PBX with a similar monolithic telephone system . In the winter 2011 ACUTA Journal , I wrote an article titled “ The Future of the University Telephone System ,” in which I noted that significant changes in the telecom industry and expectations among telephone system users were likely to alter how universities provide services to the campus . I alluded to a notion that future telephony services would be provided by unique niche solutions as opposed to a monolithic , one-size-fitsall , single-sourced solution . For the last six years I ’ ve been seeding this idea of smaller niche solutions that meet specific business requirements . Much of this work has been fueled by the observation that ACU would not provide a million dollars to replace the telephone system with one that operates and functions as the previous one did .
Over the last six years , I ’ ve found that one of the larger hindrances to implementing a significant change isn ’ t technology , but rather its culture . There is a powerful force with the sentiment , “ this is the way we ’ ve always done things .” Not that this is bad or faulty
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