Universal change is often the result of an individual's lightbulb moment - an invention that triggers a ripple effect across countries, continents, or even out into space. Great Inventions in 30 Seconds looks at fifty of these groundbreaking innovations - great ideas that really did change the world. It covers a wide range, from early days (the wheel) through materials (the invention of steel, for example, or plastic) to communications (the alphabet, the printing press, the Worldwide Web) and the conveniences of (relatively) modern daily life (refrigeration, indoor plumbing, central heating). It's a sharp reminder that almost every aspect of life in the second decade of the 21st century is the result of someone's bright idea, - and one that they acted on to turn it into a viable invention. Along the way you'll learn all about the personalities behind the inventions: revealing and intriguing in equal measure.

Only our limited idea of money is keeping us poor. David Boyle introduces us to alternative cash and people who can conjure money - that is, spending power - out of nothing. Until recently, the growth of alternative cash had been the province of big business: phone cards, stamps, air miles and Tesco's clubcard points all have purchasing power, yet are not cash as we know it. Now, locally created money systems like 'time dollars', 'Womanshare' and 'Ithaca hours' are being invented by communities for communities. With clarity and great humour, Boyle tells the story of this extraordinary revolution: he travels to the USA to visit the people behind local money systems; relates their vision of the future; and describes how to set up your own currency. This is no dry theoretical tome: Boyle writes about his subject in a way that is concrete, illuminating, often very funny and always highly readable. This paperback edition includes a new epilogue with an update on the latest alternative currency ideas: 'You just have to cast doubt on the real existence of the money markets and they could just shrivel away. Anything could happen.' A revolution is underway now: this book tells the story of its leaders and the ideas that inspired them.

It is increasingly recognised that instead of relying on top-down commands or leaving individuals to their own devices, communities should be given a role in tackling challenges exacerbated by global crises. Written by a team of leading experts with in-depth knowledge and on-the-ground experience, this book sets out why and how people's lives can be positively transformed through diverse forms of community involvement. This book critically explores examples from around the world of how communities can become more collaborative and resilient in dealing with the problems they face, and provides an invaluable guide to what a holistic policy agenda for community-based transformation should encompass.

Since money was invented, there has been a debate about better ways of creating it and better rules to govern how it works - until the last generation, when it began to seem that the money system had been handed down by God and remained unchanged ever since. But the last few years have seen an increasingly powerful resurgence of interest in changing the system fundamentally, and bringing the monetary trends that affect all our lives under our control. Few realize that the debate has roots and a tradition, covering mainstream economists like Keynes and Hayek, statesmen like Lincoln, entrepreneurs like Ford and Soros, as well as the imaginative mavericks behind local currencies and e-money. This volume collects together some of their most influential writings to provide a handbook on a vital train of ideas, and a guide to a debate on changing money that is becoming increasingly important.

Despite some of the most sophisticated computer systems known to mankind, modern life can be infuriating - and it's getting worse. But there is a growing suspicion that, despite all the investment in IT and organization we have seen, we live with the same old problems we always have done. Why are we still addicted to oil and petrol despite the disastrous consequences? Why, three generations after the Beveridge Report, are his Five Giants - Want, Disease, Idleness, Ignorance and Squalor - still so much with us? Why did teenage pregnancies go up despite the UK government spending up to GBP100 million over a decade to prevent them? Why do so few of the public clocks tell the right time or train lavatories have water in their taps? There is a growing understanding, not that people are infallible, or that they are endlessly trustworthy and benevolent - but they are nonetheless what makes change possible. This book uses this idea to set out the Ten New Rules for organizations, reveals where they are working already - with the latest developments in ideas like system thinking and co-production. It explains the future in terms of the People Principle: If you employ imaginative and effective people, especially on the frontline, and give them the freedom to innovate, they will succeed. If you don't, they will fail.

If you thought being middle-class meant your own home, something set aside for the kids and a comfortable retirement - think again. For the first time ever, today's middle classes will struggle to enjoy the same privileges of security and comfort that their grandparents did. How did this situation come about? What can be done about it? In this beautifully shaped inquiry, David Boyle questions why the middle classes are diminishing and how their status, independence and values are being eroded. From Thatcher's boost of the mortgage market in 1980 to the move from regional to centralised institutions; from the collapse of Barings Bank to the 1986 Big Bang, 'Broke' examines the key moments in recent history that threatened the middle-class way of life. What he discovers is that the triumphs of the middle classes have been just as influential in their undoing as their disasters.

Economics sometimes seems to be stacked against social, environmental and individual well-being. But it doesn't have to be like this. A new approach to economics - deriving as much from Ruskin and Schumacher as from Keynes or Smith - has begun to emerge. Skeptical about money as a measure of success, this new economics turns our assumptions about wealth and poverty upside down. It shows us that real wealth can be measured by increased well-being and environmental sustainability rather than just having and consuming more things. This book is the first accessible and straightforward guide to the new economics. It describes the problems and bizarre contradictions in conventional economics as well as the principles of the emerging new economics, and it tells the real-world stories of how new economics is being successfully put into practice around the world. An essential guide to understanding new economics for all those who care about making economics work for people and planet.

Too often we try to quantify what can’t actually be measured. We count people, but not individuals. We count exam results rather than intelligence, benefit claimants instead of poverty. The government has set itself 10,000 new targets. Politicians pack their speeches with skewed statistics: crime rates are either rising or falling depending on who is doing the counting.

We are in a world in which everything designed only to be measured. If it can’t be measured it can be ignored.

But the big problem is what numbers don’t tell you. They won’t interpret. They won’t inspire, and they won’t tell you precisely what causes what.

In this passionately argued and thought-provoking book, David Boyle examines our obsession with numbers. He reminds us of the danger of taking numbers so seriously at the expense of what is non-measurable, non-calculable: intuition, creativity, imagination, happiness…

Counting is a vital human skill. Yardsticks are a vital tool. As long as we remember how limiting they are if we cling to them too closely.

• Americans who claim to have been abducted by aliens = 3.7 million

• Average time spent by British people in traffic jams every year = 11 days

• Number of Americans shot by children under six between 1983 and 1993 = 138, 490

It is increasingly recognised that instead of relying on top-down commands or leaving individuals to their own devices, communities should be given a role in tackling challenges exacerbated by global crises. Written by a team of leading experts with in-depth knowledge and on-the-ground experience, this book sets out why and how people's lives can be positively transformed through diverse forms of community involvement. This book critically explores examples from around the world of how communities can become more collaborative and resilient in dealing with the problems they face, and provides an invaluable guide to what a holistic policy agenda for community-based transformation should encompass.

Since money was invented, there has been a debate about better ways of creating it and better rules to govern how it works - until the last generation, when it began to seem that the money system had been handed down by God and remained unchanged ever since. But the last few years have seen an increasingly powerful resurgence of interest in changing the system fundamentally, and bringing the monetary trends that affect all our lives under our control. Few realize that the debate has roots and a tradition, covering mainstream economists like Keynes and Hayek, statesmen like Lincoln, entrepreneurs like Ford and Soros, as well as the imaginative mavericks behind local currencies and e-money. This volume collects together some of their most influential writings to provide a handbook on a vital train of ideas, and a guide to a debate on changing money that is becoming increasingly important.

This book outlines the background and overall vision for the Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications and services, including major standards. Key technologies are described, and include everything from physical instrumentation of devices to the cloud infrastructures used to collect data. Also included is how to derive information and knowledge, and how to integrate it into enterprise processes, as well as system architectures and regulatory requirements. Real-world service use case studies provide the hands-on knowledge needed to successfully develop and implement M2M and IoT technologies sustainably and profitably. Finally, the future vision for M2M technologies is described, including prospective changes in relevant standards. This book is written by experts in the technology and business aspects of Machine-to-Machine and Internet of Things, and who have experience in implementing solutions.

Standards included: ETSI M2M, IEEE 802.15.4, 3GPP (GPRS, 3G, 4G), Bluetooth Low Energy/Smart, IETF 6LoWPAN, IETF CoAP, IETF RPL, Power Line Communication, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE), ZigBee, 802.11, Broadband Forum TR-069, Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Device Management (DM), ISA100.11a, WirelessHART, M-BUS, Wireless M-BUS, KNX, RFID, Object Management Group (OMG) Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN)Key technologies for M2M and IoTcovered: Embedded systems hardware and software, devices and gateways, capillary and M2M area networks, local and wide area networking, M2M Service Enablement, IoT data management and data warehousing, data analytics and big data, complex event processing and stream analytics, knowledge discovery and management, business process and enterprise integration, Software as a Service and cloud computingCombines both technical explanations together with design features of M2M/IoT and use cases. Together, these descriptions will assist you to develop solutions that will work in the real worldDetailed description of the network architectures and technologies that form the basis of M2M and IoTClear guidelines and examples of M2M and IoT use cases from real-world implementations such as Smart Grid, Smart Buildings, Smart Cities, Participatory Sensing, and Industrial AutomationA description of the vision for M2M and its evolution towards IoT"

Economics sometimes seems to be stacked against social, environmental and individual well-being. But it doesn't have to be like this. A new approach to economics - deriving as much from Ruskin and Schumacher as from Keynes or Smith - has begun to emerge. Skeptical about money as a measure of success, this new economics turns our assumptions about wealth and poverty upside down. It shows us that real wealth can be measured by increased well-being and environmental sustainability rather than just having and consuming more things. This book is the first accessible and straightforward guide to the new economics. It describes the problems and bizarre contradictions in conventional economics as well as the principles of the emerging new economics, and it tells the real-world stories of how new economics is being successfully put into practice around the world. An essential guide to understanding new economics for all those who care about making economics work for people and planet.

The word 'tickbox' emerged recently as a cynical angle on official or corporate incompetence. They had 'ticked the box' - people said - but failed to act. It is increasingly used to describe this gap between official spin and reality. Yet, says David Boyle in this powerful expose of tickbox culture, that is just the tip of a vast tickbox iceberg. The only people who remain blind to this gap are those rich or powerful enough to run the world, and behind Tickbox lies an insidious philosophy of automation and the misuse of data that weighs heavily on every one of us. It makes our public services less effective - and makes them soar in costs - it lies behind so many stark injustices and disasters, from Grenfell Tower to the deportation of the Windrush generation. Yet the system carries on, and grows in power and strengths - vacuuming up the resources of the NHS pursuing pointless targets or badgering us to reveal how much we had enjoyed our visit to their bank counter - because those who run the world remain committed to it. It is time we escaped the tentacles of Tickbox. Boyle suggests a series of ways out - starting with recognising the danger and calling it out for what it is - a massive failure, corroding our lives and our ability, as human beings, to act on the world.

The word 'tickbox' emerged recently as a cynical angle on official or corporate incompetence. They had 'ticked the box' - people said - but failed to act. It is increasingly used to describe this gap between official spin and reality. Yet, says David Boyle in this powerful expose of tickbox culture, that is just the tip of a vast tickbox iceberg. The only people who remain blind to this gap are those rich or powerful enough to run the world, and behind Tickbox lies an insidious philosophy of automation and the misuse of data that weighs heavily on every one of us. It makes our public services less effective - and makes them soar in costs - it lies behind so many stark injustices and disasters, from Grenfell Tower to the deportation of the Windrush generation. Yet the system carries on, and grows in power and strengths - vacuuming up the resources of the NHS pursuing pointless targets or badgering us to reveal how much we had enjoyed our visit to their bank counter - because those who run the world remain committed to it. It is time we escaped the tentacles of Tickbox. Boyle suggests a series of ways out - starting with recognising the danger and calling it out for what it is - a massive failure, corroding our lives and our ability, as human beings, to act on the world.

Internet of Things: Technologies and Applications for a New Age of Intelligence outlines the background and overall vision for the Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), as well as associated emerging technologies. Key technologies are described including device communication and interactions, connectivity of devices to cloud-based infrastructures, distributed and edge computing, data collection, and methods to derive information and knowledge from connected devices and systems using artificial intelligence and machine learning. Also included are system architectures and ways to integrate these with enterprise architectures, and considerations on potential business impacts and regulatory requirements. New to this edition: * Updated material on current market situation and outlook. * A description of the latest developments of standards, alliances, and consortia. More specifically the creation of the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) and its architecture and reference documents, the creation of the Reference Architectural Model for Industrie 4.0 (RAMI 4.0), the exponential growth of the number of working groups in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the transformation of the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) to OMA SpecWorks and the introduction of OMA LightweightM2M device management and service enablement protocol, the initial steps in the specification of the architecture of Web of Things (WoT) by World Wide Consortium (W3C), the GS1 architecture and standards, the transformation of ETSI-M2M to oneM2M, and a few key facts about the Open Connectivity Forum (OCF), IEEE, IEC/ISO, AIOTI, and NIST CPS. * The emergence of new technologies such as distributed ledgers, distributed cloud and edge computing, and the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence for IoT. * A chapter on security, outlining the basic principles for secure IoT installations. * New use case description material on Logistics, Autonomous Vehicles, and Systems of CPS