Research Roundup

July 21–August 3, 2009

The Near Future
Social Trends, etc.
Other articles, essays, and recent items of interest
Refresh and Reflect

The Near Future:

  1. A new travel industry report from PhoCusWright predicts that the U.S. travel market will decline by (just) 11% in 2009. The impact on museums is unclear, as would-be travelers who stay home may still visit museums in their home towns. Indeed, we hear many reports that the number of visitors is up at museums across the country. Meanwhile, this spring U.S. restaurants suffered their steepest decline in patrons in 28 years (gnaw on the details here).
  2. Everyone's concerned about the 21st-century workforce these days. From the White House (well, the Council of Economic Advisors) comes "Preparing the Workers of Today for the Jobs of Tomorrow": http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cea/Jobs-of-the-Future/. From the Conference Board (and other representatives of corporate employers) comes "The Ill-Prepared U.S. Workforce: Exploring the Challenges of Employer-Provided Workforce Readiness Training": http://www.conference-board.org/utilities/pressDetail.cfm?press_ID=3693. And IMLS has been exploring the role of libraries and museums in preparing workers for the 21st century (a major report is imminent—come back soon for more details). 
  3. At big corporations around the world, executives are becoming more optimistic about their nations' economies and their companies' prospects (at least according to a new McKinsey & Co. survey). The leaders of non-profits in the United States are somewhat less optimistic (see the Johns Hopkins survey described below).  
  4. August 12 is Information Overload Day. Celebrate via the web (of course) at 11 a.m. EDT/8 a.m. PDT. "The purpose of Information Overload Awareness Day is to call attention to the problem of Information Overload, how it impacts both individuals and organizations, and what can be done to lessen its impact."  

Social Trends, etc.:

  1. Volunteers are helping nonprofits to meet their community needs-and respond to increasing needs-despite the current financial crisis. According to survey results just released by the Corporation for National and Community Service and the Johns Hopkins University Listening Post, 39% of nonprofits (including museums) reported an increase in volunteer hours since the start of the current recession. This trend is likely to continue in the near future: about half (48%) of the organizations in the survey anticipate an increased reliance on volunteers during the next year, while 33% say they expect to cut paid members of their staffs. For an overview of this research, see http://www.volunteeringinamerica.gov/assets/resources/VolunteersAndTheEconomicDownturn.pdf. For more detailed information about museums, see http://www.ccss.jhu.edu/pdfs/LP_Communiques/LP_Communique_14.pdf.
  2. For those interested in social trends in the cyberworld, two questions to ponder: "Is email dead? (http://fcw.com/articles/2009/08/03/tech-email-alternatives.aspx) and "Is Google Killing General Knowledge?" (http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/content/brian-cathcart/no-passes ).
  3. In Defense of Vacations-Stefan Deeran of BNET bemoans the fact that "one-third of American workers don't plan to take a vacation this year" (in part because they fear their jobs won't be there when they get back).
  4. The National Institute on Aging reports that "the average age of the world's population is increasing at an unprecedented rate. The number of people worldwide age 65 and older is estimated at 506 million as of midyear 2008; by 2040, that number will hit 1.3 billion. Thus, in just over 30 years, the proportion of older people will double from 7 percent to 14 percent of the total world population." A quick summary is available here or download the full report, An Aging World: 2008. The Nielsen Company tackles the same issue from a consumer's and marketer's perspective, noting that "a graying population, slowing birth rate and increasing ethnic diversity will change the face and buying patterns of consumers in the U.S. and will require that marketers of the future reach a shrinking pie of older and multi-cultural demographics in more effective ways."

Other articles, essays, and recent items of interest:

  1. Birdwatching contributed $36 billion to the American economy in 2006, according to a new report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Birding in the United States: A Demographic and Economic Analysis. It would be nice to have comparable, reliable data about museum-goers and their impact on the economy. 

  2. Days at the Museum is a new series of "dispatches about research at the Smithsonian and related miscellany" at McSweeney's. The author describes the first entry as "Luther Vandross and the French Rural Landscape." 

Refresh and Reflect:

  1. robots dreams = "Robot news and robot hacks from a true robot geek":  http://www.robots-dreams.com/ . 

  2. A look inside Hollow Earth (courtesy of We Make Money, Not Art).

  3. Slow Cow, the anti-energy drink (courtesy of Springwise).

Share |