I was able to present a paper on the Fifth Estate at the 2008 meeting of the Association of Internet Researchers in Cophenhagen, and found that it appeared to be getting an audience. There is a useful summary of the session, with an overview of my argument on Snurblog under the topic of ‘Citizen and Hyperlocal Journalism as the 5th Estate‘.I think this is a good overview, but I would want the Fifth Estate to be seen as a form of social accountability that stretches beyond journalism to hold all sorts of institutions more accountable.
Dear Bill,
In 2002, when we met with Dame Stephanie, we discussed my approach to managing change, complexity and risk. We focused on the importance of accountability of Corporate Boards of Directors. Today, once again I marvel at the brilliance behind your leading edge research. “Fifth Estate to be seen as a form of social accountability that holds all sorts of institutions more accountable.”
I see some synergies with my non-academic research, done by necessity versus choice. When my mom and dad died, my husband, tax/estate attorney, and myself, backoffice financial processes specialist, put together holistic internet based solutions for parentless boomers who are trustees/executors/beneficiaries. Fiduciary responsibility for 10 tax returns means you have to make decisions and take actions immediately. My parents were a product of the depression and although they knew what to do with estate planning, they didn’t want to.. and so be it, it was their money and you don’t have to do anything. However, in post death you do. I was amazed at the archaic, uncoordinated, single-minded and litigation-oriented processes involved in settling the affairs of the deceased. So we “quarterbacked” and coordinated across many institutions, professionals and family members. We created solutions to take the headache out of the heartache(sm).
Many large consumer firms are pathetically trying to reach boomers like myself with nothing that interests me. Financial firms keep pushing Estate Planning, well there is no planning once you die. My TMVi PostDeath(tm) Services helps 78 million boomer-trustee-executors-beneficiaries who stand to receive $41 trillion in wealth transfer.
Technology firms are always looking for the “killer application” and this is it. We had to create many critical path solutions because they did not fit neatly within the job activities of lawyers, accountants, real estate brokers, investment advisors.. For example, TMVi EstateWatch(tm) is internet-based video surveillance for the deceased’s vacant properties which are no longer insured. It provides peace-of-mind control for personal liability risks and remote property and workman management. TMVi Integrator(tm) Central for your digital life pulls everything together.
We’ve put together a course on Estate Administration for a business school. Ideally, I would like to create a multidisciplinary institute around it. Today, MBA programs directed at investment banking and quantitative research is not as valuable as it used to be. We believe we have uncovered a contemporary topic which has an ongoing market demand. As Ben Franklin said, only death and taxes are constants. So services emanating from death and taxes and crossing into accounting, tax law, law, nursing, banking, brokerage, insurance, security, property management, …. all driven through secure websites is what I would like to launch bigtime.
Has anyone seen any formal research or formal courses related to our integrated solution? Getting funding to focus on this, should be very doable.
How should we frame it?
What can we do together?
I will be in London from Thursday, February 26th, 2009 – Sunday March 8, 2009.
I would welcome an opportunity to discuss this then or anytime in New York.
Warm Regards,
June Klein, CEO
Technology & Marketing Ventures, Inc.