Professor William E. Halal
William E. Halal, Ph.D. is President,
TechCast LLC,
Cofounder and Trustee, Institute for Knowledge & Innovation,
George Washington University, and
Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology, & Innovation, George
Washington University.
Macmillan’s Encyclopedia of the Future listed
him among
“The World’s 100 Most Influential Futurists”, which included H.G. Wells,
Arthur C. Clarke, Alvin Toffler, Daniel Bell, and Leonardo da
Vinci.
An authority
on the knowledge revolution, emerging technology, strategic management,
and institutional change, Bill has consulted for General Motors, IBM,
AT&T, MCI, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, SAIC, International Data Corporation,
the U.S. Air Force, foreign companies, and various government agencies.
His work has appeared in journals such as Nature/Biotechnology, The
California Management Review, Business in the Contemporary World,
Strategy & Business, Knowledge Management Review, The Academy of
Management Executive, Human Relations, Systems & Cybernetics, and
Technological Forecasting, as well as popular media including The New
York
Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Advertising Age, Executive
Excellence, and The Futurist.
Bill has authored seven books including
Beyond Knowledge: How Technology Is Driving an Age of Consciousness,
which provides a wealth of evidence showing how a
“global consciousness” is emerging to help humanity grow up, transform
social institutions to meet this historic challenge, and develop a
sustainable civilization — or face disaster.
He also authored
The New Capitalism, which outlines the system of business and
economics
for the Information Age;
Internal Markets: Bringing the Power of Free Enterprise Inside Your
Organization, which describes how
dynamic organizations replace hierarchy with internal market economies;
The New Management: Bringing Democracy & Markets Inside
Organizations, which shows that democracy and
enterprise are transforming organizations;
The Infinite Resource: Creating and Leading the Knowledge
Enterprise, which includes chapters by 20 corporate CEOs and
politicians on leading knowledge organizations; and
21st Century
Economics, which explores the emerging global
economy.
His latest book is
Technology’s Promise: Expert Knowledge on the Coming Transformation
of
Society.
With the onset of a knowledge economy, modern nations are hard at work
using ever more sophisticated information systems to power a “technology
revolution” that is transforming our lives. This book is based on the
work of the TechCast Project, conducted over the past decade at the
George Washington University. Pooling the knowledge of 100 high-tech
CEOs, scientists, engineers, academics, consultants, futurists, and
other experts from around the world, the resulting book is the best
forecast data ever assembled, covering the entire span of scientific and
technological innovation.
His articles include
The Coming Conflict between Science & Spirit,
Institutional Change:
Transforming the Structures of Society,
The Life Cycle of Evolution: A Macro-Technological Analysis of
Civilization’s Progress,
The Intelligent
Internet:
The Promise of
Smart Computers
and E-Commerce,
Socio-Economic Model of the Corporation,
The Logic of Knowledge:
Making Sense of the New Principles that Govern Organizations and
Economics,
Facing Economic Reality,
A Constructive Approach to Terrorism,
Recognizing the emerging “Third Way”,
Knowledge: The Infinite Resource, and
From Hierarchy to Enterprise.
For the past decade, Bill has been developing the
GW Forecast, and its commercial outlet,
TechCast. The project is an
electronic network that pools the knowledge of experts around the world
to forecast technological breakthroughs in all fields. It can be thought
of as “A Virtual Think Tank Tracking the Technology
Revolution”.
He studied engineering, business and economics, and the social
sciences at Purdue and Berkeley. Before becoming an academic, he was an
Air Force major, an aerospace engineer on the Apollo Program, and a
Silicon Valley business manager. He serves on the advisory boards of the
World Future Society,
AMD Corporation, and other organizations. His work
has received prominent recognition. One paper, “Beyond the
Profit-Motive”, won the Mitchell Prize and an award of $10,000 and he
received the Freedom Foundation’s award for excellence in the study of
enterprise.