PM Network - March 2015

big,’” Ms. Nash says. “We had to focus more on proportion and measuring the way that
the virtual world looked.”
After incorporating the family’s feedback, the project team finalized its digital rep-
lica of the farm. The project allows users to virtually walk around the farm through
360-degree video segments, archival photos and text. “It has a museum-like quality
where you can go around and explore,” Ms. Nash says.

The project’s success also could be measured through its online presence: It resulted in 430,000 page views. “That’s a very high number for us in engagement,” says Ms. Nash, whose publication has a combined print and online readership of 420,000.

“I think we’ll be seeing more of these projects in newsrooms,” Ms. Nash says. “It’s very exciting to see different ways to tell stories and what that might look like in the future.” —Rebecca Little

China’s New
Stimulus Program

Housing has been both China’s boon and its bane. While the housing sector helped the world’s second largest economy recover quickly from the global financial crisis, in the past year it has helped drag down economic growth to its slowest pace since 2009.

“The linchpin of China’s economy is the housing market,” Alaistair Chan, an economist at Moody’s Analytics, told The Wall Street Journal.

The government’s recession-era stimulus measures helped the housing sector grow mightily—and unsustainably. Due to an oversupply of overpriced houses, housing sales, prices and construction have all dropped sharply. Cities such as Handan, where property prices shot up 24 percent in the past four years, have become home to abandoned real-estate projects. That’s having a major impact on the rest of the economy— 20 percent of which is tied to real estate.

The government is responding: The infrastructure and energy sectors are seeing a surge in projects—and in the need for greater project management maturity.

A brief history of virtual-reality projects:

1957: Morton Heilig invents the Sensora-ma, a machine that played 3-D images and stereo sounds as well as emitted smells.

1961: Philco Corp. develops the Head-sight, the first head-mounted display—a technology later used in military training.

DEFENSE
GIANT
DIVERSIFIES

With U.S. defense spending in decline, at least as a percentage of GDP, the world’s largest defense company is pursuing projects with civilian applications in an effort to shore up its future. More than 60 percent of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s US$45 billion in 2013 sales came through Pentagon contracts.

Several of Lockheed’s current research projects, like the patented Perforene membrane, could generate commercial interest around the world. It’s a one-atom thick sheet of graphene that can be used to desalinate seawater. The product could interest Persian Gulf nations, who might also order some of the organization’s weapons systems. More surprisingly, Lockheed Martin has partnered with Kampachi Farms LLC and the Illinois Soybean Association to develop fish farm pens that will drift on open-ocean currents and be tracked by satellites.

Lockheed Martin is also developing a compact nuclear fusion reactor that might initially power naval ships but could be expanded for commercial use by cities. “Should the [technology] develop, that can result in a very large commercial market,” Ray Johnson, Lockheed Martin’s chief technology officer, told The Wall Street Journal.

This isn’t the first time Lockheed Martin has tried to diversify its project portfolio to hedge against military cuts. In the 1990s, the organization stepped into the telecommunications market by buying three satellite operators. It sold them at a steep loss in 2001. The company says its focus on global issues like energy, food and water this time around will act as a safeguard.