Information technology, gadgets, social media, libraries, design, marketing, higher ed, data visualization, educational technology, mobility, innovation, strategy, trends and futures. . . 

Posts suspended for a bit while I settle into a new job. . . 

Entries in Future (33)

Friday
Mar152013

Quantified Self

"Qauntified self" is the notion that technology -- using aspects of sensors/sensing, wearable computing, ubiquitous computing and networking, and generally the "internet of things" -- can make it possible for you to acquire data to analyze many aspects of your life -- many aspects of your physical health, your mental health, your productivity. (See "Counting every moment: The quantified self" in the March 2012 Technology Quarterly report from The Economist; see also  http://www.william-garrity.com/blog/2013/3/8/wireless-connections-internet-of-things.html in particular and http://www.william-garrity.com/blog/tag/future in general.) 

Mark Wilson, in a piece in Fast Company's Co.Design, writes about a straightforward approach to quantifying self via a simple mobile app.

The level of detail about one's life that is available is staggering. 

Nicholas Felton Unveils His Latest Annual Report (Infographic of the Day) 

Today, you probably know Nicholas Felton best for his most widely seen work, Facebook’s Timeline. But since 2005, he’s been working on a cult-favorite project all his own, the annual Feltron Report. The 2012 version is out now for $28.

As always, the report is a meticulously documented year in review of everything he’s done, presented in a series of rich infographics that push the boundaries on personal data quantification. With a glance, you’ll learn some of Felton’s most intimate details. Each day, he consumes coffee around 10:40am and booze around 8:38pm. He spends about 4x as much time with his girlfriend as his mother. And on June 20, he shot a Glock 22. 

Story continues at linlk. 

 

Thursday
Mar142013

SXSW: Themes and Technologies

SXSW -- South by Southwest -- is a set of film, technology, and music festivals/conferences that take place in March, in Austin, Texas. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_By_Southwest

This article by the Altimeter Group's Chris Silva and Jeremiah Owyang presents their views of the conference's themes -- 

  • Hardware was king this year (SXSW is typically focused on software and services) 
  • iPhone users switching to Android 
  • Mobility was about supporting the enterprise (i.e., work) 
  • Major brand presence -- 

and technologies, including --

  • Gesture-based computing 
  • 3D printing and replication 
  • Proximity-based and near field communications 
  • Collaborative economy 
  • Android 
  • Space exploration 
  • Augmented and virtual reality 
  • Micromedia (e.g., Vine) 
  • Quantified self (personal anaytics -- e.g., Nike FuelBand) -- 

as well as technologies on life support (good riddance, QR codes).

The piece matrices each technology across examples, disruption potential, and import (what it means). 

Altimeter's Take: The Technologies That Matter from SXSW 2013 

Posted on March 13th, 2013 

Technologies are Emerging at an Increased Rate –Making Tracking Harder than Ever
SXSW is no longer about disruptive technologies being launched, instead, it’s a mainstream, it’s a mainsteam festival, actually) and digital leaders at today’s large corporations are already present, and you should be too.  In fact, the amount of data created about the topic had nearly double year over year.   Altimeter Group was well represented with 9 analysts or researchers at SxSWi this year, with a large team in Austin tracking what’s disruptive. Long known for launches of big names such as Twitter and Foursquare, as well as those with more hype that long-term staying power like Highlight – would be past its prime and recycling yesterday’s news.    If you weren’t able to attend, Altimeter has captured the salient highlights to showcase here:

See the link for full content. 

 

 

Friday
Mar082013

Wireless Connections (Internet of Things)

The "internet of things" is a common to many futures lists. It is 

. . . the general idea of things, especially everyday objects, that are readable, recognizable, locatable, addressable, and/or controllable via the Internet—whether via RFID, wireless LAN, wide-area network, or other means. Everyday objects includes not only the electronic devices we encounter everyday, and not only the products of higher technological development such as vehicles and equipment, but things that we do not ordinarily think of as electronic at all—such as food, clothing,and shelter; materials, parts, and subassemblies; commodities and luxury items; landmarks, boundaries, and monuments; and all the miscellany of commerce and culture. (Disruptive Civil Technologies: Six Technologies with Potential Impacts on US Interests out to 2025 -- Biogerontechnology, Energy Storage Materials, Biofuels and Bio-Based Chemicals, Clean Coal Technologies, Service Robotics, The Internet of Thinsgs; SRI Consulting Business Intelligence under the auspices of the (US) National Intelligence Council, April 2008) 

One prerequisite for the internet of things is embedding wireless network connections into the things. Phys.org republishes an AP story covering some of the nuts and bolts of doing so.

inhabit.com

Wireless connections creep into everyday things; Peter Svensson; February 27, 2013 

A car that tells your insurance company how you're driving. A bathroom scale that lets you chart your weight on the Web. And a meter that warns your air conditioner when electricity gets more expensive.

Welcome to the next phase of the wireless revolution.

The first wave of wireless was all about getting people to talk to each other on cellphones. The second will be getting things to talk to each other, with no humans in between. So-called machine-to-machine communication is getting a lot of buzz at this year's wireless trade show. Some experts believe these connections will outgrow the traditional phone business in less than a decade.

"I see a whole set of industries, from energy to cars to health to logistics and transportation, being totally redesigned," said Vittorio Colao, the CEO of Vodafone Group PLC, in a keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The British cellphone company has vast international interests, including its 45 percent ownership stake in Verizon Wireless.

Companies are promising that machine-to-machine, or M2M, technology will deliver all manner of services, from the prosaic to the world-changing. At U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc.'s booth here at the show, there's a coffeepot that can be ordered to start brewing from a tablet computer, or an Internet-connected alarm clock. A former president of Costa Rica is also at the show, talking about how M2M can save massive amounts of greenhouse gases by making energy use more efficient—enough to bring mankind halfway to the goal of halting global warming.

The M2M phenomenon is part of the larger drive to create an "Internet of Things" —a global network that not only links computers, tablets and phones but that connects everything from bikes to washing machines to thermostats. Machina Research, a British firm, believes there will be 12.5 billion "smart" connected devices, excluding phones, PCs and tablets, in the world in 2020, up from 1.3 billion today.

But how does this transformation happen, and who stands to profit?

First, the devices have to be able to connect. That's not a trivial undertaking, especially considering that people don't upgrade washing machines or renovate their homes as often as they change cellphones and PCs. One company at the show, a Los Angeles-based startup named Tethercell, has an ingenious solution for battery-powered devices: a "fake" AA battery that houses a smaller AAA battery in an electronic jacket. It can be placed in a battery compartment with other batteries. Within a distance of 80 feet, some smartphones and tablets can then signal the "battery" to turn the device on or off. For instance, parents whose kids have a lot of noisy toys can turn all of them off with touch of a single button. A fire alarm could send a text-message warning that its battery is running low, rather than blaring an audio signal.

Story continues at link 

Also, http://postscapes.com/ -- Tracking the Internet of Things, is a good resource. 

Saturday
Mar022013

IT Trends

As published in Fast Company's Co.DESIGN, Chris Butler, of the "design and innovation consultancy" Ziba, writes about twelve trends for 2013. 

The 12 Trends That Will Rule Products In 2013 

WRITTEN BY: Chris Butler 

THINK 2013 WILL SPELL THE END OF GOOD OLD ANALOG AND HUMAN INTERACTION? EH, NOT SO FAST. 

Near the end of 2012, a group of us at Ziba got together to review what we’d learned over the course of the year. Working with dozens of clients who serve customers around the world, we designers spend a lot of time observing people as they interact with technology, services, and experiences, noticing how they seek solutions to everyday problems and make decisions. In the process, certain patterns emerge so forcefully that they’re practically unavoidable.

Meeting over three sessions spread out over a week, 23 Zibites (designers, researchers, and creative directors) discussed the patterns we’d seen, and distilled them down to the 12 insights we thought were most current and useful, to us and to our clients. Each one is presented here, as a brief essay that suggests how it will affect business practices in 2013. . . 

Story continues at link. 

This isn't the usual list of predictions (Everything is Mobile, etc.). For instance, 

#3 ANALOG WILL NEVER GO AWAY. 

Sales of LP records have quadrupled since 2007. It’s a powerful reminder that convenience isn’t the only thing people care about. Music, like video and telecommunications, reached a digital/analog split long ago, and digital won because it’s cheaper, faster, and more convenient. But analog persists, in part because of nostalgia but also because formats like film, print, and vinyl reflect the people and processes that made them, forming an emotional connection that digital can’t match.
 
Stop worrying about the contradictions. 2013 will not be the year that analog displaces digital, nor will any other year. But it will be the year when mainstream consumers start to embrace “outdated” technologies along with cutting-edge ones. A brand that can seamlessly straddle the divide makes far more sense to them.

#8  FLAWLESS FUNCTION IS TOMORROW’S GREAT USER EXPERIENCE. (Consumers can be unforgiving of technology that doesn't get the basics right.) 

Imagine if your washing machine gave you dirty clothes one time in five, or your alarm didn’t work on Tuesdays. You’d be indignant. Yet today’s tech-heavy gadgets and services can be that unreliable. Customers can handle a few kinks in new technology, but we expect that basic functions will be worked out. And despite the proliferation of features, more of us are realizing that what we really want is a phone that makes good calls, every single time.

Fill in the gaps. A few smart brands will seize on the opportunity to highlight reliability and function in 2013, and make it just as exciting as a new feature. Customers who want respite from the noise of newness are many and hungry for an elegant return to flawless basics.

#7 TECHNOLOGY MOVES TOO FAST TO CARE ABOUT. (That is, offer services, not technologies; don't confuse the ends for the means.) 

 The 8 track, the CD, the Pentium chip, FireWire--people used to invest in products just to get their hands on these new technologies. They were a real differentiator, and a kind of magic. But it’s become too much, too fast. The Internet runs on an alphabet soup of languages and protocols, and only a slim population of early adopters counts pixels or processor speeds anymore. The rest of us just want to know what it’s like to use.

Talk about experiences, not features. Technology is there to enable an experience, and as long as it doesn’t get in the way, most consumers would rather not worry about it. The smartest brands in 2013 will follow suit, emphasizing the product or service, not the features that make it possible.

#12 EVERYONE IS A SPECIALIST.

Constant communication and social media are pushing us to show off our passion and specialized knowledge, as a way of standing out in the storm of mundane information that fills the air. Mom posts photos of Victorian furniture on Pinterest, while Dad’s Facebooking his latest cooking project, and your cousin tweets about nothing but Korean pop stars. We’ve always had these secret pools of expertise, but now they’ve got an outlet, and an appreciative audience.

You’re a specialist, too. Trying to be everything to everyone is a losing proposition. As customers embrace their connoisseurship, they seek out brands that match it. The success stories of 2013 are companies unafraid of putting a stake in the ground, to boldly indicate where their expertise and passion lie--and where they don’t.

 

Friday
Mar012013

Consumer Technology Trends

Here's a reasonable summary in PCMag of trends from January's Consumer Electronic Show. They're worth noting, in that enterprises will soon have to address them for their employees and clientele. . . 

The 8 Biggest Trends at CES 2013

By Jamie Lendino January 9, 2013

...

Even with both Mobile World Congress and CTIA looming in the next two months, there's plenty of mobile device action to go around at CES this year. Precious few new phones are making their appearance at CES, but their influence on the consumer electronics industry is clear. Laptops and desktops aren't going anywhere, and their death has been greatly exaggerated. But the more people buy and use mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, the more consumer electronics manufacturers realize that they have to cater to these users, and have to stop thinking of everything as PC-centric when designing new products.

So that's going on in addition to the usual complement of TVs, insanely expensive audio equipment, cameras, and car tech on the show floor. Speaking of which, cars are getting smarter than ever, all thanks to the mobile device that's already in your pocket. As for the TVs, something new is underfoot that's more exciting than 3D television, at least according to this author. And the stagnant gaming industry is getting a much-needed shot in the arm. 

There's also a general sense out there that devices really aren't the story anymore.

Story continues at link. 

The trends are 

  1. Ultra HD televisions 
  2. Touch-screen PCs. I think touch screen works for tablet conformations, but it's not a useful affordance in a laptop. 
  3. Next-gen mobile chipsets (faster performance and better power consumption qualities) 
  4. In-car smartphone integration 
  5. Digital health (specifically, devices that collect health status information) 
  6. Non-traditional gaming devices (consoles) 
  7. Wireless audio and video 
  8. Wireless cameras 

 

 

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