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STOA Report "Looking Forward in the ICT & Media Industries"
Today “Web 2.0″ is just mainstream and seems more or less boring as a subject of research. The prevailing question is how to realize practical and efficient Web 2.0 solutions, what to do and not to do with social networks, social media – as a user and in the business perspective. As a typical example see a lengthy blog post like this from Dion Hinchcliffe’s Web 2.0 blog – this is what a lot of people care about: 50 Essential Strategies For Creating A Successful Web 2.0 Product
But there is still the demand for critical assessment of the dynamics, the effects and side effects of the transformation (revolution, yep) of ICT and the media industry. Even politicians have come to understand the issue, lately when they realized the role of Web 2.0 in becoming the 44th president of the USA (BTW I have been blogging in last July: “Maybe Obama can win with swarm mobilisation effects in the internet – and is the first “user generated president” of the USA.”)
In the last year I had been asked to contribute some statement in the STOA report “Looking Forward in the ICT & Media Industries”. The acronym STOA means Science and Technology Options Assessment (for the European Parliament) and you are educated enough to enjoy the allusion to the ancient philosophy school.
Critical assessment of Web 2.0 and the user’s social capital
Don’t get me wrong – my attitude concerning Web 2.0 is rather affirmative (see my record) . But as with most technological innovations there are some downsides. To know them is just a necessity if you want to secure the acceptance and value of a technology in the long run. After the “BeaconGate” there was a second “Facebook scandal” (the terms of service thing) some Read the rest of this entry »
Chrome browser: Next step of Google to rule the web? Picture: blogoscoped.com
SIGNAL: Google has acknowledged the existence of browser “Google Chrome”. It will be released today.
Details e.g. at blogoscoped.com
CONTEXT: Google has grown over the years and became one of the biggest economical power structures worldwide.
It looks as if Google Inc. will go on to shape the world of the beginning 21st century like no other company. Think of market domination in search and online advertising business – at least in most countries. Think of Read the rest of this entry »
No surprise the iPhone 3G reviews of the last days show a lot of enthusiasm and indicate that the iPhone with geo intelligence and cool mobile social networking apps will become the “social web device of the year”.
The iPhone, with cult-like users and location aware technology, is the perfect social networking device. Earlier this year we speculated that someone would emerge with a killer social networking app for the iPhone. It turns out that there are lots of contenders. Jason Kincaid, TechCrunch
Today Michael Arrington looks at the barriers:
MySpace and Facebook are sitting on the sidelines while these new networks try to get a foothold. And it’s all because of privacy concerns and fear of litigation.
Here I would like to add that the privacy issue and “social noise” concerns have to be taken seriously. It is time for a more systematic approach. The iPhone, Loopt etc. are only little pieces in the big picture, i.e. the coming “moss web”. The what?!
What is the moss web?
Some time ago, when I thought about the trends and emerging technologies in the very near future I was looking for a concept that could express the coming fusion of the trends to one integrated new environment of devices and applications – and social activity patterns. There was none, so I abbreviated the monstrous wording “mobile social semantic web” to the acronym mo-s-s web, that’s all.
Characterstics and challenges of the moss web
In the user perspective the user experience will be characterised by ubiquity, continuity and transparency of the surroundings – geo, social, business, events. Ok, ubiquity and continuity mean just convenience and a lot of new valuable services (take the iPhone apps as a reference). But with transparency (and possible asymmmetric transparency) there comes the challenge. Michael is mentioning the lawyers concerns but they
are just the effect, not the cause of the challenge which comes with the new transparency features and tools.
Certainly privacy rights need to be considered, (..). But they can be addressed by allowing users to opt out of showing others their location, or only showing it to certain types of people (by age range, sex, friends of friends, etc.). And minors can be permanently segmented from older age groups as well. Michael Arrington
The quote shows that to “address the privacy rights” is not that easy and the demand for smart “social identity management” and “privacy business” will open up some possibilities for new services. There will be some companies out there delivering apps with the right balance between the complexity of the moss web (dynamic social graph, contextual semantics) and the needs of users for smooth and unobtrusive “social navigation”.
iPhone timeline 1999-2008 (iphonegold.org)
UPDATE 2010-10-09: My prediction was rather risky in July of 2008 and it has been proven correct. In April 2010 I even have been taking part to organize the “1st European Augmented Reality Conference” ARBcon.eu. If you are interested in AR/MR and a contact just join the Linkedin group or the Xing Augmented Reality Group (350+)
Future fact: Super convergence of mobile connectivity, the social web and contextual intelligence will create an eco-system of mixed reality applications.
Well, the iPhone 3G just has been released. Not the quantum leap hysteria like in the release of iPhone 1.0. But what comes to my mind is the wellknown quote of the cyberpunk author William Gibson: “The future is already here – it is just unevenly distributed.”
There is a “digg of the day” for me showing the iPhone timeline starting with Dec 15 1999 – the day when Apple registered the domain iPhone.org. Means: (i) Steve Jobs keen vision started in the last century, I never doubted that he is ahead of times, (ii) progress needs a bit of patience too. Now, what will we see on this timeline in 2010/2011? I am quite sure that augmented reality stuff is leaving the labs in the very near future. Here is a short trip into one trend vector of the future mobile device – mixed reality.
Check the nutrients of your food (Mac Funamizu 2008)
View the past history of a place (Mac Funamizu 2008)
SOURCE OF INSPIRATION FOR THE MIXED REALITY SCENARIO: Since Feb 2008 Mac Funamizu created a cool design study, Read the rest of this entry »
