Never wanting to miss the opportunity for a party, we held a lunch to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Internet. Guest speakers were David Rowan, editor of Wired UK and Nico Macdonald, the creator of the Internet Development Map. The idea was to discuss how the internet has evolved and what we can learn from this about the nature of innovation and also look forward to what might be coming.
Nico gave an outline of his project to create a visual and interactive history of the key milestones in the development of the internet. David looked forward and gave us a list of the 10 key trends he sees emerging in the future:
1) Radical transparency – the internet and internet based technologies will inspire high levels of contact and sponsor high degrees of transparency. It will be exceptionally difficult to censor information because it will be flowing so freely.
2) High volumes of cheap data will be stored and made easily accessible. This will lead to the development of new innovations and ways of recording information. We will see the rise of “life logging” where people record everything about their lives and can search back for any fact.
3) Forget privacy – these days’ people are willing to trade their privacy for services, information and to facilitate their networks.
4) Advertising is diminishing but not over – in the future advertising is going to be about subtle engagement not necessarily direct selling. The aim will be to build brand loyalty by presenting useful information and services.
5) “Rephysicalisation” – in a world increasingly dominated by data and virtual worlds, there will always be a case for physical things and physical interactions. Companies need to build a sense of this into their offerings.
6) Interacting with devices. Interaction with devices will become ever more intuitive. Gestural interfaces are already becoming increasingly sophisticated.
7) Machine Brain Interaction – trials have been recently undertaken where eye movements and brain waves are being used to communicate with computers. People will need to start to think about “neuro security”.
8) Personalisation – the need for personalisation will intensify – billboards will change their ads depending on who is looking at them and will monitor reactions.
9) Biometric Health - health monitoring will become increasingly sophisticated and big business.
10) Bionic noticing – people will increasingly want to both be using their computers and mobiles but also interacting with the physical world. Services will emerge which enables people to simultaneously navigate the physical and virtual worlds.