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Outlook 2010 – Part 2: Businesses

December 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Earlier this month, I wrote about 2010 developments on the consumer side. In this post, I’ll focus on developments that I think will affect business the most, particular in regards to social business and social media. These are the topics:

  • Rationalization
  • Preparation
  • Application
  • Other developments

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Outlook 2010 – Part 1: Consumers

December 10, 2009 By 2 Comments

This month, I’ll be looking ahead to 2010 and the developments that I’ll be looking forward to. In this post, I’ll be discussing trends on the consumer side and in the next post, we’ll be looking at developments on the business side. The developments on the consumer side I’ll be looking at are:

  • Social Developments
  • Content Developments
  • Technology Developments

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25 Things Your Future Colleagues Won’t Know About

December 16, 2007 By

As we approach the end of the year, I thought I’d make a post about the incredible technological progress we’ve made. Here’s my overview of things that will draw blank stares from your future colleagues.

Media:

  1. Vinyl records / VHS tapes / Cassette tapes / CDs / LaserDisc / MiniDisc and their playback equipment
  2. 3.5” and 5.25” Floppy disks
  3. Film rolls
  4. Standard definition
  5. Encyclopedias and atlases
  6. Phone books
  7. Newspapers and magazines

Hardware:

  1. CRT monitors
  2. Dot-Matrix printers
  3. Typewriters
  4. Answering machines
  5. Rotary-dial telephones

Software:

  1. DOS
  2. Command line interface
  3. WordPerfect
  4. Lotus

Connectivity:

  1. Handwritten postal mail
  2. Payphones
  3. Fax machines
  4. Modems
  5. Pagers
  6. Walkie Talkies

Web:

  1. Portals / Search engines like Altavista and Lycos
  2. Chat programs like IRC and ICQ

And the most frightening thing that will be forgotten is “privacy”.

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The Redundant Human

July 15, 2007 By

Advancement in information and industrial technology has resulted in many new solutions that make human involvement unnecessary. Take travel websites for example. Websites like Expedia, Orbitz and—my personal favorite—Kayak are able to search the web for you to find the best deal for your next vacation.

Where does the good old travel agency come in? Nowhere, really. Some may have their own websites where they provide a similar search service, but the fact is that any human involvement can be cut to zero.

Of course there will still be people who prefer to visit a travel agency. Some travel agencies will continue to exist, but they only do so because they differentiate themselves by offering more than being able to find the best deal for a customer. They offer knowledge and expertise in a special area, like adventure travel, or specialize in a particular niche/audience.

Differentiate. Improve your skills and knowledge, if only to prevent being replaced by a machine.

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