1.3 billion people are currently on the on the web (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=off08As3siM) and while “Web 2.0” may be a marketing strategy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0QJmmdw3b0), it has changed “users” of the internet to “creators” of internet content. Watching a short video about innovation for the next version of the Internet caused me to think about the complexity of a truly worldwide web. The video claimed that the Internet is currently broken and that networks need to be built and to integrate semantic technology (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=off08As3siM). I believe inherent in this need is also the need for more equitable access to such technology. If the trends of development continue at their rapid pace with the global economy in its current state, I can only foresee a growing gap between those who are and those who are not able to connect to the digital highway.
One of the interesting questions posed in the aforementioned video was: How do we share meaning across the globe? I believe the answer to that question is much greater than anything I can conceptualize or summarize, but I’ll give it a try…
To begin, I think the notion of “Web 2.0” as a different way of building applications and the underlying architecture of the Internet is critical. The infrastructure to connect globally and permit use by pc and mobile phones generates a sense of constant connectedness and a flow of information that the world has never before realized. As the speaker in one video noted (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0QJmmdw3b0), information will be distributed virally such that the intra-communication abilities of technology will create connections with which humans will have no input… forgive my slight fear of a technological domination over humans… perhaps we are already there and simply do not realize the invention has become the ultimate inventor?
Looking forward to the future of technology in the world, I am intrigued by innovations such as video sharing capabilities from cell phones (http://qik.com/), mapping software (http://www.quickmaps.com/) and unit conversion technology (http://www.convertworld.com/en/) that allow people across the globe to communicate, travel, and work across virtually all perceived barriers. With video conferencing (https://www.yugma.com/) capabilities available to anyone with an Internet connection, business, communication, and learning can theoretically take place anywhere, anytime, with anyone… Education in this model could become far more equitable as access is, or at least could eventually be, universal.
Of course with viral communication comes a natural concern for privacy. Sites such as https://privnote.com/ allow users to send notes that will self-destruct after they are read (makes me think of Mission Impossible!), but I question the legitimacy of that type of technology… I have often been reminded by colleagues in IT that nothing is every truly “erased” from the Internet… it’s all floating out there somewhere in the ether…
Looking to the future I can only imagine what innovations will be developed out of necessity. Previewing websites of innovative architects (http://vincent.callebaut.org/) as well as inventors (http://www.yankodesign.com/) sparks my imagination to dream of how humans will live in the future… I ponder what impact the natural environment will have upon future innovations? How, and in what ways, will nature and technology continue to evolve and interface? And ultimately, how this will impact human existence and the learned/lived experience?
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