- Calculate the price of your privacy with the FT's cute tool, then read this related PCWorld post, and finally read Dan Gillmor's great post on why he's saying Goodbye to Apple, Google and Microsoft: “We are losing control over the tools that once promised equal opportunity in speech and innovation—and this has to stop…”
- Spiegel Interview with Naomi Klein via Spiegel Online. Needless to say I agree with almost everything Naomi says in this interview, and I am an avid reader of her books, as well… “An economic model based on indiscriminate growth inevitably leads to greater consumption and to greater CO2 emissions. There can and must be growth in the future in many low carbon parts of the economy: in green technologies, in public transportation, in all the care-giving professions, in the arts and of course in education.”
- How's the Media Industry These Days? Confused – says re/code, and I couldn't agree more:) “Cuban also said that too many assumptions about consumer preferences are based on the habits of young people. “The older you get,” he said, “the more valuable your time becomes…and the less you're willing to work to consume content.”
- How far AI has come, via Mashable “Sebastian Thrun, director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Stanford University, who wasn’t part of the research, said in an email: “This is very impressive. Most people don’t understand how far (artificial intelligence) has come. And this is just the beginning”. This topic is clearly a key focus for 2015, and I will cover it in my coming keynote speeches (along with what I call #digitalethic). You may also want to take a look at what TheGuardian writes about the future of work and AI, here.
- On-demand economy is shifting to online services – via Solved. Some great morsels here, such as “Impatience is nurtured by new technology, and now by on-demand services”. And Twitter's Ev W says something quite remarkable and worrisome on ‘cognitive ease' and ‘not making people think' (god forbid!!): “The internet makes human desires more easily attainable. In other words, it offers convenience. Convenience on the internet is basically achieved by two things: speed, and cognitive ease. If you study what the really big things on the internet are, you realize they are masters at making things fast and not making people think.” Ev Williams, Twitter co-founder”
- In case you didn't know, this is why you shouldn't put baby photos online via Medium. Pretty amazing examples of abusive behaviour based on permission that was granted for entire different purpose: “So, from a legal perspective, we have behaved admirably. But why does our store nevertheless feel so wrong? Context.”
- Are you ready for 3D printing? Insights via McKinsey & Company, filled with good stats: “The 3-D printer industry has enjoyed double-digit growth recently; sales of metal printers, indeed, rose by 75 percent from 2012 to 2013…”
- Snowden's girlfriend represented him at the Oscars for the film ‘Citizenfour' – via Mashable. And yes, you MUST watch this movie (hopefully you can actually find a place to watch it if you don't live in the US?) “Poitras thanked Snowden for his ‘courage' and dedicated the award to the whistleblowers of the world…”
- Here are the latest ‘TFA presents' videos:
Digital Transformation for Telecom & Mobile
So what is Digital Transformation?
A Conversation on Banking
All 3 clips feature my futurist colleagues Rohit Talwar andSimon Torrance, as well. These are our first three TFA Presents short films and there will be more to come, so stay tuned for the rest of the series.
Finally, the complete video of my introductory keynote speech to the ITU TeleWorld Leadership Forum for the Future just went live – you may enjoy this one if you work in telecom or ICT.