By Tim Ferguson, 26 June 2007 12:53
NEWS
Social networking will move from the computer to the street while an "augmented reality" will become part of our lives over the next few years.
These are some of the predictions from BT futurologist Ian Pearson whose job is to look at how new and emerging technologies will impact society. He told silicon.com: "I track technology as it's coming over the horizon."
Pearson said social networking is an important development at the moment. But he added the websites that exist now - such as Bebo, Facebook and MySpace - are primitive compared to what could be around in three to five years' time.
He said in the near future people could wear "digital bubble" devices similar to badges which will "radiate their web presence".
The badges will transmit information - such as job title or hobbies - to other people's devices as they walk down the street. This info will be displayed to the wearer who could then choose to engage with other individuals based on common interests.
Pearson said: "It's the next step [of social networking]."
The challenge will be to make the sensory side of the technology work in a secure manner so people are able to avoid unwanted attention, he added.
Cheat Sheets
♦ Social networking
♦ Web 2.0
♦ Mash-ups
Another of Pearson's predictions is that virtual content will start to appear all around us in the coming years, with content from the internet forming an "augmented reality" that people will experience every day.
For instance, buildings could have "dual architecture" with a physical but also a virtual appearance which would broadcast information to passer-bys such as the name of the businesses located within. People could also receive information from the businesses such as news or stock prices as they walk by.
Pearson predicted the biggest change in IT over the next few years for businesses will be the "rapid growth in memory stick capacity".
He said soon people will be able to carry all the files they ever need on memory sticks meaning they could plug into any PC and work at their convenience.
Comments
There are 5 comments. Join the discussion
1. Stuart Fawcett
With a bootable USB Key i can already boot many PC's from my USB device - Its just a bit slow. I'd rather think the next big change will be hosted PC environments - logon to any terminal and be presented with both your work and personal PC profiles; The challenge here is information security! My phone (digital bubble) should share my presence and display localised info, as well as acting as part of my authentication key.
If I want I skinny latte why can’t my phone order and pay for this when I’m still 2 minutes walk away from Starbucks – It could save me queuing and Starbucks having quite so many cashiers.
I just hope wireless spectrum and wired infrastructure can be licensed & built to keep the development process rolling out!
2. anonymous
Oh, what an appalling idea: "He said in the near future people could wear "digital bubble" devices similar to badges which will "radiate their web presence".
The badges will transmit information - such as job title or hobbies - to other people's devices as they walk down the street."
3. Iqbal Gandham
Stuart, I think the change is already here, or at least very close to being here. Without this comment sounding to much like a sales pitch, Nivio.com has just opened up its beta version. It allows an entire windows XP desktop to be available.
The windows desktop is hosted, and all applications are available on demand.
4. Mike
This isn't really anything new from Ian, he's been talking about 'digital
bubbles' in one form or another for years. See his article at
http://www.btinternet.com/~ian.pearson/web/future/badges.htm. Maybe it just takes a while for new ideas to surface.
5. anonymous
"Digital bubble" - what a dreadful prospect! I suspect that most people value their privacy more than that. Considering the very small proportion of people who actually engage really actively in social networking (as measured, for example, by those who actually contribute significant amounts to social networking sites) I think this is pure fantasy.
As for communicating what and who is in buildings - the very cheap format of a placard outside works rather well.
I'm a techno-fan, with all manner of devices, but don't believe this will catch on.
Huge capacity personal storage devices - yes, of course. Yawn. Not new news nor surprising. I already wander about with 8-10gb of storage about my person in various compact devices when I leave my laptop behind.