Prediction for 2010

On the 31 dec 2009 I blogged about 2009 and I did some prediction for the future.

I would like to extract (literally) part of that entry in order to have an entry of its own:

What can we expect in the next 10 years?

Obviously the hardware will continue to explode. Hard disk, processors, screen technology (LED or something new, ebook readers, tablets), internet speed and connectivity (wimax, 4g)… that will make information easier to access and to share. Now a smartphone has GPS, accelerometers and a lot of sensors. I foresee a step towards this sort of uses: location, using the camera of the phone to take a photo from anything and have image recognition, reviews, who is there, where is cheaper, banking, payments… all!!. Search engines will go one step further and they will have other ways to search than text, photos videos, voice… everything indexable. With my phone I will be able to see where my friends are, what they are drinking, etc… reviews are important. I use internet to review and read reviews of what I buy, the hotels I go (tripadvisor), google, tell me where, etc… so location, location, location.

But not everything are flowers… I think that because Internet is going to be so big, Internet Governance is going to be a big issue. Now the US controls ICANN and a lot of other stuff. Internet Governance is going to be a difficult topic. Also Internet as a human right. ISP (internet providers) will try to get the maximum out of it, by capping, limiting connectivity, filtering content (like in China) and so. If this is the case, Internet could be in danger. It should be a 100% open platform. No restrictions. I hope governments intervene to avoid this sort of issues that we are already starting to see in the US with ISPs. Access to Internet should be unlimited and unrestricted. Government should be careful also not doing like in Finland where they are going to filter content at ISP level… a biiiiig mistake.

Privacy is also going to be an issue, but I guess we will be living in public. There is no problem for me, but privacy should be seriously managed. Specially when companies are outsourcing for instance email to google apps, or google docs and calendars…

Cloud computing will be big, and I don’t know if computers will trend to be more like terminals and run all the programs in the cloud. I do use google docs a lot I must say. Online photo services, backups, etc… I can’t wait to see how it progresses. The combination of cloud computing and terminals with strong browsers with offline technology could be a way. If you think about it, why not log in at any computer/terminal and have your files programs and so? Well this could be achieved with good connectivity and good cloud computing. But again, if this is where we go, we will start to see issues of compatibility and standards. Exporting things from a cloud to a computer or to another cloud… it should be standardized.

But the I wonder… when I bought my fiat 500, I printed out the price I was getting in internet and went to my local Fiat dealer. The salesman was furious. He said he could not compete with that. They have cost of personnel, stocks, training, etc… while the guy in internet buys bulk and gets incredible prices… so it made me think. There is no point in having shops or car dealers. They are simply not competitive with internet. So where is the business? Well, services I guess. Garage to repair. Warehouse to collect parts. Advise… but not in selling goods. I told the guy in Fiat that his business model was condemned to die.

There is another ethical question you could ask yourself. If you could buy cheaper 98% of people would buy cheaper. What about paying extra if it manufactured at home, or uses organic stuff, or is environmentally better? It is a difficult question. Specially for our generation. I hope next generation will think differently. Developed countries can not live from services alone, and the rest is more expensive than to do it abroad. So what to do? Free trade has given a lot of opportunities to developing countries, but we have seen with Doha failure that one size does not fit all. What about free movement of people? Goods and people are not strangers. If I am a farmer in France and all farming goes to … China (just a stupid example), then what happens to the french farmer? Should he go to China? Move to something else? Should we cluster activities wherever they are more productive? I don’t know. That would not be sustainable for the environment. Look at Indonesia, they have destroyed the forest to put palm oil plantations. It is so sad. Al fauna is dead and most of the country is monocorp…. but this is where we are going! Look at the farmers in the US. Maybe it should be studied where the environmental impact is lower and do it there.

If you go to Africa you will see how developed countries have destroyed. We imposed the capitalism there. The richer continent in earth is the poorest. Before people there did not have to work. If they were hungry they would take it from the trees. No effort. Simple and happy life….

The end of it is that we can not avoid to spread wealth with this model, meaning that developed countries will have to lower their living standards, otherwise I don’t see how this is sustainable. Closing borders? Big mistake… Anyway that is whole new story.

Brainstorming online tools

I have blogged in the past about prezi, and I think is one of the coolest presentation tools out there.
I would like to share a couple of other brainstorming tools that might be useful for your thinking processes:

• Prezi
• xmind
• bubbl.us

More Than Fit to Sit: 15 Clever Bench Ads

[ By Steph in Guerilla Marketing & Ads, Subvertising & Counter-Ads, Urban Images. ]

A bench is a bench – except when it’s also a platform for a surprising, thought-provoking, memorable advertisement that sometimes even functions as urban art. The best bench ads turn ubiquitous public furniture into interactive displays that entreat the public to get fit, go on vacation, try a new product and even conserve resources.

District 9 Bench: For Humans Only

(image via: aharvey2k)

Before anyone heard of a little film called District 9, signs barring non-humans from using benches and restrooms could be seen in major cities such as Los Angeles. With a phone number and a warning that “non-human secretions may corrode metal”, these advertisements blurred the line between reality and the fictional world created by the filmmakers in typical guerilla fashion.

Fed-Ex Bubble Wrap Bench

(image via: advertolog)

Fed-Ex can ship practically anything – including benches, as ‘demonstrated’ by this bubble-wrapped bench. The ad series, conceived by BBDO New York, was created to announce the opening of FedEx Kinko’s locations in fairly remote locations.

Instant Ski Vacation

(image via: adsneeze)

Can you picture yourself on an adventurous ski trip, heading up the slope on a lift that provides stunning views of the surrounding landscape? If not, Alberta Travel is happy to help with this creative bench ad that even emulates skis on your feet and snow down below.

Use Only What You Need

(image via: advertolog)

Ads promoting water conservation might be easily overlooked by a public that has begun to tune out conventional modes of promotion. But, it’s hard to pass by this bench, created by Sukle Advertising & Design advertising agency for Denver Water, without taking a second look and absorbing the message: use only what you need.

Skinny Bench for Skinny People

(image via: scaryideas)

A similarly skinny bench communicates something different altogether: if you can’t sit here, perhaps you need to lose some weight. Slim Fast helpfully points people in the right direction with a plaque that reads “Donated by Slim Fast”.

Collapsing Bench for Special K

(image via: coloribus)

Similarly, one cereal brand hopes that consumers will be enticed to try their product after finding that a public bench caves in beneath their weight. This bench in Germany was made with a flexible material to shock people into thinking about how heavy they are, and convince them that 99.9% fat-free Special K was the way to fix the problem.

A Weighty Matter

(image via: businessweek)

Of course, if undersized or collapsing seating areas don’t work, there’s always a more potent way to shame the overweight public: a bus shelter bench with a built-in scale that broadcasts their weight to the world at large. This one in Amsterdam was created by the world’s third-largest gym chain, Fitness First.

No Choice But to Get Closer

(image via: directdaily)

Just try sitting on this slanted bench with somebody else without sliding right into each other. It literally forces people to “Get Closer”, which happens to be the ad slogan for a Czech liquor called Becherovka.

A Stroller Fit for a Baby Giraffe

(image via: ads of the world)

This extra-tall stroller – or pram, if you’re not American – certainly catches the attention of anyone who happens to sit on the bench beside it. The unusual ad by Calgary Zoo uses an embroidered blanket to tell the public that “the baby giraffe is here”.

Nivea Says Goodbye to Cellulite

(image via: directdaily)

Sitting on cellulite isn’t pretty – unless it’s in the form of a dimpled blue bench. This ad by Nivea promoting its Goodbye-Cellulite lotion manages to convey the message that smooth skin is superior to cellulite without anything too disturbingly skin-like.

Homey IKEA Bench Makeover

(image via: culture-buzz)

IKEA proves that even the ugliest, most worn-out bench you can find in an urban environment can be instantly transformed into a homey, welcoming space to relax with some inexpensive Swedish fabric and accessories.

Kit-Kat Bench

(image via: Noah Dylan Goldblatt)

Seeing the brown slats of a bench partially enveloped in a Kit-Kat wrapper begs the question: why didn’t they think of this earlier? It’s a perfect fit that undoubtedly had many an onlooker suddenly craving chocolate-covered wafers.

Istanbul’s Book Benches

(image via: adrants)

Istanbul is an open book – 18 of them, in fact, all written by Turkish poets. This ad campaign not only promotes reading and publicizes the work of native writers, but turns boring public furniture into functional works of art.

Amnesty International ‘Electric Bench’

(image via: funforever)

We might let important social issues slip our minds while going about our daily lives, but Amnesty International is here to remind us that “More than 4000 condemned until death are waiting for their execution. No to Capital punishment”. Accompanying these words at a Barcelona bus shelter was a bench designed to look like a pair of electric chairs.

‘Extra Safe’ Credit Union Ad

(image via: thefinancialbrand)

If this ad and others in the same series were put out by an insurance agency, one would have to wonder whether the “extra safe” message really implies that consumers are buying way more coverage than they need. But the ads were actually created by FirstOntario Credit Union to assure the public that their short-term investments are secure as can be, even in this shaky economic climate – so it works.

(from weburbanist)

Square: iPhone payment system

A new payment system has been developed for the iPhone. Take a look to the video

Square is Jack Dorsey’s (Twitter co-founder) new startup that now has Kevin Rose (Digg founder) on board as an investor and YouTube pitch man for the prototype payment device that plugs directly into the iPhone’s headphone jack.

Fishing show bloopers

Fonera 2.0n: How to upgrade to latest DEV firmware

I have been enquiring in the fonera forums on how to install the latest release candidate in my fon 2.0 as wifi for the iphone in the current version is unusable and in the 2.3.5.0 the drivers have changed.

This is what I posted in the forums:

1.- Save your settings: Settings/System then the big settings button will donwload a file called luci. Save it.

2.- Download the latest DEV version of your 2.0n: http://download.fonosfera.org/LATEST/fo … .0_DEV.tgz (remember that from the web you can only instal tgz files)

3.- In my case I tried upgrading to dev from my mac (safari) in the wan and it did not work. I tried from a lan computer and it did work. It takes 5 min. Then I went setting/system/settings update and then I could not see any difference between the DEV and the normal firmware. I could not access via ssh, so I thought it might have been because in my setting I have the fonera running on 192.168.1.1 instead of the default 192.168.10.1. I then reseted to factory default.

4.- Once in factory default you are asked to follow a wizard. You had a password of 8 char with numbers and then I tried ssh and worked.

5.- Now how to send the 2.3.5.0 to the fonera? I tried put and get and did not work. Filezilla over sftp did not work either. Only wget. So I had to dowload from here (http://flash.fonera.be/FON2303/20091210 … EV-RC2.tgz) but from ssh you cannot install tgz, so I had to extract the .img and upload it to a server: http://yourserver/20091210_FON2303_2.3.5.0_DEV-RC2.img

6.- You go to ssh root@192.168.10.1 and then your 8 char password, go to the #cd /tmp folder and

7.- Then #wget http://yourserver/20091210_FON2303_2.3.5.0_DEV-RC2.img

8.- Now you have to install the image make sure you are in the #cd /tmp then #mtd -r write 20091210_FON2303_2.3.5.0_DEV-RC2.img image

9.- DONE!!

10.- Now you can upload your luci settings again.

Is this where advertising is going?

Many times you have wondered who the hell reads the adds in websites and other places. You just skip them or close them, so you wonder how can the companies pay to advertise…

Nowadays mass advertising is transforming into custom advertising. Google does so in its add sense and gmail. I would say it might work better as you can be interested in what it is being offered as it fits in the context of your search, emails, etc…

Is mass advertising dead then?

I guess no. Walmart or Carrefour, Coca-Cola and so need to continue with mass advertising as well as customizing their campaigns into this new era.

As you know I listen constantly to podcasts audiobooks and so. At first I was surprised that one of my favorite podcaster (or netcaster as he likes to call himself) started adding 2 to 3 adds in each show. The difference is that he would talk about the products and looks like he really likes it.

I think that it is not the same to listen to a commercial in a traditional way, than to hear someone you trust recommending a product. For the person you trust doing this could cost him the fact that you don’t trust him anymore as you might think that if he does reviews and some of them are ads, he is not being transparent and objective…. unless…. if he really likes a service he can choose to be paid by them to advertise.

Well this is where we are going and this website is some of it. Take a look: open candy

Others could be services like trialpay where if you are normaly buying something, you can get a discount on a product you want to try. For instance you are going to buy something from gap anyway and you would like to try 3 free months of evernote. Voila.

Haiti photos by the IFRC

How SharePoint Can Deliver Project Transparency

By DUX RAYMOND SY | Published Jan 14, 2010 on cmswire

Remindo: personalized company intranet

With remindo you can create your company branded intranet in minutes and access it from anywhere on the web. Use it free for up to 3 GB of storage. Share information, collaborate and project manage with your team and clients.

Read more

Design the case for your iPhone

There is very cool website called case mate where you can design a unique case for your iPhone, iPod, Laptop, etc…. It is made in flash and it is very very nice.

Give it a try. The final price of the case is a bit expensive but you’ll get something unique.

Google’s new approach in China: they might pull out

This is from the official google blog:

Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident–albeit a significant one–was something quite different.

First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses–including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors–have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.

Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.

Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users’ computers.

We have already used information gained from this attack to make infrastructure and architectural improvements that enhance security for Google and for our users. In terms of individual users, we would advise people to deploy reputable anti-virus and anti-spyware programs on their computers, to install patches for their operating systems and to update their web browsers. Always be cautious when clicking on links appearing in instant messages and emails, or when asked to share personal information like passwords online. You can read more here about our cyber-security recommendations. People wanting to learn more about these kinds of attacks can read this U.S. government report (PDF), Nart Villeneuve’s blog andthis presentation on the GhostNet spying incident.

We have taken the unusual step of sharing information about these attacks with a broad audience not just because of the security and human rights implications of what we have unearthed, but also because this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech. In the last two decades, China’s economic reform programs and its citizens’ entrepreneurial flair have lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese people out of poverty. Indeed, this great nation is at the heart of much economic progress and development in the world today.

We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that “we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.”

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences. We want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today. We are committed to working responsibly to resolve the very difficult issues raised.

(from google blog and here a nice blog discussing this)

yahoo sells zimbra to vmware

Zimbra is the email I am using with norai. I use the open source version and it is the best email experience you can have.

They have announced that VMware has bought email and collaboration software developer Zimbra from Yahoo. Rumors of the sale have been floating around for some time now but the writing was on the wall when Scott Dietzen, former CTO of Zimbra, quit Yahoo last fall.
Yahoo bought back in 2007 zimbra for $350 million.

Here the press release from zimbra and vmware.

the meaning of “open” for Google

At Google we believe that open systems win. They lead to more innovation, value, and freedom of choice for consumers, and a vibrant, profitable, and competitive ecosystem for businesses. Many companies will claim roughly the same thing since they know that declaring themselves to be open is both good for their brand and completely without risk. After all, in our industry there is no clear definition of what open really means. It is a Rashomon-like term: highly subjective and vitally important. The topic of open seems to be coming up a lot lately at Google. I’ve been in meetings where we’re discussing a product and someone says something to the effect that we should be more open. Then a debate ensues which reveals that even though most everyone in the room believes in open we don’t necessarily agree on what it means in practice. This is happening often enough for me to conclude that we need to lay out our definition of open in clear terms that we can all understand and support. What follows is that definition based on my experiences at Google and the input of several colleagues. We run the company and make our product decisions based on these principles, so I encourage you to carefully read, review, and debate them. Then own them and try to incorporate them into your work. This is a complex subject and if there is debate (and I’m sure there will be) it should be in the open! Please feel free to comment. There are two components to our definition of open: open technology and open information.

Read more

Amazing Inklet trackpad tablet app for MacBook

The Inklet app essentially converts your multitouch trackpad in your MacBook into a drawing tablet by adding pressure sensitivity when using with a Pogo Sketch, as well as “advanced palm rejection” which lets you rest your hand while drawing or writing. As you can see in one of the videos after the break, you can also quickly adjust your canvas area at your convenience. $24.95 and it’s yours, Picasso.