What do you think is next after blogs?

[GreedIsGood]

If you think about it, blogs started from free websites like Geocities, just that in geocities it was harder for people to set things up, so not that many people had one.

Now blogs are all the rave and almost everyone has one. What's next? Jaiku has microblogging, and Facebook's has The Wall. Is that the next big thing? Mobile blogging?

I think with the improvement of mobile phones, mobiles are the next big thing, just like how laptops are now overtaking desktops.

What do you think?

[David Tan]

It depends on how much you mobility usage one wants to have in their lives. Unless there is a significant shift in culture, we're talking about competing with physical human interaction and experiencing life in the physical world. Everytime you focus on your mobile phone is less time you're paying attention in the real world.

For example, consider mp3 players. Good when you're alone, waiting for someone, on transit when you're not talking to anyone. People listen to more of as an activity to pass the time NOT as much when it comes to scheduling and purposefully listen to it.

If people becomes more isolated, somehow unable to interact as much with the real world, it'd say that mobiles will really take off in alot. I'm not denying that more laptops are being sold and that cellphone sales are picking up.

But having a tool and actually using it more and more is a different thing.

Lastly, troubles in the real world have a way of pulling you away from fancy gadgets and virtual activites. Poverty, increasing work hours, or even pressures of work like having to be on the phone (talking) constantly will decrease mobile usage.

But the biggest barrier is COST.

Yet, if we make it really easy & cheap or free to get good pdaphones and to post text, video, audio in microblogs, who knows?

[drasticfantastic]

I think technology will develop at such a blinding rate that soon people will be communicating through artificial telepathy! Blogs? They're so 2004.

[David Tan]

Artificial telepathy? Like hardwiring the brain to a cellphone & computer? Imagine getting spammed in your brain....OUCH! It's terrible just to imagine it.

You're talking with your friends and suddenly you pause. Your friends are concerned because you're not saying anything and that you're not answering their questions. You froze because there's a hundred pop ups in your brain and it's working to close it one by one.

Brain Hang!

[Tephus]

Originally Posted by David Tan

Artificial telepathy? Like hardwiring the brain to a cellphone & computer? Imagine getting spammed in your brain....OUCH! It's terrible just to imagine it.

You're talking with your friends and suddenly you pause. Your friends are concerned because you're not saying anything and that you're not answering their questions. You froze because there's a hundred pop ups in your brain and it's working to close it one by one.

Brain Hang!

LOL. I guess having too much of a good thing will kill you.

[Vintage]

yes, i think mobiles will be the next big thing. think about it, we have PDAs now with better processing power than computers 7 years ago. at our current level, our mobile devices are already capable of various communication programs.

i think blogging programs will be staple and directly integrated into phones, just like nokia's blogging program.

[Gajandra D]

If you have read any of Isaac Asimov titles about the foundation you will get the gist of what technology might do in the future. Well in this planet called Aurora nobody made contact with each other in a personal way. Even sex was a dirty thing. You could only communicate through a device called a viewer. Can you guess what happened to them in the end. Thats right they perished because they simply did not like human companionship but prefered Robots to have around. Their robots did all their work for them and even tended to their vast properties. They were even advanced enough to prolong their lives. But guess what they never ventured out of their planet because they did not want contact with other humans in the galaxy. So they were just stuck on their planet and were slowly reduced in numbers till the whole planet became a vast dead zone with only a few robots around but in the end they too stopped functioning. Are we also heading there in a few milennia.

[Tephus]

Gajandra D: Are we also heading there in a few milennia.

No I don't think so. Thankfully we have an insatiable urge to procreate to save us from extinction.

[David Tan]

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/21...ate-telepathic

Or maybe, any experience will feel better with the application of technology and it's 'enhancements'? Oh the lure...

Increase in online purchases, increase in mobile computing should go in hand with efficiency in delivery services. I wonder if it'll ever be as cheap as driving to the nearest store. Won't be as quick... but close?

[Gajandra D]

Perhaps we are moving away from the physical purchase of goods. Seeing as how gas prices are skyrocketing and the internet is booming the greatest incentive the internet can offer is low prices. You see there is no shop front to oversee and employees to supervise. It can be done through drop shipping. Manufactures have to take on a larger role in drop shipping directly to the customer. But there still leaves the feel and touch issue to discuss about. All of us get a certain kick out of feeling and touching the product we want to buy. Maybe manufactures can provide such a showroom for customers to come and view the product. The high overheads in advertising for merchants can be cut down but how many of these feel and touch showrooms should there be. It might work for a city environment like a permanent expo where all the various goods could be displayed and visitors can get demos of the product but they will still have to get it shipped to their home. This idea would work well for car showrooms where people can testdrive in one location and when they decide to buy,the car will be shipped directly to them by truck. Everything else like registration and insurance and finance can be handled online just through a couple of clicks. In California you are able to renew your registration and licenses online. This is a step in the right direction, soon we will be doing everything online and keep from driving only to pollute the world some more. In many ways the internet might just save the planet from a quicker demise.

[GreedIsGood]

OK. Back to the topic of the next big thing after blogs? Right.

I have a few sources that point to mobile social networking as the next big thing instead. And we're already seeing this in action, with Blackberry the most recent mobile gadget to receive Facebook.

Also, social lending. This is a new concept where people pool money together for a lender, with interest rates negociated among themselves beforehand.

I think things will really take off when they integrate all these into one massive social network like Facebook. Actually that's what Google is doing right now.

[Gajandra D]

Looks like mobile phones are slowly creeping into a domain once exclusive to PC's . Soon we will be able to do all our communications and work through one device. We probably will only use PC's for work related tasks that will require mutitasking and large amounts of memory. Sooner or later when mobile phones get more complex in their tools and the charges become lower we will carry our little lives around in that machine. Kind of like a mobile secretary that reminds you of appointments, help when you get lost, send greetings automatically, alert you on what stocks to buy and download your favorite TV programs for you. Aren't South Koreans already doing that right now?

[drasticfantastic]

It's too early to tell, but there's definitely a lot of startups with good ideas. I think the next big thing will be mashed up blogs. Already we're seeing companies like Microsoft integrate some of their other tools into blogs, also, more and more blogs are improving their interface with AJAX.

So there will be blogs, but better ones.

[David Tan]

Portable computers. Limits are:-

1. Energy source - batteries are limited in that you can also shrink it so far and to increase the capacity, you'll have to increase the size and so the weight.
2. Which leads to the weight issue. Pdaphones are great in that they're small and highly portable but in terms of processing power, well, it's rather limited. So we still have to wait for Intel or whatever to come up with better chips that utilize less energy and process at much greater speeds.
3. Price. If you got the battery and the advance chips and components, they'll charge a bundle for it because at the end of the day, it's the profit that matters.

If we really want everyone to adopt it, it will require a company to forgo short term profits (10 years) for long term benefits. Making it so cheap that almost everyone will buy one or governments will provide it for their citizens. Investors are not gonna like that. Who wants to lose out on 10 years worth of money and get it when you're old and grey?

But it will propel mobility to the far corners of the earth and usher in a new age of technology that will see in the introduction of new industries, new jobs, new businesses.

I do agree that having a virtual secretary is VERY important in mobility. Consider that it doesn't work well with a PC because the point of a secretary or personal assistant is to help you at any time and constantly during their working time and we can't have the PC with us all the time. But with advance mobile computing, it will help everyone to be more productive, efficient and organized.

You might think that, it was what PDA's promised but flopped big time, but with greater computing power, you're able to utilize better software, more personalization as well as increased communication between users.

Even if the virtual secretary can't motivate you enough, you can always have your physical secretary, personal coach, mentor or even friend to help you out by syncronizing calendars, location info, task list and by communicating either through voice, video, sms, mms, etc. The point of accountability (an option, not a must) is to increase productivity and discipline to reaching goals whether corporate or personal.

[sauron]

i agree that mobiles are the next thing to blogs. there would be something better about money and lending online too.