Category: Networked Society

Interactive Ideas inspire Innovations

Peter LinderLeave a comment
©Peter Linder 2013 – All rights reserved
©Peter Linder 2013 – All rights reserved

It is 20 years since the birth of video on demand (VoD). Time Warner was pushing the envelope in Orlando, US, over cable networks. BT in the UK made Colchester the VoD capital of Europe. All this was driven by the vision that interactivity would change our approach to video/TV consumption. Ericsson’s first major broadband push was around Residential Interactive Broadband Services. What can we learn from the first 20 years of interactive/on-demand video, and why will the next five years in the Networked Society be very different?

In the initial VoD era, later labeled iTV, it was all about turning the video rental market into a networked revenue stream. Before it even started in volumes, internet access became the market maker for DSL and cable. Switched Video Broadcast was introduced as an innovation for delivery of broadcast services across copper-based networks. Finally, VoD and broadcast TV became part of a triple play bundle before the market took off.

Access to attractive content offerings has always been a key issue for on-demand video, to a point where the original services’ VoD offerings could be referred to as “very-old demand.” The worlds of the operators, content owners and consumer electronics manufacturers collided at the triple-play intersection, and a dual vision emerged for managed IPTV services in coexistence with over-the-top video. This pioneering work has resulted in the big boom for the sales of smart TVs or internet TVs during the last three years.

The missing links in the large-scale adoption of interactive/on-demand video are now clearly visible. Interactivity/on-demand and personalization goes hand in hand. Interactivity is not a family experience. Interactivity is not only about video consumption. It is about taking national advertising through local to personal ads as an instrumental part of the business model transformation. Users have historically considered the internet and voice as commodities and paid a premium for mobile and video. The center of gravity for interactivity will be where mobile and video meets. The big question is how quickly will we move toward such a “video-all-demand” world?

Here are my predictions for the future of interactive video:

* Any video offered on-demand has a higher value than linear video. This applies to users as well as advertisers. With live sports being the big exception.
* Personalization of video is here to stay. We have quickly moved from one TV per family toward two to three screens per individual.
* The interactivity has become multifaceted and involves complex relations between multiple screens across ecosystem borders.
* With powerful networks and high-resolution screens in a variety of sizes, two of the main innovation risks are eliminated. Now we can focus on the on multiscreen interactivity and the business model transformation for user fees and advertising revenues.
* The initial vision will be realized. It just took us 25 years to get there, with the next 5 years being the most interesting part of the journey.

Daily Device Dependency Drive Digital Detox Demand

Peter LinderLeave a comment
©Peter Linder 2013 – All rights reserved
© Peter Linder 2013 – All rights reserved

Are you among the users dependent on four or five networked devices on a daily basis? These devices provide endless opportunities and can also create addictive behaviors. Nevertheless, some of us might benefit from a bit of “digital detox” during our vacation as we recharge for the fall.

A survival question for application developers is to offer their applications on a variety of platforms, such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, PCs and TVs. It is also about the seamless transition between them and to allow for dual-screen use cases. This creates an application availability opportunity for users to take advantage of or to use excessively.

Many users have adopted a multiscreen and multi-social media lifestyle without putting boundaries for when their URL life should stand back for their IRL experiences. Both business communications and excessive social media use could become a stress factor to wind down from during the vacation.

The digital detox industry is growing quickly and offers everything from initial seminars to advanced programs. All with the purpose of finding your own well-being during a period without or with reduced device access. It is not about dropping the devices but finding the right balance between your networked and your physical/mental life. Both are an essential part of life in the Networked Society in the same way as a great meal requires both food and drinks in order to be well-balanced.

My suggestions for vacations this summer:

– Reflect on your personal usage patterns and decide which screen and app combination makes you relax and enjoy life, without causing stress.
– If you are a heavy user of both business communication and social media, consider dropping one of them during your vacation this year.
– Elaborate with shifting content consumption patterns to a new media/device combination allowing you to free up time. For example, stop reading full books and shift to audio summaries of the same book.
– Determine which stimuli reactions, for example, responding, pinning, liking, re-tweeting you see as adding value to your important life accomplishments.

How “able” will the connected world become?

Peter Linder1 Comment

 

Earlier this summer I attended the D11 conference where one of the key trends addressed was “able devices”. A range of new computing applications are emerging in the form of ‘wearables’, ‘driveables’, ‘flyables’ and ‘scannables’. All are part of the Networked Society evolution towards a more connected world.

 

Networked Glasses were introduced earlier this year while augmented reality applications are already entering the mass market. Disney is launching a networked wristband at their theme parks allowing families to pre-book their favorite rides and cut waiting times. Many of us are already using pulse-meters to monitor the impact of our exercise. The era of ‘wearables’ is just beginning.

 

Networked cars and associated accessories fall into the ‘driveables’ category. Navigators are becoming connected in real-time with media content being delivered over the air to their vehicles. Soon electric-powered vehicles will keep track on where and when to charge next.

 

Remotely controlled drones are entering the surveillance market and more devices can be expected to move into the air as part of their typical usage pattern. QR Codes are becoming an integrated part of a networked life including clothes with QR codes connected to washing instructions. Product information is now commonly accessed through QR codes rather than the product packaging.

 

A common factor in the “able computing” trend is the smartphone which acts as an intermediate device for connecting able devices. Here Wi-Fi/Bluetooth provides the personal/local connectivity while smartphones enable access to apps and connectivity to the cloud.

 

My predictions for the future are:

  • Able devices are in their infancy and will grow rapidly in coming decade
  • Able devices will grow up in an eco-system where apps and mobile connectivity to the cloud are fundamental enablers
  • The smartphone will play a key role as a control/relay device supporting able devices 

STEM Students Soon Society Scarcity

Peter LinderLeave a comment

STEM students Soon Society Shortage

In a world where all business sectors will migrate into the Networked Society, certain competencies will become a precious resource. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) talent will be the crude oil on which the future Networked Society will run. Demand will surpass supply for the foreseeable future, and the STEM shortage will not only be an issue for the tech sector.

As business migrates into the Networked Society, it becomes increasingly dependent on technology. Is a connected watch a clock with a tech addition, or is it a piece of technology that is also capable of showing the time? Is a connected car a car with a tech add-on or a computing platform mounted on a rolling chassi? Is a connected camera a phone with integrated camera or a camera with integrated connectivity? The thing that all sectors will have in common is their connection to, and dependency on mobile technology. And this aspect is rapidly growing, reaching the point where mobile networking is becoming an integral part of the development of most businesses.

STEM talent is already in short supply globally, and shortage is not going away anytime soon as demand rise across multiple industry sectors. Computer science and mobile networking skills are perhaps the safest bet today for a future career in the Networked Society. The biggest difference from the past is that future skills will be more application-centric, and will work across technologies.

Just adding STEM talent will not be enough. The surge in demand will drive new forms of cross-company collaboration. STEM talent has historically been an in-house resource for tech companies. Many Networked Society companies will rely on external STEM resources for certain parts of their business processes. A related challenge involves what to define as your differentiation in the market.

Some predictions of the future are:
* The transition to a Networked Society will drive technology deeper into most business sectors that we today consider as non-tech.
* STEM talent will face high demand and short supply for the foreseeable future.
* The transition to a Networked Society will create new interfaces between companies, often with critical tech skills residing outside the company.

Sport Stadium Smartphones Soon Surpass Super Screens

Peter Linder2 Comments

Stadium Spots

For decades, the construction of a new sports stadium has been associated with significant investments in a Jumbotron, an enormous video screen. At the recent D11: All Things Digital conference, the San Francisco 49ers American football team and Sony outlined an alternative approach where users bring their own screens to the game, and where 4K video and arena-specific video feeds transform the user experience.

With a fan base upgrading their phone and tablet devices every 18-24 months, sports franchises have new and very capable screens to target. You can even ask if it is right to invest in a Jumbotron with a lifetime of 10-20 years when fans spend the same amount of money every second year on upgrading their devices. With bring-your-own-device (BYOD) widely established in the workplace environment, it is about to make an entrance into major sports arenas as an integrated part of the live experience.

The San Francisco 49ers aim to create a “software-enabled stadium” as they finalize the construction of the Levi’s Stadium. Without the restrictions of the one-screen Jumbotron concept, it is possible to distribute multiple video feeds in the arena. They can combine the use of standard TV feeds with special camera feeds for arena users only. A bigger share of the experience can be delivered to user devices through apps and media sent to their personal screens. In essence the software-enabled stadium is about delivering a personal experience to 68,500 fans in the same location.

The software-enabled stadium will have very different network needs than a classic Jumbotron-based venue. The stadium networks need to be designed to support media streams to users’ own devices, and to do it in very large volumes during events. These new networks can be funded with a reallocation of Jumbotron funds to smartphone/tablet feeder networks.

My predictions of the future of stadium networking are:
* The biggest sports Jumbotrons have already been built, and the new game in town is to focus on the 7-10-inch mobile devices
* Sports venues will ensure that very capable networks are built to support the influx of screen-equipped fans, way beyond current capabilities.
* Innovation around local media feeds and associated advertising models is a vital part of the development of the personal sports screen
* The phone/tablet screen will be as important as the TV in connecting with the fan base of the future. New fans did not grow up with tube TV as the norm

Little Ladies Love Laptops & LTE

Peter LinderLeave a comment

38. Little ladies love laptops and LTE

This is the first generation of children who are growing up with tablets. Some young children have used these devices and the apps on them for close to three years, but up until now most of that use has been restricted to broadband in Wi-Fi enabled homes. So what will Generation Z and the Pluralist generation dream of for the future?

Last year, an 8 year old sent a wish-list sent to Santa Claus that consisted of just 6 letters: ‘Laptop’. After a deeper investigation it became clear this 8-year old considered tablets to be for kids who did not know the alphabet yet nor difference between left and right mouse clicks. But for someone like this 8-year old, who had both these skills, the obvious choice was to trade-up and become a laptop-enabled citizen.

Just upping the game on the device itself may not be enough. Most kids have figured out by now that the tablet is broken in many ways. It doesn’t work outside their home, not in the car, nor on planes. They see their parents being on the phone everywhere and they wonder why the bigger tablet don’t work in the same locations. Integrated 3G and 4G connectivity is demanded first, in some cases, by the youngest members of the family.

These trends tie into young children’s transition from pure content consumers, in the form of apps and games, to content creators. As they start the journey of creating content on their own, they will experience the same connectivity limitations with tablets that adults experience. And since they have grown up with tablets they might instead skip laptops altogether and go straight to an ultra-book as long as they can get the mouse and keyboard they are looking for.

My predictions of the future for the youngest Networked Society members are:

• Tablets will remain their first computer with a starting age of around year 2 or 3.
• Their demand for an environment enabling content creation will arise when they learn how to read and write.
• Handwriting skills will be impacted, as children adopt laptops and ultra-books very early on in their lives.
• Full-fledged connectivity is relevant to very young people who don’t have preconceived notions about how to connect to the network. They prefer to stay connected all the time.