The Future May Bring Simplicity (We Hope) by Jean-Philippe Courtois*
"More is going to happen over the next ten years than it did in the past ten. By 2015, the world will again experience the kind of dramatic shift that the internet brought, which is a pretty exciting notion. A lot of this change is going to happen through software...Workers and organisations are already nearing the point of so-called information overload, where the sheer volume of data and the complexity of the applications necessary to work with it threaten to overwhelm the powers of human cognition. These distractions have a demonstrable effect on the productivity and health of workers.
Along with the proliferation of channels and features that IT offers, we are looking to offer simplification and insight with our products. That means we are trying to address things like prioritisation, context, attention management, and also to bring in better and smarter ways to visualise and control volumes of complex data."
From: By Jean-Philippe Courtois; European Business Forum, Fall 2005
We are already seeing the early signs of these smart products.
Smart Voicemail
Back in January 2005, New Scientist Magazine announced that MIT is working on an Intelligent Voicemail system that labels messages according to the caller's tone of voice, helping people identify which messages are the most urgent. The software, called Emotive Alert, is designed by Zeynep Inanoglu and Ron Caneel of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
It might be installed at the phone exchange or in an intelligent answering machine, where it will listen to incoming messages and send the recipient a text message along with an emoticon indicating whether the message is urgent, happy, excited or formal.
PROS:
reduces compelxity by prioritizng urgent messages
CONS: Voice SPAM; Telemarketers and voicemail spammers will likely create messages designed to score high on urgency metrics so that they can be artificially boosted to the top of your priority list. Auto Applications
Another British company, Affective Media, will soon be selling software for cars that detects drowsiness and frustration in a driver's voice as he or she asks the in-car navigation system for directions, and will attempt to wake the driver up or calm them down, as appropriate.
* Jean-Philippe Courtois is president of Microsoft international.
© 2005
Walter Derzko
Expert, Consultant and Guest Speaker on emerging Smart Technologies, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "
To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me
.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"
- old Japanese proverb
P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page
Comments