Changes 2008 – Part 1

I sometimes get obsessive about change. I often speak and write about how it is coming faster and faster, sometimes in incremental steps, sometimes in bursts. This year’s presidential election put “change” on everyone’s lips, it remains to be seen if it in our hearts, particularly, the hearts of those who work in government. Time will tell. It will take more than a new federal executive branch with a charismatic leader to change a country, but it can certainly be helpful. I am full of hope (and a little fear) for 2009. Those at the top now embrace inevitable change. We will see if they can make major, positive changes. That was why they were elected.

2008 brought about, or increased awareness of, other things that I believe may change our lives in the near future. I will be writing about some of them in the next few posts.

Change #1 - The Rise of Social Networking

The early web allowed us to access almost limitless static information (web pages) and cell phones allowed us to reach any single person at any given time no matter where we or they were located. Now the line between computers and telephones is blurring.

Sprint is now bundling all their mobile services including internet, GPS and unlimited voice for $99.99 a month. Radio Shack is teaming with AT&T to sell a small “netbook” computer that will allow you to 24/7 access the web anywhere in the AT&T area, the computer will only cost $99 and the wireless internet contract will be $60 a month. The concept of affordable bundled services and low cost computers (effectively big phones with a screen and usable keyboard) is huge.

However we will not just be looking at web pages and sending emails. We will be social networking anywhere and anytime. People will not just communicate one at a time but in groups, social networks. Blogging, podcasting, FaceBook and it’s professional sibling Linkedin LinkedIn , virtual worlds like Second_Life and the increasingly popular micro-blog Twitter (think of texting over the internet to groups) connect millions all day every day. Even that which we know to be true, “knowledge,” will be determined less and less by books and professorial lectures that by what the Wikipedia network of contributors determines to be true. (Read about Steven Colbert’s take on “Wikiality”, a subspecies of “Truthiness.”)

Like it or not, there will be less alone time, that is why every young person is nearly literally on the phone all the time. They live in another world (a very real world with very real people) where everyone is constantly in touch, not only with each other but with the entire network (think Borg). We will all live there too, eventually. Then it will no longer be another world but part of the only world we all know. That will be a major change in human communication and perception.

Next: Cloud Computing, Alternative Fuels, and The Resurrection of Faith in Government and Belief in Government Service.