This presentation on the next 5,000 days of the web was very thought provoking. I can't say that I totally agree or disagree with the presenter. One thing that I definitely agree with:
The web will not become "the web, except it's better"
I do believe this is one of the most interesting things to think about. Looking back to when I was in elementary school til now even, I can see that back in 1st grade if you told me about some of the stuff that goes on now in the web such as google maps, google earth, web cams, social networking sites, e-commerce, etc etc I would have been completely blown away. And not just because I would be 7. I mean the way that computer technology has advanced, even in the past two years with Car GPS systems is crazy. I think last year around this time they were selling them for like 300 dollars. Now you can pick one up for 70-80 dollars easily. So, just thinking about what can happen to the web in 10 years is insane indeed.
One transformation to the web that I believe is going to happen very soon is the proliferation of fiber-optic (or a similar technology) based Internet service. I don't think the 5,000 day video mentioned anything about this, but I think an advance like this will further evolve the web just like broadband speed did. I am not sure what will happen as a result of ultra-fast, ultra-ubiquitous web speed, but it will probably be really neat. The widespread speed will impact web design in a similar way moving from 56k to DSL impacted it. More data and media will be able to be presented on web pages and web designers will have more tools to use in order to utilize all the possiblilities.
The presenter in the video talked about increased personalization with the cost of increased transparency and I can't help but wonder, Is that what we really want? Especially from a security standpoint this increased transparency idea is very scary.
One last thing I really like about the video was his bit on our reliance of Google's search engine to "remember" things for us. This concept really intrigued me. I don't know if I think that is a good thing or not. I have to wonder: is it okay for us to dump so much of our human-ness into one non-human entity that we all lose the ability or desire to know things and remember them? Does that reflect poorly on us? Should we embrace this concept of a global brain that remembers everything for us so we don't have to?
I don't know. What I do know is that technology grows rapidly and maybe the things this guy talks about will seem ridiculously outdated and simple in 5-10 years.
1 comment:
Great post! I'm glad you pointed out the quote about "the web, except better".
I think the changes are hard to predict, but we know two things the size and reach of the web will continue to grow. This will change the way we use and design for the web.
I agree with you about the knowledge dump. I don't think I would feel comfortable if I was having knee surgery and the doctor was "Googleing" where my knee was located.
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