Inspire

The Rise of Cognitive Incoherence

We live in a world of continuous partial attention (CPA), info chunks, multi-tasking and shortened time-spans. What are the implications of this on our thinking? In my view this might lead to both positive and negative effects. Positive is more lateral and associative thinking and pattern recognition. Considering the negative results I can imagine it leads to a more incoherent kind of thinking and behavior. While we need systemic, integrated and holistic thinking to solve urgent and complex global issues, we seem to go the other way. I wonder how this will progress.

My View on the Future of Human Identity, Human Potential and Self Realization

In the last few years we have witnessed incredible progress in robotics, biotech, artificial life and intelligence and cognitive neuroscience including connectomics from Harvard. Robots are already socially and emotionally intelligent to a certain extent as can be seen in the the stunning work by Cynthia Breazeal from MIT. Robots, AI and A-Life will increasingly narrow down the specific features, benefits and skills of us humans. What are our competitive advantages relative to these technological developments? My guess at this point in time this will boil down to (among other things) creativity and innovation and other right brain skills.

As all these technological developments will increasingly democratize and empower us as individuals - like almost all key technologies in the past have democratized eventually - we'll in my view probably end up with the situation in which children and adolescents will increasingly be exposed to these powerful tools. Not only as prevention or correction but simply as an 'awareness right'. In practice, we'll see that fMRI scans (benefiting from the current research on connectomics from the neuron level upwards) and personal DNA profiling (like in 23andMe) will democratize. Children and adolescents will know quite early in life what their skills, talents and dispositions are or can be. This will probably drive a deeper sense of human identity, self awareness, human potential as well as self realization. And educational system (offline as well as online) will somehow integrate these insights in the long run.

In short, the psychological trend of the last 20 years in which magazines, TV programs, books and educational systems test their users/readers (and successfully as this spreads around and around while users love it) will broaden into the fields biotech and cognitive neuroscience. With a strong focus on what makes us uniquely human relative to the advances in robotics, AI and A-Life.

I am thrilled by this prospect as this will probably enhance a lot of lives in the future.

My Personal Vision on Mobile Phones, Mobile Internet and Authenticity

Connectivity breeds positive outcomes.

I would like to extend this idea a little to a possible logical (positive conclusion). At first for the rich countries, later on for underdeveloped countries as well. Here goes:

The overarching theme of our times in my view is authenticity and self realisation. The mobile phone and mobile internet in this respect is a key driver and enabler/facilitator. Why ?

1) The more we share (the more open we are), the more transparent we are. Open APIs, GPS data, photos, videos, blog posts, tweets, clickstream data and increasingly attention data concerning what we read and watch (see APML) are examples. This sharing (increasingly using our mobile phones) stimulates authenticity and honesty as inconsistenties and lies are exposed to ourselves, our family, our social network, our peers and even the market/public as a whole.

2) Information overload begets us the question of what is important to us ? Choices… Choices are based on your identity (who am I ? what are my values ? what is core to me ?). Filtering (using our mobile phones) based increasing identity awareness stimulates authenticity. If we are overwhelmed with options, possibilities and choices, we are drawn to ourselves.

3) Change is everywhere and seems to speeding up. This creates stress in people. In most cases, people can find their core personality in these circumstances as it makes us naked in our needs and wants. As a result, authenticity comes to the fore. As a mobile phones is present with us almost all the time, it seems likely this will be a key gateway to learn about ourselves in these circumstances.

4) Increasingly, (mobile) technologies are on the market for the automated detection of deception and lies. Examples are Facial Coding techniques integrated into and applied to videos and presentations. If you lie, certain particular facial expressions are salient. These expressions can be logged and analyzed using technology. Increasingly, these techniques will be incorporated into mobile phones. As a result, authenticity becomes not only a valuable choice (see point 1, 2 and 3) but also a necessity in certain instances.

5) Mobile phones transform conversational techniques due to ‘presence’ capabilities. If my loves ones and social network can follow all my updates and actions on Twitter, my blog, Facebook etc…this transforms my real-life interactions. The basic questions are skipped as they are already clear using mobile phones and mobile internet. In the past, the basic questions were a necessity due to the lack of the mentioned apps. As a result, real-life conversations focus on more deep questions related to emotions, feelings and intimacy. Shallow, factual questions are more unnecessary. All of this might stimulate authentic conversations and authenticity.

In short, the mobile phone is not only a fantastic connectivity and thus productivity, growth and empowerment tool but also increasingly IMO a tool for higher levels of trust, authenticity, self realization, transparency and honesty.

This is not a sure scenario, just a likely scenario IMO. It is evenly possible to construct an opposite case/scenario with fear (instead of hope and trust) as a key theme as a result of using a mobile phone and mobile internet (including Internet of Things/UbiComp). Fear due to increasing control by classic institutions and even ordinary people. Fear -> more closed systems -> negative outcomes across the board including Less authenticity. Yet again, I am an optimist :-)

My Own Presentation on Trends, Digital Media, Marketing, Digital Marketing and Communication: Why Identity, Authenticity and Creativity Will Dominate Our Lives

Here is my presentation on different trends, digital media, web 2.0, web 3.0, marketing, digital marketing and communication/branding. Dutch only as yet, English one will follow soon. Focus is on different technological, environmental, economic and political views (macro perspective) as well as psychological, social and cultural views (micro perspective) and how they intersect, converge and reinforce in many different ways on different levels of analysis.

Key take away: Identity (knowing your intrinsic motivation, purpose and talents), Authenticity (being) and Creativity (doing) as reinforcing themes and values in the emerging and increasingly open space of the next web(s), biotech and ubiquitous computing where the all-encompassing and increasing availability of more granular and personal data of all sorts make the invisible visible and explicit to the benefit of ourselves, our social network, our peers and the market/global brain/humanity as a whole. The essential used to be invisible to the eye....until now and it will bring about massive transformations for the benefit of us all.

Hope you'll enjoy it.

On Questions and Answers, Answers and Questions and the Role of Search Engines, Transformation and Social Networks

Some musings on questions, answers and search engines. My passionate blog readers know that my core focus in my blog is on the intersection between technology and the mind. The theme below is haunting me for a while now.

With the rise of mobile devices and their search engines, the search for (standard) answers will be shortened and less important. Additionally, the increasing importance and impact of virtual agents (Web 3.0, semantic web) as well as Augmented Reality applications will raise the bar even more for hard answers. At least, for some matters. Why ? Communication has four different levels : weather, facts and figures, emotions and intimacy. I suspect in the future the most interesting (and hard) questions and answers will migrate slowly towards emotions and intimacy. And this is where the importance of Transformation (Joseph Pine II) and social networks comes to the fore. The weather and facts are non-personal, emotions and intimacy by default aren't. Furthermore, every answer gives rise to new questions, more deep questions that is. Combine this insight with the rising importance of multi-disciplinary studies, disciplines and professionals and we see the rise of more integrated questions and answers with much more depth. We can already witness this in the increasing saliency of scientific papers encompassing different disciplines.

In short, technology is changing the nature of questions we will ask ourselves and the world around us.  We will ask more personal questions using technology than ever before. More deep factual, scientific questions, more emotional questions as well as more questions on intimacy. Perhaps Ray Kurzweil was right: we might end up being spiritual machines after all ;-)

How do you see this unfold ?

Prometeus Media Revolution: Future Vision on Digital Media in 2050: A Critical Analysis

The video below called Prometeus Media Revolution is a thought-provoking vision on the future of digital media until 2050. There are some powerful ideas in here. Here are my comments and musings based on this 5 minute video:

• Be all you can be (Man = God); here I miss the strong interrelationships between digital media, biotech, nanotech and cognitive neuroscience. More importantly, I miss (the importance of) the notion of Augmented Reality/Mixed Reality/Google Earth in this video
• Multiple identities and avatars -> more empathy & more effective communication as well as more self awareness/identity awareness (intrinsic motivation and unique capabilities)
• Sharing of memories and processes -> more productivity and more empathy. We already see this happening right now with partial solutions like Clutzr
• The movie Abre Los Ojos / Vanilla Sky resonates strongly with the latter part in the video (virtual dreaming versus your real life)
• The vid is about the rise of the Gift Economy (Kevin Kelly) and rise of Creative Commons (Lessig)
• Advertisement becomes information (not propaganda), comparison and experience. Here I miss key concepts like attention, relevancy, intention(s), trust and permission based/opt-in. I do really like the idea of Content Creators producing their own advertising/commercials. Powerful but inside-out, not recipient driven !
• I like the idea of Personal Agents delivered by Google due to its link with Web 3.0/Semantic Web
• I also love the idea of reliving history episodes as a participant/active agent -> very high impact and emotional as well as educational value due to its immersiveness
• Furthermore, the Spirit theme resonates with me strongly as a result of my posts on Transformation, Spirituality, Identity and Authenticity (Identity, Authenticity and Creativity as reinforcing forces in Web 2.0 and Web 3.0). However, I wonder if it will be possible in any time to convey and transfer feelings based on lifelogging materials like in Spirit in this video. What I miss is the value and possibility of Dreaming as a source of new virtual worlds and experiences. I believe we don't have to travel outer space as they increase our Places repetoire in virtuality. We have our hands full living out our continuously evolving personal dreams in my view. That is endless
• I don't believe in 'Totems' on the street for printing purposes. This will be personal/mobile/integrated, if any ;-) Papers can get lost, digital stuff can't
• Digital terrestial won't be abandoned due to the implications for the mobile TV revolution (e.g., the impact of technologies like DVB-H and DMB)
• "The media arena will consolidate"; hmmm, yes and no. The Long Tail will always be active, especially since the user generated content craze will intensify and broaden to collective peer production results. With the advent of LIVE mobile webcasting (ComVu, Kyte, Mogulus) we will witness an increase social content consumption relative to the market content consumption. Additionally, I don't buy evil scenarios with 1 company dominating the whole internet (like Google). Why ? Companies with too much power have always been dethroned by the masses as they embrace more benign competitors or develop their own (open source peer produced) alternatives. However, the current huge investments by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Amazon data centers point in the direction as shown in the video below.
• I totally agree with the idea of Knowledge Flow instead of statis output(s)

Why We Are At A Tipping Point For Mobile Internet...

Last Monday there was the first Mobile Monday Amsterdam event (Dutch text only). There is an amazing presentation from Jyri Engestrom (co-founder of the co-presence company called Jaiku) in this event post. He explains why co-presence is one of the logical next steps for blogs and social networks. Highly recommended presentation.

I am actively involved in the Mobile Monday monthly mobile internet event as co-founder and am responsible for sponsoring. To me, the team spirit of the organizing group is inspiring ! I am very pleased with the fact that this event was a huge success. Quite a few people asked me lately about the reasons for the success of this mobile internet event. For example, the whole idea started somewhere mid April, 2007 and now we have more than 340 members within 6 weeks. The complete Mobile Monday member list can be viewed in the link. Hopefully you will join our member list as well.

So why are we at a tipping/inflection/bifurcation point for mobile internet ? (inflection points are a part of complexity theory/science). Here are my musings:

Normally, a bandwidth upgrade within the mobile internet space follows a particular evolution. There is the sequence of upgraded mobile networks, handsets, applications and content. Each upgrade follows the former with a one year delay.

• Handsets: most importantly, some very high impact devices have entered the market or will be on the market real soon: the Apple iPhone, the Nokia N95 and the Helio Ocean. All these high-end and revolutionary devices attract many users, create immense PR and buzz and bring the mobile internet device (MID) a reality in between laptops and more traditional smart phones. Combine this with the rise of extended battery time, more intuitive UIs, more user-friendly wizards and operator services for setting up advanced mobile services, more flexible and rollable mobile displays like PolymerVision as well as tangible interfaces. Perhaps Google, Microsoft and Yahoo will launch state of the art mobile internet devices themselves in 2008 ?
  
• Infrastructure: HSDPA -> Long Term Evolution/LTE/HSDPA++ -> WiMax -> 4G. With bandwidth of 100 Mbps downlinks we are entering a phase where fixed DSL and cable internet providers will increasingly be substituted by broadband mobile internet offerings. Additionally, all applications from the PC will be feasible on our mobiles within 5 years. On top of that, we will see the rise of P2P mesh networking, NFC and UWB.
  
• Applications: parallel apps using IMS, convergence, LBS, co-presence/microblogging, search, social networking, GPS, VoIP, RFID/barcodes/shotcodes/QR codes, speech recognition, universal language translators, mobile RSS remixers for integrating and manipulating different mobile web feeds, augmented reality, biometrics, 3D mobile web, wallets, bio-sensing and especially combinations of the apps mentioned
• Content: all user generated content (UBroadcast, Kyte, blogs etc.), music, photos, TV, video, VOD/Joost and games (including Alternate Reality Gaming and Serious Gaming)
• Open Mobile Web: walled garden approaches by MNOs will be eliminated this year opening up the web to the mobile user
• Pricing: now we have for the first time flat fee mobile internet access for all leading MNOs in the Netherlands -> this will be huge adoption and usage driver for the mobile internet

In short, different parts of the mobile internet ecosystem converge and reinforce each other going forward. They make a comparable experience like the one on the PC and thus spur substitution and adoption over time. Furthermore, for the first time in history the mobile networks, handsets, applications and content are all ready for mobile broadband usage (UMTS/HSDPA and beyond).

These are very exciting times....Mobile : The 7th Mass Medium !

What do you think ? Is the mobile internet indeed at a tipping point ? Why (not) ?

37 Sources of Inspiration and My Own Sources of Inspiration

This blog is called Inspire so it seems to me this post is a sort of home coming. Here are 37 sources of inspiration from different authors integrated during a Group Writing Project. Not a wiki but more fragmented and individually oriented. Recommended to all my readers.

So what are my own sources of inspiration ?  Here goes:

• Love (nothing inspires me more than love; opening up all my five (or six ;-)) senses, creating an outlook of infinity and unbounded possibilities, intensifying reality, appreciating the small things/details in life even more and an open, young and optimistic mind to the world at large)
• Children (the way they question the world, their innocence, autonomy, authenticity, inner spirit, energy, vulnerability and creativity)
• Friends (listening carefully, relaxing dinner evenings, open/personal/honest conversations, doing fun or new stuff)
• Water (waterfalls, the sound of seashores, rafting, swimming, showering, wake boarding, rain)
• Music (especially indie rock, jazz, classic, dance)
• Movies (mostly independent and art house)
• People watching/listening in a public space
• Smells (boosting associations and living in the moment)
• Nature (sunset/sunrise, cloud formations, animals, change of seasons, mountains, valleys, deserts, hiking, jungle, snow etc.)
• Scuba diving (both the boat journeys as well as diving itself are high impact meditative experiences to me)
• Spirituality (meditating, yoga)
• Serendipity/coincidences in life (the way life unfolds in funny and interesting ways)
• Reading (scanning and reading my blog roll with my favorite bloggers)
• Watching terrific videos on TEDTalks, Fora.tv and PopTech
• Dancing (physical activity making my head empty and the expression of my inner being)
• Spa/sauna/massage/floating (close your eyes, become aware of your body and ideas pop up)
• Dreams/sleep
• Watching outside of a train while listening to its repetitive sounds (almost mantra like)
• Working out (mindfulness and repetition creating Eureka moments)
• Design/architecture
• Paintings (especially Renoir, Monet, Picasso, Chagall, Klimt, Van Gogh, Degas) 
• TV (even though I don't watch TV anymore since February 2005 due to the rise of my digital lifestyle; I like 'Van Kooten en de Bie', stand up comedy, Twin Peaks, productions from 'Wim Kayzer' as sources for inspiration)

Looking forward to seeing your views on inspiration and your own sources of inspiration !

How Does Marketing and Advertising 2.0 Look Like ? A Suggestion

Some musings from my side on the evolution of advertising, communications and marketing. In my view most new tools are about pull and targeted push instead of broadcast push tools. Looking forward to your ideas on this topic.

Here we go:
1) link baiting articles for Digg, eKudos, Reddit
2) Search Ads
3) SEO
4) opt-in targeted and personalized newsletters
5) iTV ads
6) viral marketing games/quizzes/contests
7) opt-in RSS ads
8) targeted affiliate marketing (ClickDistrict and RightMedia/RMX)
9) offline and online events/webcasts (like Apples' product announcements)
10) co-marketing (alliances with other vendors)
11) using digital platforms transcending marketing campaigns
12) own weblog
13) presence on 3D worlds like Second Life supplying tools for learning, networking, research, entertainment and creation
14) targeted ads within Joost
15) RFID (also infrared barcodes, QR codes, normal barcodes, shotcodes etc.) via billboards and physical shopping environments
16) presence on Google Maps and Google Earth via Placemarks in KML (pull)
17) implicit, relevant ads in games
18) buzz marketing in sociale netwerks
19) Twitter en Jaiku ads (opt-in)
20) presence on WikiCompany, Wikipedia and Citizendium
21) giving complete answers on Yahoo Answers, LinkedIn Answers and other social search solutions within the domain of the advertiser
22) offering widgets for integration in blogs and social networking profiles
23) opening your data and commercials (albeit selectively) for remixes, mash-ups and user generated content/viral effects
24) your own UStream or Kyte TV channel
25) initiate or participate in platforms for the community or world at large (social and ecological)
26) your own social network via Ning
27) creating relevant and special videos/speeches/articles and publish in key mass media and YouTube, TED, Fora.tv
28) opt-in web survey leads in third party sites
29) Bluetooth ads (pull)

On Lifelogging, Co-Presence, Augmented Reality, Being John Malkovich and its Impact on eMarketing, Identity and Innovation

Some musings from my side on Lifelogging (storing and sharing all your life experiences digitally; all you see, hear, read, share, say etc.). Kevin Kelly and this post from Fast Company inspired me in this respect. People who are interested in reading more on this topic might look at the Metaverse Roadmap Report coming out this week.

My 2 cents why lifelogging will be on the rise:

• It is a logical extension of current trends like location based services (Plazes), social networking (MySpace), blogs (Typepad), RSS feeds, co-presence/microblogging (Twitter and Jaiku) and live webcasting (UStream and Justin.tv)
• It relates to software-based, bottom-up, automatically text-based, speech-based and video-based indexing solutions like Autonomy, Nuance and Blinkx respectively enabling the value and searchability of lifelogging
• Convergence of lifelogging and Augmented Reality applications like Steve Mann/MIT uses
• Convergence of lifelogging and virtual worlds like Second Life
• Convergence of lifelogging and the increasing importance of Transformation
  
• Convergence of lifelogging with the Semantic Web (Radar Networks and Metaweb). More structured, targeted and relevant RSS feeds will be integrated into our lifestreams
• It feeds on the popular movies called Being John Malkovich ("subscribe to a friend" in an extreme way) and Truman Show
• It relates strongly to the key emerging themes Identity, Creativity/Innovation and Authenticity. More in my previous, elaborate post on the interrelationships between these three concepts and how it fits with lifelogging. Lifelogging will only deepen the saliency and importance of these three concepts in the future and these concepts will feed the adoption of lifelogging. It is an interactive , self reinforcing relationship in my view.

In my view lifelogging will have a huge impact on the evolution of eMarketing and digital advertising. Why ? Because this will result on User Owned Data, the User will be the one in controlk permanently of their lifelogging data. This data is the most valuable marketing resource as it is complete, socially networked, actual, behavorial, contextual, personalized and deep. Access to this lifestream of users/customers will be rewarded, both in monetary and non-monetary ways. Attention, permission, trust and collective intelligence will be key themes in eMarketing going forward.

So what do you expect of lifelogging ? Will it become mainstream ? Why (not) ? When ?
Do you see other trends merging with the lifelogging trend ? Which ones ? What will be the impact on eMarketing or digital advertising ?