Experts on What’s Ahead

The LA Times (December 28, 2006) has a good article interviewing six great thinkers on what’s ahead in technology. You can read it here.
What will they think of next?
Napster in 1999. MySpace in 2004. YouTube in 2006. Experts from the tech community look ahead to the innovations that will change how we work, play and communicate in 2007.
The seven are: STEVE BALLMER; NED SHERMAN; RAFAT ALI; KEVIN WERBACH; CHRIS ANDERSON; HANK BARRY; JOHN BROCKMAN
STEVE BALLMER (CEO of Microsoft Corp.)
“You’ll be back in control” except he talks about DRM and a single electronic identity.
NED SHERMAN (CEO and publisher of digitalmediawire.com)
“Where virtual meets real life” and talks about Second Life and potnetial for training and education.
RAFAT ALI (editor of paidContent.org)
“Breakout acts” and the potential for break out performers to emerge in the virtual world.
KEVIN WERBACH (assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the organizer of the Supernova technology conference (supernova2007.com))
“Video Napster” and the potential for exponential growth curve for the Internet as a video platform for longer form movies and TV shows.
CHRIS ANDERSON (editor in chief of Wired magazine)
“Gaming as communication” YouTube ads and the merging bbridge between games, TV and the web.
HANK BARRY (was chief executive of Napster)
‘Memory to go” and the virtualization of all technoology and software. Beyond the USB memory stick…
JOHN BROCKMAN (publisher and editor of Edge (edge.org))
“All computing, all the time” and ubiquitous WiFI computing and nanotechnology. “Synthetic Biology pioneer George Church of Harvard University expects $3,000 personal genomics kits in stores.” “Rod Brooks, director of MIT’s computer lab, is looking at new Web services aimed at the baby boomer age group, who realize that, in terms of IT use, they’ve been passed by, missing out on IM, text-messaging, MySpace, etc. ”
Lots to noodle on here.
Stephen