Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Can you see the next big thing already?

According to the gospel of innovation on the Internet, there was search before Google, social networking before Facebook and music playing devices before the iPod and yet these services and devices completely changed the way we think about the Internet and content.

If you believe in this version of how the current big players came about, the logical next step is to conclude that the next big thing is probably already out there in one form or another. It could be that the actual company that is going to strike gold has already been founded or just that the market where it will enter has begun to develop.

Many different services and technologies have been floated as possible next big things. NFC, Twitter/microblogging, big data and many more have been mentioned but none of them are even near being widely accepted as the next big thing.

Where would you place your bets? Where do you see the next big thing emerging?

2 comments:

  1. Web 2.0 is much about collaboration. Web 2.0 is old and next big thing is in web 3.0, right? No, I believe there are still much to be done when it comes to collaboration.

    I believe that companies will change focus from filling positions with best locally available CV to filling roles with best globally available competence and reputation. Roles can either be similar to today’s permanent employment or it can be ultra short term (maybe we just need help on how to calculate a certain thing?). In a way "everyone" will be a consultant (oh my world!). As a first step big companies will improve their efficiency on how to utilize its own resources. For instance it will be easier to engage competent people in a local project regardless of where they work within the company. Today we don't even know that these people exist. Next step we will share knowledge with other companies to a larger extent. R&D can be very expensive! This happens already today, but it's not a very dynamic and efficient system.

    And a total different subject, I believe that 3D printers WILL change a lot of future business, as Chris Anderson among others predicts. We will download the latest Barbie, maybe customize the face and then print it. The plastic are mostly made of recycled materials from unused toys, computers and other things. At the Volvo workshop all parts are printed on demand. The supply chain gets shorter. Businesses that can’t adapt and find a new business model will have problems.

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    1. Thank you Miguel for your thoughts. I do agree that collaboration has yet to fulfill its true potential online. I also think that while there is a lot of talk about curation, especially in the context of online media, most curation occurs ad-hoc using tools that were developed for entirely different purposes, like email or Facebook. Maybe that will be the subject of a future blog post of mine.

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