Posts tagged futag

What Google's Move Against Spotify Could Mean for Music - Businessweek

Of course, the music industry has a long tradition of separating a song’s profit from its creators. Still, wrote Krukowski, “the ways in which musicians are screwed have changed qualitatively, from individualized swindles to systemic ones.”

Some nuggets: Charting technology’s new directions: A conversation with MIT’s Erik Brynjolfsson

You’d like to see that happening again now. But the data show that it just isn’t happening as fast. We’re having the automation and the job destruction; we’re not having the creation at the same pace. There’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to find these new jobs. It may be that machines are better than that.

That said, I’m not sure that’s a bad thing, because ultimately the purpose of economic progress and technological progress is to be able to create more wealth with less work. I mean, isn’t that what we want? More wealth with less work? So, if we are in a Star-Trek economy, where replicators create all the essentials that we need, that doesn’t have to be a bad thing if we can have an economic system that matches to it and find a way that people can share in that benefit. And people can still continue to find meaning and value in life.

Filling In The Gaps With Tim O’Reilly: some great insights (hat tip to Dug Campbell)

O’Reilly argues that the concept of a business that exists solely for the purpose of making money for its shareholders is fundamentally flawed. Every business has an obligation to create value.

Gerd adds: great summary of where the future of capitalism is going !

The Global Youth Jobless Crisis: A Tragic Mess That Is Not Getting Any Better (via TheAtlantic)

A new study from the International Labor Organization takes a global tour of youth joblessness and finds that what’s gone up won’t come down in the next five years. The youth unemployment rate* among the richest countries is projected to flat-line, rather than fall, before 2018. As a result, the global Millennial generation could be uniquely scarred by the economic downturn. Research by Lisa Kahn has showed that people graduating into a recession have typically faced a lifetime of lower wages.

Google Now, Anticipatory Systems, and the Future of Big Data | MIT

If the last century was marked by the ability to observe the interactions of physical matter—think of technologies like x-ray and radar—this century, he says, is going to be defined by the ability to observe people through the data they share…”
Really not sure I am willing to extend the Faustian bargain that far (adds Gerd)

Big Data Gets Bigger: Now Google Trends Can Predict The Market - Forbes

Yesterday three economists, (Tobias Preis of Warwick Business School in the U.K., Helen Susannah Moat of University College London, and H. Eugene Stanley of Boston University) published an eye-opening paper that said Google Trends data was useful in predicting daily price moves in the Dow Jones industrial average, which consists of 30 stocks.

Gerd adds: yet another reason why the current form of stock markets won’t exist in 5 years;)

How to become internet famous for $68 (Santiago Swallow story sheds light on fake Internet fame - made me think)

There’s just one thing about Santiago Swallow that you won’t easily find online: I made him up. Everything above is true. He really does have a Twitter feed with tens of thousands of followers, he really does have a Wikipedia biography, and he really does have an official web site. But he has never been to TED or South By South West and is not writing a book. I—or rather he—flat out lied about that…”

Gerd adds: great story indeed.

Uber, Data Darwinism and the future of work (Om Malik)

the challenges of the connected future are less technical and more legislative, political and philsophical. The shift from a generation that started out un-connected to one that is growing up connected will result in conflicts, disruption and eventually the redrawing of our societal expectations. The human race has experienced these shifts before — just not at the speed and scale of this shift.

The End of Cable TV? How Everyone Will Watch Television In The Future – ReadWrite

How much attention is OTT getting? The Interpret LLC’s New Media Measure syndicated report sets the number of US consumers age 18-65 that own an Internet-enabled set top box (like a Roku player, Apple TV, Slingbox, Vudu box, etc.) at 13.6%, reported a company spokesperson. Less than 14% may not sound like much, but OTT has been around for only three years. And Interpret’s numbers don’t include the millions of users watching alternate video sources like YouTube and Vimeo.

The Robot Will See You Now: would you trust a computer with diagnostic decisions ?

Specifically, they imagine the application of data as a “disruptive” force, upending health care in the same way it has upended almost every other part of the economy—changing not just how medicine is practiced but who is practicing it. In Silicon Valley and other centers of innovation, investors and engineers talk casually about machines’ taking the place of doctors, serving as diagnosticians and even surgeons—doing the same work, with better results, for a lot less money..,

Gerd adds: great piece - really made me think

Ito: Think twice about immortality and the singularity | Cutting Edge - CNET News

“Ray Kurzweil’s vision of the “singularity” — when nanobots make humans immortal and computer progress is so fast that the future becomes profoundly unknowable — is a bad idea. That’s the perhaps surprisingly contrary opinion of Joichi Ito, who as a high-tech investor and director of the MIT Media Lab might be expected to be a natural ally. The lab, after all, aims to be at the center of today’s technology revolution”
Gerd adds: I totally agree with Joi on this issue - watch the video!

How to Predict the Future (and How Not to) | LinkedIn

The massive quantities of data now available, coupled with the computer processing power to sift through it and subject it to microsopic analysis, can easily give us a false sense of confidence. As op-ed columnist David Brooks said recently, it is as if there is a new “religion” of “data-ism,” leading some to think that “data is a transparent and reliable lens that allows us to filter out emotionalism and ideology; that data will help us do remarkable things — like foretell the future.” But data without common sense and intuitive, human judgment can be dangerously misleading. Just ask the ratings agencies.

With 'House Of Cards,' Netflix Begins The Future Of TV (huffpo)

After crunching the numbers, the Atlantic Wire’s Rebecca Greenfield notes that Netflix will need an additional 520,000 subscribers to cover the $100 millon cost of the project — not a significant increase, percentage-wise, to its existing 33 million userbase. Netflix’s plan is to roll out at least five new shows a year, meaning they’ll realistically need a 10 percent increase in users to cover costs.

What Capitalism Can't Fix - Phil Buchanan - HBR

an increasing number of people both inside and outside the nonprofit world seem drunk on the Kool-Aid of business superiority. Too often people equate “business thinking” with effectiveness.

Good read on Disruption - Harvard Business Review

As smartphone penetration continues, watch carefully to see the degree to which carriers begin to lose lucrative messaging revenues as consumers increasingly embrace so-called over-the-top solutions like Skype, Viber, and, of course, Apple’s own messaging solution.