Written on 23rd June 2009
17 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
(Before you read all this, as interesting as it is – I realise many of you are busy so I kindly created a “if you read nothing else, read this” section at the bottom – I won’t be offended if you skip ahead :)
A new form of technology is about to take the world by storm. In reality, its not very new at all, its mainly been used within specific industries, or in advertisements & films giving us brief glimpses of what the future would be like.
Up until now, the technology known as  ’augmented reality’ has mainly been confined to gaming, military, entertainment, architecture and medicine, however, thanks to a new era of mobile power – we, the consumer, are about to finally experience what sci-fi movies have teased us with for decades.
What is Augmented Reality?
Augmented Reality (AR) is essentially the fusion of real and virtual reality, where graphic objects are (more…)
It is hard to imagine, even for a second, that we’ll ever forget about Google and all start using a new search engine. But that is exactly what happened in 2003 when we all forgot about Yahoo, Lycos and AltaVista. If history is any indication within 10 years we WILL be using something else other than Google to search. Do you believe it?
I know, it takes a very large leap of faith to believe it but experiments like Spezify do make me wonder what the ‘Next’ big thing will be. Spezify is a visual search engine that collects search results, arranges them on a desktop and allows you to drag around that desktop. It feels more like spreading out old photos and articles on a big desk and shuffling them around than what you are used to with regular search.
There is a border of screens dividing our lives. The web of things welcomes us to the world of ominipresent digital ether (as a form of augmented reality.) Yaremko offers us a different way to think about ubiqutous computing through the concept of origami cards made from electronic paper for only 1-5 dollars a piece. It is not a personal device but a medium for communication as you can share them with others. You will have plenty of cards and you will see more of the world through these cards.
They may be used in healthcare and carry receipts, diagnosis reports and prescriptions. As avatar cards they represent the next generation of business cards. They fit into your wallet and include your cv and deep details. The origami cards allow you to see, capture and interact with information from Digital Ether.
The future has a “Wiki” nature and is developed through processes of collaboration. Read more about this project on the The Atlas of the Futures website:
Wiki-future is a project where we create our futures together, in an ongoing collaboration with each other. Together we try to recognize the weak signals of the coming times, make sense of the new manifestations, and get insights into possible realities of the future.
In 3 days we will listen to a bunch of experts talking about The Next Web. In general they look to the not so distant future. What is going to happen with Twitter, Google, online advertising and online advertising in the next 2 years or so. Some look out way past that at, maybe, the next 10 years.
You and me aren’t limited to making reliable predictions however. So lets go wild. Lets take a look at the following 30 years and lets do it together.
What will Apple do in 30 years?
What will spam look like in 30 years?
What will social networking be like in 30 years?
What will Google allow you to search for in 30 years?
What body part will update its status via Twitter in 30 years?
Use your imagination and fantasy and let us know in the comments. Links to video, images or blogposts are very welcome to0.
Written on 1st March 2009
30 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
At the Wharton Business Technology Conference, Microsoft unveiled the latest vision video from their Microsoft Office Labs called “2019″. The video shows an array examples of how current prototypes may evolve in the years ahead within the worlds of education, healthcare and beyond.
Long Zheng over at istartedsomething.com managed to get his hands on the full version of the presentation which I have embedded below.
Upload Cinema is a monthly gig in Amsterdam where organizers Barbara de Wijn and Dagan Cohen take web videos to the big screen. It’s sponsored by Amsterdam advertising agency Draftfcb and invitation only, however you can apply for membership here. We try to go the every one and show you a list of movies shows there. Also see all the videos from the previous edition titled ’Top 36 (plus one NSFW) viral videos of 2008‘.
February 2nd (this Monday) was a trip down memory lane of the future. Though quite some current future visions we’re screened, like BMW’s Gina and the Minority Report inspired G-Speak, the editorial team clearly had a soft spot for past future visions, showing video’s like Leonardo Da Vinci’s Automobile and Visioning A Web In 1934.
Almost 200 films were submitted, 37 were selected and shown. Here they all are:
I wonder when we will see more interactive interfaces for handling information like this. We all complain about information overload but stick with the old fashioned interfaces we are used to. Wouldn’t it be cool if our RSS feeds would swim by, like fishes, and appear bigger, smaller or brighter if they are more important?
What if Google would present search results like this? Would it work?
What about CNNs newsticker? Can i get one of those on my own monitor displaying feeds from Google Reader and Subjects from my email inbox? I could just work and casually look at the viewer at the bottom of my screen now and then.
Stare at Aqua for a few minutes and more possible interfaces will start appearing before your eyes…
Written on 21st October 2008
9 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
As we reach what some people are calling the “end of web 2.0″ and (appropriately) the start of the next web – it seems like the perfect time to look back at some of the web apps from a few years ago and ask ‘where are they now…?’.
As a reference point, we’ll look at Dion Hinchcliffe’s Best of 2005 post.
Status: Alive. Going strong although immense competition from both igoogle and yahoo. In April 2008 the company announced they planned to open source their widget platform, application programming interfaces, and iPhone version.
Runners-Up:
Status:Alive, just.
Status: Alivebut Now Microsoft Live – hardly a success in the start page arena.
This is a photo of the very first Web Server. It was used by Tim Berners-Lee (Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee actually) while he worked at CERN. As you can see the first web server was a NeXT box. NeXT was a company founded by Steve Jobs after he left Apple. The company never took off and was acquired by Apple when they were looking for a new operating system. The first web browser, developed by Berners-Lee was called WorldWideWeb and was developed on NeXTSTEP, the NeXT development toolset.
They (Herb Brody) say that telling the future by looking at the past assumes that conditions remain constant. This is like driving a car by looking in the rearview mirror. But I still think it is good to look back on how things got started and where they ended up since then. The first website was put online in August 1991. Just think about how much has happened since then and try to imagine how much we can expect from the next 17 years…
Written on 23rd June 2009
17 COMMENTS 
(Before you read all this, as interesting as it is – I realise many of you are busy so I kindly created a “if you read nothing else, read this” section at the bottom – I won’t be offended if you skip ahead :)
Written on 12th May 2009
Written on 17th April 2009
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
