Archive for July 2010
New Chip Technology Is Everywhere
I talk alot about future trends and technologies, RFID chips, nanotechnology, and well, even computers as we know them. With all these advances, there is a growing challenge, how to keep your privacy private. The new chip technology is everywhere, we are forced into it, all financial institutions in Canada must have this chip technology embedded into each card by 2011, credit cards and yes even debit cards. The government and corporations are mandating this technology without your knowledge, it’s happening and you have no choice. Oh, and by the way, as of October 2010, if you don’t have this chip on your Visa, you will no longer be covered by the Visa Zero Liability Policy. I’ll be you didn’t know that.
These cards with chips embedded are called “Smart Cards”, in time will permanently have replaced the current magnetic-strip cards we carry around today. These new chip cards mean you can, you will not be able to hide, you will be tracked at all times, if you are a criminal or have bad credit, they turn the card off and you are unable to buy anything. Let alone not be found, hiding is something we did when we were little, covered ours eyes and no one could see us, remember?
This past week, the Google & US Government collaboration was announced, the Internet will be monitored, every Tweet, every FaceBook Update, every Blog Post will be scrutinized. So be careful what you put on the NET, it might get you in serious trouble. Here is an example of how a simple purchase of a Pizza might go for you in the near future.
The Two Most Misunderstood Words On The NET
A lot of words are misunderstood, that’s a given, but here online there are two that really mess people up. Now, I see tough times ahead for TV, Newspapers, Magazines, Music Stores, Book Stores and so on, these are the obvious ones. In fact, most major corporations are trying to figure out how to make these two words work for them. The problem isn’t the words, the problem is in the past, it’s called the Industrial age.
Remember when Social Media first came on the scene, your boss heard the words Social Media and freaked out. The picture that came to mind was people standing around a water cooler and not working, just shooting the breeze. I’m certain that is still a problem in most businesses, but they are dead wrong. Yes, Social Media is misunderstood, but those aren’t the two words I’m talking about now.
The two most misunderstood words are, Open & Free. Open & Free is a business model, and they are completely taken the wrong way, much like Social Media was and is still today. Open means many things, here online, they can mean, open systems and transparency. Free does not always mean free literally, but sometimes it does, and that’s where the rub is for business owners.
Open & Free are trying to achieve a balance the same way Sharing vs Piracy is trying to gain credibility. The problem as I mentioned earlier is, old thinking, we have to unlearn most of what we understand in the old business model of control. How you ask. The best way is to hire someone like myself that sees the world of business online as it will be, not as it is. I don’t mean someone who is guessing, someone who can show you in a methodical way that makes sense, in a simple way you understand. The future of business is not that hard to see, but it is if you’re using old eyes, the way you’ve always done things. Remember a primary principle, you don’t know what you don’t know.
Using the Open & Free Business Model in your business takes work, starting with looking at your business in a new and exciting way. Open may mean that you are giving your customers access to you, if you have been hiding from them before. In this new world business of commerce, you can’t hide anymore, you must connect with those who are buying and using your product and services. This isn’t new to some, but most still try to control who gets to them, and I’m betting it’s not going so well.
Free may mean you are selling a three part product or service, and you are giving part one away for free, and then charging for access to the other two parts. It could be a product, or it could be a consulting service. I have over simplified it here for you but it’s not this simple really, there’s much, much more to this model than described here.
If you want to learn more about The Open & Free Business Model, snoop around this blog for more posts, attend my workshop if you are local to me, hire me as a think-tank leader, and lastly, you can wait for my book to come out.
Open & Free are lonely words because they are The Two Most Misunderstood Words On The Internet Today.
Is The Creative Commons License The Answer to Copyright?
The Internet has presented a huge problem with the current Copyright Laws of each land, the Internet, is in fact a giant copy machine that violates most Copyright type licenses every second of the day. Great debates have and are taking place as to what the answer may or may not be, the laws are about control, the Internet is not, it wants to share everything it finds and at no or very little cost. So, how does one get paid for their work if that later is indeed true.
What is a Creative Commons License? I’m not even going to consider trying to explain it to you because I don’t know! I am however going to let you understand it better through this video, now pay attention, you may be very interested to know that this is close to what we may be looking for here on the Internet.
Does this Creative Commons License work for you? What do you think?
If you want more information on the Creative Commons License, here is the link to the website: Creative Commons License
Flying Cars in 2011!
A friend of mine in Seattle is very much a transportation expert, in fact, he predicted flying cars would be here sooner than we anticipated, but I was skeptical. Not any longer. I can remember as a young boy talking about how someday we would be like the Jetsons, but here on earth, not in space. Do you remember the cartoon based show, every Saturday morning we would watch the Jetsons and pretend it was me flying around in one of those fan-dangled vehicles. Glen Hiemstra from the site Futurist.com, made a statement not to long ago, here’s his quote, ” Looking ahead, over the next decade or two we will, nationally and internationally, need to be thinking systemically about travel demand and supply, advanced transportation technologies, and how to achieve sustainable transportation, if that is possible.” Advanced Technologies, could it be that Glen is talking about flying cars? Probably not.
The truth is, the 1st flying car is expected to be available in 2011, that’s right, a company called, Terrafugia Inc. has produced a vehicle that flies! Barring government interference and the FTC, we should see this car soon. Now I figured you wouldn’t believe me so I am going to let you see for yourself, I have for you a video of the car actually flying, and parked in a driveway. Wrap your brain around this, I can see all kinds of problems making this car available. Hell we can’t drive properly on roads now let alone be flying too! On June 3rd, 2009 this car took it’s first flight, here’s the video:
Headway Themes New Soon To Be Released Theme – A 1.7 Overview
As many of you know, I’m a huge fan of Headway Themes and highly recommend it for anyone running a WordPress Blog. This is a short video by Danny Brown of http://www.dannybrown.me – Danny will give a quick overview of the new 1.7 version. In my humble opinion, Headway Themes provides the best solution for website’s, no matter what level of expertise you may have with WordPress, this is the Premier WordPress Theme bar none! A BIG thanks to Danny for this video, if you want to see other sites using Headway, here is a list of 200 for you to review – enjoy!