Posts Tagged ‘Internet’
The Future Of Business Is NOT Social Networks
One of the futurists I was following tweeted something that spurred me to write this little bitty, so bare with me. There is much confusion about Social Media / Networks, and saying that the future of business is Social Networks only adds to that confusion. For some unknown reason, there are far too many who seem to think that Social Media is the answer, the messiah, the silver bullet to all their business problems. STOP IT! This is far from the truth, and is sheer stupidity on the part of those who say it is.
I’ve talked about the next generation a few times now, GEN C, they are the under 20 somethings and they are starting to figure out what they want, and it’s not what business owners want. In fact, the generation that comes behind them will never know what a Tower or laptop is or was. imagine a generation that only knows wireless handheld devices, may never know what a Newspaper was, let alone a fax machine. They will all be things placed in a Smithsonian in some major cities if they can afford to have the show in town.
If you are paying attention to these social networks, and those who have built them, they are shifting and flowing, not because they work well, but because the people in those environments are looking for something. The future of business will be dependant on a couple of things, social networks are one of the tools to obtain those things, but not the end all. Being tagged will be paramount to being found in the future, your brand / product or service will live and die by being found. That being found will need to be everywhere, not just in social networks!
To found on the Internet will be one of the many challenges to deal with in the next 2 – 3 years. As with everything, the cream will rise to the top, the have’s over the have nots will continue as it does in the bricks & mortar business world. The big difference will be the tools or mediums you use, and how you use them that will matter, and should be well thought out. In the bricks & mortar we just yelled, and the loudest business got the attention, not so in the future, and social networks will play a minor role. Attention is the new currency, data is the new oil, and the combination of those two will present a whole new way of doing business in the near future. The problem is, the data is not fully understood, the technology we need is still not ready, it’s not ready because we don’t know what problem needs solving yet. Much of what we are relying on in social networks, hasn’t happened yet.
The future of business will be social, and it will most definitely be mobile, but it won’t be social networks that are the future. The real future of business is because we are connected, on the move, regrouping on the fly, unable to be controlled by anything or anyone, including social networks. A connected world cannot be controlled, it might be seduced, but only temporarily, and that is what big business and corporations are afraid of, they can’t control you & I.
Consider this, there will be another 3 Billion users of the Internet in the next 2 – 3 year, 5 at the most, are you in a position to get they’re attention online? Do you have a strategy or a plan to capture .01 % of that potential revenue? I can’t wait to see what new ways of increasing the new currency of attention, I’m ready, I’m more than ready, I’m down right excited. But if you’re still trying to figure out how to use social media networks, how to use a blog or a website, you better hire someone tomorrow to help you see whats coming. They can at least help you see the tidal wave and show you how to ride that wave rather than get wiped out by it.
That’s what we do here, we show you the future, and then help you create ideas to adopt what we show you. We are in the beginning of an upsetting industrial shift, a paradigm shift, and it’s very painful for some. Also keep in mind, much of what I am talking about is not about skill set, it’s more about how you think, to look at the world of business as it really is or will be.
Ever Wonder How Many People Use The Internet? – Nov 2012
Have you ever wondered how many people actually use the Internet? I think about it regularly, more so because I’m interested in how it impacts our online society, how it impacts commerce, and how it impacts your life, day-in and day-out. Even more interesting is how those users use the Internet, what are they looking for, what are they using the Internet for?
I don’t plan on answering all my questions in this post, but I thought I would share some numbers with you. Doing some quick research I found some interesting trends. As of June 2010, there are almost 2 Billion people using the Internet world wide, and interestingly enough, North America where I live, is a small player in all this usage. Here are a couple graphics that reflect what I”m talking about.
These two graph’s are taken from http://www.internetworldstats.com/, reflects total world users:
What these graph’s don’t show you, is how many more people have yet to use the Internet. O3BNetworks is working on bringing the other 3 Billion people online. Oh, the other 3 Billion are expected to arrive in the next 2 -3 years! Fifty Percent of O3BNetworks funding comes from Google. To give you an idea of what that might look like area wise:
So the burning question should be, what does this mean to me and my business, and secondly, how can I tap into this tidal wave of traffic? The world isn’t even half here and I’m having trouble making things work now! As you can see things are going to get a whole lot noisier here online, filtering, aggregating and context are the three words that come to mind. That’s the work of the near future, it’s already under way.
This might give you an idea of what I do all day long, I study this stuff and keep an eye on trends, just so I can help you prepare for whats coming to the world of business in the future.
Feel free to leave comments and or questions.
Could The Internet Get Unplugged?
First off let me confess, I am an Internet Junkie, I make my living mostly because of the Internet. Having said that, I could probably still survive without the NET, but I doubt it, I would have no way of proving my work. Imagine if say Big Brother decided the Internet should be turned off, unplugged! What would you do? Worse yet, what would happen if every computer was confiscated from every home? You’re right, that’s just plain stupid!
I mean, how would Generation G’s and Zoomers survive without the Internet, without technology period? Those two demographics are going to turn the world upside down, it’s already happening. The rules are being re-written, broken and frankly destroyed by innovation and new ways of getting things done. In fact, they don’t care what we older generations think, they don’t even want to discuss how we used to do things, they just want to do what they want to do whether it works or doesn’t. They behave like a Venture Capital firm would, just keep doing something until it scores big time financially on the Internet.
The idea of an organization turns their stomach, Gen G will be able to organize without organizations, that ability to coalesce will have profound destabilizing impact on institutions. You must concede, The Internet is fueling those who want to be heard, the rise of people, people who regroup and organize on the fly. We are in a time where one voice makes a difference, we the people are taking charge and we are speaking up, Corporations don’t know what to do with us in this state. It would so much easier if they could just unplug all of us from the Internet so they wouldn’t have to deal with us. They want us to go about our business and continue to trust them on Wall Street, keep the wool over our eyes. That’s just not going to happen is it?
The Internet doesn’t make us more creative, it’s a platform, a game changer that enables what we create to be seen, heard, and used. The Internet let’s us write the rules of business, let’s us share, let’s us give our creative rights away. The momentum is already too much to stop, the Internet could not be turned off or unplugged, our economies would collapse, businesses would cease to exist. Imagine a world without the Internet, we would have to redesign how work, how we organize work, much like we are doing in this Digital Age. KAOS would ensue, just as it is with the removal of the Industrial Age thinking, the old model is dead.
The new open models are allowing creative individuals to make more money than those that fall under the Copyright Laws of yesterday. Copyright as it is written does not work on the Internet, but a Creative Commons License, or a Collaborative Licenses or possibly User Rights Licenses may prevail.
Who would have thought the big money would be in the conversation. What you and I say everyday on the Internet, is being used to figure out trends, where we are gathering, and what we want to be able to do, for the purposes of making money. It’s what we do here in North America, we are always trying to figure out how to make more money, as much as we can possibly want. What would happen if the tap was turned off, the Internet was unplugged, or worse yet controlled by Cable Networks, Government, and Internet Telcoms. It’s called NET NEUTRALITY, and it’s real, it’s in the courts today.
So What Would You Do If The Internet Got Unplugged?
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