Gamification – integrating game dynamics into your site, service, community, content or campaign, in order to drive participation.
Margaret Wallace, chief executive of Playmatics and moderator at the the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab event on gamification, asked where gamification, or the use of game-play mechanics in non-game applications, is going next. In 15 seconds or less, the panelists answered.
Continue reading… “Five predictions on the future of gamification”
Deezmaker store’s $600 Bukobot 3D printer.
California’s first 3D printer retail store opened this past weekend. That brings the grand total of 3D printer retail stores in America (and maybe the world) to two.
Continue reading… “First 3D printer retail store opens in California”
The shortage of data scientists is becoming a serious constraint in some sectors.
In June 2008 Jonathan Goldman arrived at LinkedIn for work, the business networking site still felt like a startup. LinkedIn had a little under 8 million accounts but that number was growing quickly. Users weren’t seeking out connections with the people who were already on the site at the rate executives had expected. Something was missing in the social experience. As one LinkedIn manager put it, “It was like arriving at a conference reception and realizing you don’t know anyone. So you just stand in the corner sipping your drink—and you probably leave early.”
Continue reading… “Data Scientist is the sexiest career of the 21st century”
Is the cool glow of a smartphone the sure sign of an addict?
What exactly do you do here, I’ve been meaning to ask. Because I’m the producer, right? I cook. But from what I can tell, you are just a drug addict! You are a pathetic junkie too stupid to understand and follow simple rudimentary instructions!” – – Walter White from the hit TV show “Breaking Bad.”
Futurist Thomas Frey: Addiction is a word seething with negative connotations. It implies that someone is out of control with their life, making bad decisions with their money, and placing everyone around them at risk.
Companies trade In hunch-based hiring for computer modeling.
When the Xerox Corp. was looking for workers to staff its call centers they used to pay lots of attention to applicants who had done the job before. Then, a computer program told the printer and outsourcing company that experience doesn’t matter.
Continue reading… “Big data is the new boss”
One of the characteristics of the modern media age is that we are surrounded by vast clouds of rapidly changing information, whether it’s blog posts or news stories or Twitter and Facebook updates. That’s great if you like real-time content, but there is a not-so-hidden flaw — namely, that you can’t step into the same stream twice, as Heraclitus put it. In other words, much of that information may (and probably will) disappear as new information replaces it, and small pieces of history wind up getting lost. According to a recent study, which looked at links shared through Twitter about news events like the Arab Spring revolutions in the Middle East, this could be turning into a substantial problem.
Continue reading… “Information decay is eating away our web history”
Do you need an artery for bypass surgery or custom cartilage for that worn-out knee? One day you will be able to print an artery.
Biomedical engineers in about a dozen major university and corporate laboratories are working on ways to print living human tissue. There is the hope of one day producing personalized body parts and implants on demand. Still far from clinical use, these tissue-engineering experiments represent the next step in a process known as computerized adaptive manufacturing, in which industrial designers turn out custom prototypes and finished parts using inexpensive 3-D computer printers.
Continue reading… “Medical inkjet printer could one day print living tissue on demand”
Where do humans fit in?
Nikolas Janin, who lives in Silicon Valley, get’s up every morning for his 40-minute commute to work just like everyone else. He is the shop manager and fleet technician at Google. In the mornings Janin gets dressed and heads out to his Lexus RX 450h for the trip on California’s freeways. That’s when his the car takes over. Mr. Janin’s ride is one of Google’s self-driving vehicles and it is equipped with sophisticated artificial intelligence technology that allows him to sit as a passenger in the driver’s seat.
Continue reading… “The artificial intelligence revolution is here and how it is changing our lives”
PCs consumed the majority of memory chips since sometime in the 1980s until 2012.
We have been hearing for years about the so-called Post-PC Era. But now it seems pretty hard to argue with. Personal computers no longer consume the majority of the world’s memory chip supply as of this year.
Continue reading… “Is the era of the personal computer over?”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzSXTWhBUD0&hd=1[/youtube]
The cost of sequencing genomes has declined 50% faster per year than the cost of computers, since 2007. Declining sequencing costs have been due to a combination of Moore’s law and massive scaleups. An author and an expert on the life sciences industry, Juan Enriquez, runs a venture capital fund that invests in life science startups that could produce useful products and treatments within the next five years. He also engages in more long-term forecasting. In an interview for Next Big Future, Enriquez discusses the exponential rate of change for biotechnology with Sander Olson. Enrique also discusses why he believes that the changes wrought by the biosciences during the next three decades could surpass the industrial revolution in importance. (video)
Continue reading… “DNA sequencing is improving faster than Moore’s law”
(yuliang11/Photos.com)
Futurist Thomas Frey: Wouldn’t it be great if you could turn on your television and it instantly knew what show you wanted to watch?
We all dream of an easier life, so what if we got into our car and it knew where we wanted to go, or turned on a radio and it played the perfect music, or pressed “call” on our phone and we would instantly be connected to the person we most wanted to talk to.
Continue reading… “Anticipatory Computing: Unlocking the Ultra-Human in All of Us”
It just makes sense to announce pricing and ship dates as soon as they’re known.
When Apple has a new product coming out, one of the nice things they do is tell you how much it will cost and when it will go on sale. Apple’s competitors only sometimes do and that is especially true in the phone industry.
Continue reading… “Why Apple announces iPhone cost and availability when competitors don’t”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
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