As the editor of a magazine, sometimes you actually get a chance to indulge in your flight of fancy. Naturally it’s SUPPOSED to coincide with one’s editorial mission, and usually it does, as in this instance.
I put this question to various experts: How will the Internet and Internet technology change the shape of how we work and what we do with our personal time in the next three to 10 years. Here are the responses from a variety of experts:
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Ironically, the next 10 years will bring us technologies aimed at helping us unplug and disengage from technology. Look for products and services, or just enhancements to existing products and services, that allow people to “clone” themselves so that they can talk on the phone without talking, email without emailing and post on Facebook without being anywhere near an Internet-connected device.
–Joshua Steimle, CEO, MWI, www.mwi.com
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Knowing basic HTML and some other computer coding language will become a prerequisite for many jobs. Almost every business has a website. They need employees who knowhow to code properly to maintain and promote the business via their website. I believe we will be less inclined to converse with thepeople around us. Instead of asking someone a question we don’t know the answer to or pulling over for directions, we can just use our smartphones and havea definitive answer or routewithin seconds. I believe this will lead to a greater disconnect between people in the future.
–Conor Keenan, SEO Analyst & Lead Email Marketer, Perfect Search Media, www.perfectsearchmedia.com
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Mobile apps and wireless Internet access will eliminate the distinction between deskbound office workers and their counterparts in the field.
With mobile technology, we are replaying the Internet revolution but at an even faster pace and with broader impact. Put a simple to use, Internet-connected computer in the hand of every field worker and think what will happen: For the first time, all employees are connected and can work together. Take another step, your vendors/customers and their people are now all connected to your people, too. Within the next three to 10 years, mobile apps and wireless Internet access will eliminate the distinction between deskbound office workers and their field counterparts. Shared business processes such as requisitions and purchasing will flow effortlessly.
–Peter Daley, CEO, TradeSync Corp., www.tradesync.com
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I run a personal growth community and blog. One thing that we are excited about in the next decade is the rise of webinars or virtual workshops. We feel that webinars or live virtual workshops will be for the next 10 years what blogs were in the early 2000s. Right now, they’re starting to catch on like wildfire, and they’re an incredible way of taking content that you’d normally write about in a blog post as static text and make it come alive to your audience. Virtual workshops will be the vehicle that helps people improve their lives in terms of relationships, career, success and health. In short, it’s going to have a huge impact on people’s personal lives in the coming decade.
–Kevin Marshall, CafeTruth, cafetruth.com/about
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My prediction for the future is that the emergence of Google Authorship will fundamentally alter the distinction between a business identity and a personal identity, and the resultant effect will be a more prominent emphasis on “personal branding.”
Google Authorship works like this – savvy Internet users employ a “rel=author” tag and connect their Google profiles to their published content. Google helps their user base discover great content by posting the author’s picture directly in search results along with a byline and links to additional works by that author. The resultant effect on web traffic is that the extra visual pizzazz of the rel=author results elicits more trust and interest than regular links, thereby improving click-through rate and funneling users to your site.
Go to Google right now and type in “future of SEO.” Notice how many of the search results show up with faces. With one click, users can now access all of the current and past content published by that author, regardless of where they work or what they’re working on. Given the impact on click-through rate, it is inevitable that more businesses will encourage their employees to post content under their own name, not just on websites and blogs but also via social media as a vehicle to funnel traffic back to the business sites.
–Jennifer A. Stagner, www.tops-products.com
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HVACR/Hydronics Distribution Business welcomes letters to the editor.
Please send correspondence to:
Tom Peric´, Editor
2040 Fairfax Avenue Cherry Hill, NJ 08003
856/874-0049 or
email [email protected].