IBM Next 5 in 5

IBM Next 5 in 5 is the title of a fantastic video that IBM guys have developed to show us what technologies will have more success in the next five years. The future of innovation can not be predicted but it’s possible to analyze the most interesting technologies in an effort to know what will be the way of the technology in the next years.

The innovations that IBM analyze are those that have the potential to change the way people work, live and play. This technologies are:

• Energy
• Security
• Mind Reading
• Mobile
• Analytics

Energy: IBM believes that in the future everybody will be able to create their own energy. How? Well, anything that moves can generate energy, if advances in renewable technology and energy go on this way, it’s possible that we can empower our houses with our self-created energy.

Security: Passwords won’t be needed, or at least, not as we know them nowadays. IBM believes that the passwords of the future will be composed by different data of our biological composition. Different information such as retinal data, can be used to build a unique password that you don’t need to remember.

Mind Reading: IBM believes that in the next 5 years we are going to see how mind reading is used in PC games and helping to cure diseases. Just think.

Mobile: In 5 years 80% of current global population will have a mobile device, this can help to break the gap between the information haves and have-nots. Mobile technology is cheaper so a lot of people with economic problems around the world will be able to access information like other people with better economic status.

Analytics: SPAM will not exist in the future thanks to technological innovations. This innovations will be able to filter and find the data that is important and relevant to you, bringing you information without you having to ask for it.

What do you think about these predictions from IBM? Will they change our lives?

Do you know what SOPA is?

SOPA is the Stop Online Piracy Act, it proposes to expand the ability of US law enforcement and copyright holders to protect copyrighted intellectual property and fight online trafficking of that property. The complement of SOPA is the PROTECT IP (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act), that proposes to give the US government and copyright holders tools to stop access to “rogue website dedicated to the sale of infringement and counterfeit goods”.

This two acts are one of the hottest trending topics on the Internet, a lot of people inside and outside the US are fighting against this Acts that have not been well received by the Internet community.

The big ones on the Internet industry, as Google, Twitter and Yahoo, have already said they don’t like this SOPA and PROTECT IP comparing them with Iran or China laws.

If you have never download anything illegally you are not safe from this acts. In the video below you can see why you are not safe from SOPA and PROTECT IP Acts.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet

from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

E-commerce & Christmas

Christmas is one of the best seasons of the year for e-commerce. Everybody is in hurry, a lot of things to do, and not much time to prepare everything that has to be done. This is perfect for online retailers that have a perfect opportunity to encourage people to buy their products quickly and with no worries through the Internet.

Every year more and more shoppers plan to do their gift buying online instead of in stores. The reason is because shoppers have really interesting advantages from traditional shopping, they can save money, the can avoid crowds, they have a better product selection and variety, and they can save time.

Internet is growing very fast and e-commerce projects are evolving really fast too, a few years ago you could only buy clothes, books or technology, nowadays you can buy a wide variety of food and everything you have in mind from anywhere in the world.

Online retailers know that this is a very important season, everything is prepared to offer the best user experience to the customers. Here are a few tips about how to prepare your online shop to the Christmas sales.

• Analyze the past: If your e-commerce project is online since a few years ago, analyze how the last Christmas campaign was, you could know what where the best products and the better days to prepare promotional actions.

• Christimas marketing: Make your customers feel the Christmas spirit.

• Socialize: A strong Social Media strategy will help you to detect new opportunities and quickly respond to your customers.

• Don’t get out of stock: Check your capability and don’t sell more of what you have.

• Deliver on time: Everybody wants what they buy online on time but especially at Christmas. People usually buy gifts on Christmas and if they don’t get on time their gift someone is going to have a bad Christmas and you don’t want to be the responsible of that.

If you prepare a good e-commerce experience for your customers at Christmas you’ll probably be rewarded with more sales the rest of the year.

E-commerce and M-commerce

E-commerce is evolving really fast, a few years ago companies like Amazon were just starting their business, nowadays Amazon is one of the biggest retail companies in the world. This fast evolution don’t stop, and new technology developments helps the e-commerce industry to be better and bigger.

The next step on the e-commerce revolution is the m-commerce, the way how we buy things is going to change forever. No problem where we are, we will have what we want, exactly in the moment that we want it. This new reality is based on new technologies that make this possible. We have to think in new business models to bring support to the new way of shopping.

This video made a few years ago shows us the importance of m-commerce. An important fact that is shown on the video is that the mobile device will be the world’s primary connection tool to the Internet in 2020. Ready for the future?

Don’t stop innovating

Nowadays is really important for every size companies to keep constant innovation, it’s important to know the latest technologies and research on their business area to be competitive and to stay alive. The economic situation it’s not as good as we want it to be, and we have to stay alert if we want to continue with our business.

¿How to innovate?

Ok, so you want to innovate on your company but you don’t know how to start. Let’s analyze how other companies are innovating on their business areas. For example let’s see what is Google doing:

Launch new products, test the market:

Google is constantly launching new products, they are not afraid, they make good products and they test it on the market, after launching the product Google evaluates the reaction of the market and if it’s not good the product is closed, you can check on The Official Google Blog and see how many products they closed last spring.

Improve your successful products:

You can think that your successful products are already finished but for sure that you can think on new improvements to make this successful products even better than they are. For example Google has announced these days a new feature on Google Maps for Android, now it’s possible for you to figure out where you are and see where you might want to go when you’re indoors.

Make your best product even better

Google is constantly improving it’s search engine, if Google is the most used search engine in the world it’s because they are always adding new and interesting features. Google is always updated with a fresh and stylish design. They’re going to launch the next stage of their redesign, a new Google bar that will enable us to navigate quickly between their services.

It’s really difficult to be as innovative as Google, they have a really big structure. But you can begin to innovate with little improvements that will make your company more competitive.