Where do we go from here?

The advancement of technology always finds a way to surprise us. When I was young, we figured by the year 2000 we'd all be flying around in jet cars with our robot buddies at our side. But no one predicted the Internet and the ways it's being used today. Or the iPhone or GPS Navigation.

It's the nature of technological advancements that we don't often see the most important ones coming. In the 1800s people were trying to design better horse-drawn wagons and trains. Very few saw the automobile coming. In 1977, Ken Olson the Founder of Digital Equipment Company said "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." Oops.

It's difficult to look forward and predict where tomorrow's technology will take us. Do we need more than 40,000 songs on iPod? Where can TV go from here considering the human eye can't discern more than 1080 DPI? How many radio stations can we listen to? What will Web 3.0 look like? And perhaps more importantly, what current technology that we take for granted will soon become the next horse-drawn wagon?

What is Web 2.0?

I feel it's not always helpful to use these terms since people have defined them differently. But the folks at Resourceful Idiot do a good job explaining the difference between Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0.

From mass media to new media

This article is not new but it's new to me. The Economist gives us a bit of a history lesson and discusses the future of media.

Scrybe

This looks very cool. Watch the video.

Scrybe

The news is new

I had grand plans to write a piece on CNN.com's recent re-launch. I would write about how, like USAToday before it, CNN's new design incorporates many "Web 2.0" features like user-contributed content, AJAX interfaces, more video, and lots more white space.

I would then talk about how major newspaper sites like The Washington Post are embracing the online medium and incorporating more blogs and other "web-only" content that never even appears in their print versions.

It would have been a nice little article. But Read/Write Web beat me to it.

25 Websites to Watch

Who is the next Youtube? What's the next big thing?

A great new list from PC World of 25 Websites to Watch helps identify some of the up-and-comers.