Internet Marketing, Make Money Online

Communications technology is progressing rapidly, various industries are converging, more users are joining the revolution, and our economies and societies changing. Given that our general pool of knowledge is expanding exponentially and that individuals now have more access to information than ever before, what kind of Internet could we be looking at a decade from now?

There are probably as many realistic possibilities as there are opinions, and perhaps just as many unrealistic possibilities as there are theorists writing articles. In this environment projecting forward is easy, no one can say my thoughts are wrong or right, but if you actually want to know the truth of the matter and position yourself to benefit from the future of the Internet and its impact on society in general then read on.

In coming to these conclusions I have deliberately ignored some issues or events that could affect the outcome of my argument, for example natural disasters, global warfare or terrorism, or the terrible implications of global poverty and disease. I am an optimist and believe that humanity will figure out ways to solve our societal problems, and who knows, our understanding of our own planet may allow us to predict or even control the effects of natural disasters. Read More

Imagine a world of neuro interfaces where control of every appliance and household robot is only a thought away. The simple act of putting a headband on, or for the more adventurous, an implant under the skull, would give you unprecedented control of your environment. Imagine how different life would be.

I'm sure we've all heard of the emerging technology that will enable disabled people to control appliances by thought alone. But this technology could easily be used by able bodied people as well. Think about flicking the lights, shutting the curtains, or how about browsing the web from memory of your favourite site, then write an email by thinking the words.

The potential is enormous, and not limited to our personal lives. Anyone whose work requires control of a machine could simply think thoughts at a roboticised version of the machine. Read More

A few years ago when mobile phones had just started to incorporate little organisers and text messaging was becoming popular, I remember being told by an excitable gadget savvy mobile phone salesperson that this was the future.

With much waving of hands and bright-eyed eagerness she proceeded to tell me they would soon have camera's, video, the Internet and so much more built directly into them. I remember she used the expression convergence to describe this merging of technology.

At the time I think I was slightly sceptical yet today mobile phones do all of these things. That experience taught me something about predicting the future which has served me well. My partner and I use the secret to predict property values, economic activity and so much more. Read More

Truly global consciousness is just around the corner if we accept the singularity hypothesis, and for many the day couldn't come soon enough. The technology to create the global consciousness hasn't been invented yet, but there are already some very promising experiments being undertaken.

Until that day I am content to use the blogosphere as my virtual global consciousness, after all blogs have made it possible for the near instantaneous dissemination of ideas and their subsequent peer review. Over the next couple of years we will see even more development in this area, but for me, two main bottlenecks still exist that prevent truly ubiquitous blogging and therefore the rise of the global consciousness.

The first bottleneck relates specifically to installation and subsequent management of blogs. Anyone can get a free blog, but if you want more control over your website or simply want to ensure the server is geographically closer to your intended audience, or geographically remote from your home jurisdiction, you need to get your own hosting account, a domain name, and then hope the installation runs smoothly. Unfortunately this discourages many from taking the plunge. One of the reasons the Windows and Mac operating systems are so popular is that installation of software is a no brainer.

The second bottleneck relates to the type of content able to be stored in a blog. At present we are effectively limited to text. Sure you can upload an image, a sound bite, or even video to your blog, but unless I know where your blog is, I will never find you if the major search engines aren't able to index your content. EDIT: Serendipity blog now includes a plugin to attach a voice recording of your blog entry

Why you may ask have I chosen these particular bottlenecks when perhaps simple access to a computer might be considered more of a hindrance? I'm an optimist, I simply do not believe this state of affairs will continue indefinitely. Cheaper computers are being developed, pda's are more capable, and there will come a time in the hopefully not too distant future when access is no longer an issue.

We went to a work-related picnic the other day where there must have been about 17 or 18 adults and a bunch of kids. The group was unusual in that the normal clique's didn't turn up, so conversations weren't dominated by a vocal minority. In fact the complete opposite. Small groups of 2-5 people seemed to regularly form, dissipate, reform etc.

I remember at one point having a local conversation, watching the children play tag on the field, and also being aware of a not-quite conversation that seemed to be happening at a global level. Now that doesn't make sense does it? By global I mean an overriding conversation that was happening across all of the local conversations. My own local conversation was about the cost of petrol, other groups were talking about people at work or something that had happened at the pub. The global conversation was about the kids, who regularly interrupted the adults.

Interestingly the global conversation was ongoing. Each small group continued to have its own conversation and would then pause to join the global conversation for a brief moment, and then resume locally. What was even more interesting was that different groups would pause their local conversation at different times yet still seemed to be aware of the global conversation and would contribute when they needed to. Read More