In the following video (dated 2008), Kevin Kelly makes a fun statement: The World Wide Web, as we know it, is only 5,000 days old. Now, Kelly asks, how can we predict the next 5,000 days?
It is amazing to watch this video in 2013 and realise how many things Kevin Kelly was right about and how predicted many of the great internet applications that we have grown accustomed to today.
Even back in 2008, the interent had a huge of traffic and usage. Here are a few very interesting statistics (2008) that caught my attention whilst watching the TED talk:
- 100 billion clicks per day compared to 65 billion phone calls
- 55 trillion links are being made/shared
- 2 million emails are sent per second.
As much as these statistics really amazed me, the most interesting element to me in Kevin Kellys’ talk was “The Internet of Things”.
The Intenet of Things (IoT) is a vision that is being built today. A vision of a world where everything from animals, objects or people are provided with a unique identifier and have the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.
More objects today are becoming embedded with sensors and gaining the ability to communicate. The resulting information networks promise to create new business models, improve business processes, and reduce costs and risks.
Below is an image from Cisco about the IoT and what it means for society for today and in the fututre. For me, it is so interesting and almost inspiring to look at this image as it presents the question; Where do the possibilities end?
Aisling Kenneally 