Read it here, or on iContact, or on the new TinyLetter.
Download the PDF: Newsletter February 2014 (Futurist Speaker Gerd Leonhard)
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“Here is the latest stuff I think you should know about. First, there’s finally something happening in the ongoing NSA vs the rest-of-the-world-saga: an independent commission will apparently investigate the future of the Internet, privacy and surveillance. This announcement couldn’t come at a better time seeing that President Obama’s recently unveiled NSA Reform Plan simply just doesn’t make the cut (in fact I would argue it’s not much more than some fancy window-dressing). It’s about time that these revelations are taken more seriously; as I wrote last year already there are at least 5 Reasons Why The Snowden / NSA / PRISM Affair Is Indeed A Game Changer For The Future of The Internet. The future of privacy and how (some) marketing relates to surveillance as well as the overall ‘big data-big brother’ issues will certainly remain a key topic for me, this year.
Included below are some of the other things that I’ve been reading and what I thought about them. I hope you will find them interesting too. To see more of what I track and what I pay attention to, please feel free to check out my blog, my tweets and Flipboard magazines, or my Facebook page updates.
The quest for meaningful, human brands
I believe that sustainable, ethical, meaningful and win-win business midels and practices will quickly become key differentiators now that ‘amazing technology’ is becoming ubiquitous. In this context, Google’s ‘toothbrush test’ is a good meme for their approach of looking to create and launch more services that people will use at least 2x per day. With their recent acquisition of the pretty slick smart-metering and connected-device innovator NEST, Google has dramatically expanded their reach into home appliances, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence. Yet, with all of this cool tech comes even more ‘HUGE DATA’ and even bigger privacy concerns are sure to emerge. IMHO, if these issues are not properly considered and managed I think it could even derail the entire complex of interwoven platforms and services. This is clearly a huge orange flag but also a huge opportunity for the hopefully ‘won’t be evil’ Googlers. I’ll be watching (and helping where I can)…. READ ON
