emergentfutures:

The Future Of Technology: What You Can Expect In The Next 50 Years

Paul Higgins: A bit ridiculous but interesting to look at and think about

Full Story: SimplyZesty

smarterplanet:

Emerging protocol can help manage the Internet of Things — GCN

The ever-expanding networks of sensors and other machine-to-machine devices on the “Internet of Things” are creating huge stores of data for everything from traffic and weather monitoring to health care and finance.

And there will only going be more of them. Sensors, for example, will play a key role in the Obama Administration’s recently released National Strategy for Civil Earth Observations, a plan to increase the efficiency and effectiveness Earth-observations. Along with other steps toward streamlining the efforts of the 11 agencies involved in the observations, it calls for extensive use of sensors in gathering the data.

Of course, having all that data is one thing. Making sense of it — quickly — is another. One key is the emerging Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol, a lightweight messaging transport for machine-to-machine communications that recently was proposed as an OASIS standard.

OASIS in March began the process “to define an open publish/subscribe protocol for telemetry messaging designed to be open, simple, lightweight and suited for use in constrained networks and multi-platform environments.” The protocol, which consumes little power, is designed to help sensors and other devices — which tend to be low-power and low-bandwidth — communicate reliably.

(via futurescope)

michaelfiorentino:

There is a new offering that allows users to keep their personal data private and select how advertisers would cater ads toward them.

thisistheverge:

Osito for iPhone: can this minimalist Google Now clone make a splash before the real thing?

There is no shortage of Google Now clones for iPhone, but none of them successfully emulate Google’s concise and tasteful representation of data. Tempo focuses too much on being a “smart” calendar, cluttering your screen with email attachments related to your events, while Grokr soils results with restaurant recommendations. Osito, a free app launching today for iPhone, wants to do the opposite: provide you with only the most essential information like flight status, traffic updates, and an address for your hotel when your flight lands. Like Google Now, Osito plugs into your location, calendar, and Gmail to provide alerts and updates — all within familiar design sensibilities iOS users have been clamoring for. 

fastcompany:

The World Needs 1.8 Billion Jobs—But What If They Already Exist?

What if we were able to monetize the information we put on the Internet? A revolution in which people are paid by the networks they use could herald a new economy for the world’s jobless.

Here’s the story…

fastcompany:

Meet the World’s First Publicly Traded Human

Mike Merrill is literally selling himself. Not his body, his self.

Since 2008, the straight-laced entrepreneur has been selling shares of his person at Kmikeym.com.

As Joshua Davis at Wired tells the story, at first shareholders only voted on small projects, but now they make decisions about his most intimate life:

One anonymous investor sent Merrill on a date with a polyamorous woman. “She is currently seeing someone, but she has permission to date,” he wrote in his after-action report. “I’m of mixed feeling about that, but I recognize that this is a decision for the shareholders to make.” They decided against continuing the relationship but gave a 97% approval rating to a guy referred to as Jordon California. Feeling the weight of investor expectations, Merrill spent a drunken night “fooling around” with him.

The media attention has brought Merrill a number of new shareholders, but otherwise, life at KMikeyM headquarters continues, according to his latest email update: “We are working very hard on responding to the influx of new shareholders, our new venture Jumpbots, and we just completed moving in with our shareholder-approved girlfriend.”

If you want to own a piece of Mike Merrill for yourself, he’s currently going for about $15 a share.

nasdaq:

Smart City of the Day: The Mayor of London has put together a ‘Smart London’ board to discuss how technology will revolutionize the city in the next few years. An Oyster card system, real-time bus arrivals, a London Datastore and personal rapid transit pods at Heathrow are just the beginning. Read more here and tell us what you’d want to see in a “smart city.”

smartercities:

Spot crime before it occurs

(via smarterplanet)

springwise:

Service makes automated customer service less expensive and annoying

While many businesses in the past have opted for an automated telephone service – and innnovations such as FonGenie have helped smaller businesses use them – a number of customers can find them more annoying than helpful. Helping businesses become more user-friendly, Israel-based Zappix offers a visual alternative to voice menus that can be navigated before call charges are applied. READ MORE…