The New Killer Apps: How Large Companies Can Out-Innovate Start-Ups? Niko Sipola CT60A Critical Thinking and Argumentation in Software Engineering Spring 2015 Think Big - Phase 1: Context is Worth 80 IQ Points

”Context is Worth 80 IQ Points” So, what does it mean? In general, you should have some understanding about the technological trends of the future about 10 years ahead. The authors describe 6 technological megatrends that are likely to become things of the future: Mobile Phones Social Media Cameras Sensors Cloud Computing Emergent Knowledge (“Big data”) Some own thoughts in this color. - Alan Kay

Questions to consider while listening... 6 different emergent technologies are mentioned. Can you think of other emerging new technologies that will likely be in wide use in 10 years? Is there a technology that might not change at all in 10 years? How possible is it to estimate what will be in 10 years?

Mobile Devices “Every person and every device will be able to talk to every other person and device, instantly and at zero cost.” By the end of the decade 50 billion devices will be connected and communicating with each other (Ericsson). 80 percent will be talk of devices between each other -non-human talk. How will mobile devices improve? By power, physical limitations become less (attachable screens, keyboards, voice control), limitations of bandwidth will disappear, more apps. Showrooming will raise the shopping activity done with smartphones. Other possible future implications: PCs and laptops will be gone. Only small mobile devices are needed and these are attached to screens, keyboards and other inputs and outputs likely wirelessly. The data, video, programs, games will be streamed though the internet to mobile devices – calculation power is in the cloud.

Social Media ”Customers are talking with one another about you and your products; how should you join that conversation?” Talk about the Reed’s law. Reed explained the math of social media, “group forming networks” and why it’s so powerful as a media. To contrast different media types: Broadcast network, like television or radio (whole nation, area as target audience) Person-to-person networks, like , fax, traditional phone (single person target) Group-forming networks like Facebook and Twitter. (target is a group of people) There is a need to belong to a group and finding people of similar background or interests. Group-forming networks fulfill this need very well. Possible directions in the future: Employee’s social media connections (direct conversation in FB with customers) Sharing more information (like medical info sharing) Physical location sharing (stores can give a long shopper a drink or coffee seeing their walking profile) Integrating social media site log-ins. (information sharing between Google, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.) P2P services. Examples given of airbnb which is a site coordinating rentals of rooms targeted to individuals with free space for renting.

Cameras “Cameras can be anywhere and everywhere. Where should you use them, and how can they enhance your business rather than just expose your flaws?” More cameras will be all around: Stores know what customers buy and what they didn’t buy. Example: Walmart collects pictures of customer’s receipts that are from competing stores. The customers are offered the price of similar shopping baskets in Walmart.

Sensors “Almost anything that can be measured and monitored will be. What are the high-value measurements on which you can focus, and how might they transform your business?” Mobile phones, cars have many sensors already with which it’s possible to know the location and speed, even temperature. Weather services can become much more accurate with gathering temperature data from mobile devices. Stores can monitor how long a product is on shelf. => Internet of Things. Homes and its devices can soon be monitored remotely and devices can discuss with each other. Think about: intelligent fridge and food packages. When something is finished the fridge will order it automatically (if the user has given permission) and possibly delivered by machine driven vehicle. If some ingredient in the fridge is going to get bad, the fridge will send a notification to the mobile phone and possible suggests a meal or a recipe that uses the ingredients that are about to go bad.

Cloud computing “Foundational elements of information technology will become much cheaper and easier to use. How can you use that new flexibility to innovate and change your business?” Can be compared to electric grid where generating resources (files, computing power, software, software platform) are centralized and “power” is distributed as needed. Enables lower start-up costs for innovating ideas. For many start-up businesses this can be an easy and low-cost way to start business as no need to invest in physical hardware.

Emergent Knowledge “Previously unattainable knowledge is lurking in the data assets of your organization. How can you effectively uncover that knowledge and use it to create profits”? A.k.a. big data. The big data in itself isn’t the value, it’s the emerging new knowledge (as we’ve read in the Big Data book). Examples of using data in a new way (“secondary source”): The win of president Obama is partly thanks to successful data mining in identifying donors, volunteers and voters. Example of using big data in a new way: Amazons e-readers (Kindle) collect the information of what the users have highlighted in their e-books. This way they found out that readers have underlined the same sentence. Big data helps improving artificial intelligence. Sophisticated AI boosted with big data is used in some medical diagnoses even. The emergent knowledge can be located in: Inside the organization The edges of the organization Within alliances with others who hold emergent knowledge.

Combining Megatrends Companies must not only think through each of the six technological megatrends listed here, but also imagine a range of potential interactions: Follow media, newspapers, scientific discussion about technological breakthroughs to create effective technology road maps. Pay attention on what might change over time. Example of Kodak that ignored that digital photography might change the industry. Differentiate what is certain and what is uncertain in the map openly. Have technology expert working for you to explain and innovate what will happen with the technologies.

Merci!