The year 2016 is nearly in the books. It has been a year of continued advancement in mobile devices and seen more traffic on social networking sites. Let’s look at what 2017 is most likely going to bring us.
Looking Ahead to More Mobile
This is the easiest prediction ever. We have seen mobile devices steadily creep into every facet of our lives. The Internet of Things is not only likely to continue, it has become a juggernaut. Companies are scrambling to figure out how to take advantage of IOT and build it into their new products.
Devices that can “phone home” can provide a wealth of information on usage, send diagnostic data, and even order parts and supplies when needed. Amazon is leading the charge with their Dash buttons and Alexa, but this is only the beginning.
Looking Ahead to More Social Networking
More social networking options in our future is another easy prognostication to make. In a similar vein, it may seem obvious that more ways to share video content are coming. Facebook live is a hit and Twitter has announced a way to share live video. Our “fifteen minutes of fame” is becoming a lifetime of pseudo-fame. Cameras are popping up everywhere and it appears that a desire for personal privacy is disappearing as well.
There are enough companies working to share video on social sites that someone will create a killer app in the next year or two. We will see an app or simple device that allows video to be taken, edited, and shared all at once. The auto adjust features on phones to help with low light pictures is just the beginning.
We might even see auto-tagging and attribution show up this year. This would be a feature where being in a picture or video would automatically notify each individual and allow them to post to their own networks.
More Crowd Sourced Jobs?
Uber and Lyft are signs of things to come. There are so many advantages to crowd-sourcing workers that it will continue and expand. The world of IT already has the idea of offshore and near-shore resources. We will see jobs that do not require heavy investment (manufacturing for example) move to crowdsource options. This will be a game changer in many industries as workers and skills become commodities.
We are on the front end of this new wave. Thus, we will not start to see the far reaching impact for a few more years at least. In 2017 we will advance our crowdsourcing options beyond a taxi service and likely will see other services grow by leaps and bounds. For example, check out grocery delivery services and task rabbit.
2017 Will Be Interesting Times
There is an old Chinese curse that roughly translates to “may you live in interesting times.” If you think 2016 was one of those years, then hold on, because 2017 is likely to kick it up a notch. If the chef Emeril Lagasse was talking about 2017 he would insert a “Bam” right about here. Good luck and enjoy the ride.
