Sunday 2 February 2014

With the rapid innovation in technology and social media growth as well as online creativity expansion, what types of tools & applications will the new generation be using??

The question as to what will the internet be offering next is unavoidable because almost every now and then, new innovation takes place in the world wide web areas of social media and tools as well as application being developed to a high level.

Many of us knew that desktop computing was the way to go then, but with the improved applications from various developers -the social networking has moved to to laptops and now to mobile devices, such as tablets and smart phones.

A person is nowadays able to not only to speak over the phone but also send messages, video and audio. The mobile phones can also be used to tie into place-based tools such as the weather stations and connect using SMS messages and receive content that is customized to weather screen-size there is available.Mobile phones are now being used for both audio and visuals purposes, where the user can for instance see images and locations while hearing the sound at the same time (audio-visuals).

Global Position Systems (GPS) capability is another newly developed area which enables a user to collect data, share knowledge, teach and learn, do business and generally sustain development.

And there is now what is called tagging of geo-information to content such as message, video, audio and blog posts. Geoinformation include the information from a particular location such as the name of the city, the time particular information was recorded, region, country, postal address, street address and coordinates the latitutde and longitude. It is this rapid technology from various developers and web users that can now be combined into what is called "mash-up" - collecting information from various sources or websites and put them together for easy management and to create something new -visualization and data maps.

Google maps has allowed a part of its codes to be used by developers to create own google maps and mash up information as they show wish.

All these new innovations from the variou passionate developers have made the day to day of the practice of communities such as farmers easier as particular groups can for instance now access information on the market pricing or venues where they can sell their produce or livestock to improve their income or the  general seasonal information and reminders and alerts (automated polling track and distribute market pricing and markets to support both private and poublic networks of users. Most of these changes in social media are brought about by what is called "apps" or applications.  An application is a programme that something to your computing device.

Some applications are being used for advisory purposes such as informing farmers what to do during the drought or basically adapt in the face of the drought, responding to pests, capitalize on new technologies, and many more. Nowadays, one can even create new target audiences by allowing particular content to be translated for specific audiences in the identified local area. Google Translates system is machine-based translations which can be embedded in other social media like wikis. In other words, this page can be translate for instance in spanish for the Spanish speaking audiences, or in German for the same reason - as long as the user has identified the particular market to fit the local customers/audiences or advertisers. Commercial interest usually are guided by local markets.

With all these buzzing change in technology and the use of the mobile phones or mobile communication, the question is, what technologies will the next generation use then? Creative developers continue to combine the advantages of social media with data generated by GPS -influencing the new ways of application and software designs in future through exploration and devoopment.

Some of the new way of using technology and especially visual tools to curate and share information will therefore include, the fact that the web will be easier to use - more integrated with the real world, more intuitive and "smarter". It will be increasingy noble and that networks will be directly controlled by the userings using simple devices and accessible technology.

IMARK Information Management Resource Kit which was the main source of the information on this post predicts that the next generation of the internet will probalby rely on technologies that re being developed now, and that will reach their maturity very soon.

It also forcasts that web applications will enable the young users ample connectivity everywhere,through permanent wireless (broadband internet connectivity). They will have improved improved location aware and even open identity allowing them to log on to the web from any place instead of having multiple passwords. The new generation is hopefully also ging to have semantic webs that will be able to read web pages like like human being to facilate the searching process by identifying documents that a user is looking for.and intelligent applications - that assists in identifying preference and users needs.

The young generation is likely to use different or improve tools and applications and probably more creatively designed websites compared to what we are using now. For my work place, new ideas and innotation in broadcasting is the way to go. For instance, the Namibian Broadcasting has just switched from analogue to digital and has been busy converting all its broadcasting machinery to the latest technology as instructed by the International Telecommunication Union, ITU before 2015 and 2013 deadline in SADC. Most of the upcoming broadcasters will need to be equipped in terms of the relevant technology in all respects as they strive to achieve the corporate objectives, whether in programming or revenue generation.





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