Well looky here, things one has scanned in eh. (ignore the photo, that's some guy that made some accounting software, not sure what became of him ;) MIKE RIVERSDALE is fuming. The expensive headphones he bought in Sydney three weeks ago have just died. His first reaction is not to randomly spill expletives into his coffee, but to use his iPhone to vent his frustration to his Twitter con- tacts, under the moniker Miramar Mike. "I will also put, 'What should I do?' It's a conversation. I'm reaching out to the people following me." The council predicts hand-held digital devices such as smartphones will rule the world in 2040. They already rule the life of Mr Riversdale, whose company WaveAdept helps businesses adapt - their computing sys- tems to allow staff to work from anywhere - and with anyone. In order of fre- equency, he uses his iPhone to tweet (1136 followers; 8363 tweets since joining), e-mail, make phone calls and use online services, such as checki
I have a prediction, voice is the next wave of 'consumer' computing and this will, much like cloud computing, have a subsequent pressure on the internal workings of companies and governments.
Cloud computing rushed into consumer lives as music, video, and even the boring household spreadsheet all moved to the cloud leaving CDs, DVDS, collections of VHS tapes, and masses of post-it notes, notebooks, and calendars in the past.
Around 2011, Siri emerged on Apple iPhones as the first voice assistant accessible to consumers. This innovation led to a dramatic shift to building voice-first computing architectures. PS4 was released by Sony in North America in 2013 (70+ million devices), Amazon released the Amazon Echo in 2014 (30+ million devices), Microsoft released Cortana (2015 - 400 million Windows 10 users), Google released Google Assistant (2016 - 2 billion active monthly users on Android phones), and Apple released HomePod (2018 - 500,000 devices sold and 1 billion devices active with iOS/Siri). These shifts, along with advancements in cloud infrastructure (e.g. Amazon Web Services) and codecs, have solidified the voice computing field and made it widely relevant to the public at large.
With the cloud and relatively quick shift in how we used computing outside the workplace it inevitably put pressure on the way IT Departments* delivered tools demanded by those that do the work and how they delivered services out to customers and citizens.
Cloud computing required a number of items to come to fruition, cheap, reliable, and fast internet connections, sophisticated web development tools, and computers in the hands of enough people. From the service providers pov we also needed the growth of data centres, together with up-times** of 100%, or as many 9's as possible.
All of this is now forgotten and, even at the time, ignored by the masses. Many just took the new tech, saw what was now on offer and ran with it. "Store my ALL photos online, awesome!", "Connect with my mates long lost, bloody yes!", "Watch movies where I want, yes please!"
[I'm not here to discuss the many downsides of this technology, I will do that in a follow-up post]
Voice computing also requires a number of base technologies to be in place before it can spread widely. I believe we are in the early days of consumer uptake of voice and these technologies are rapidly evolving and growing to a point where they become the norm.
Voice requires the ability to listen and comprehend (I won't say "understand", that's next level and is some way off), and with chip + mic tech we are close to the "listen" - I still have to yell at my devices sometimes, it's not perfect.
Machine learning approaches ("A.I." if you want, but I don't) have certainly got us to the point where the first of these voice interactions via specific devices (mobile devices, smart speakers, smart TVs etc) are now able to do a limited number of prescribed actions.
"Ok Google, turn on the TV."
"Alexa, play some music."
"Hey Siri, what's my next appointment?"
"Ok Google, navigate to the library."
They hear, they comprehend, and they action ... most of the time. These prescribed simple actions can be chained together into 'routines", set to go off at prescribed times or places, or even as the result of some external event, "Alexa, turn up the heating when it gets cold"
All very simple, and far from the Star Trek computer we think of, "Computer, why did that Klingon ship veer off at that last attack?"
Or, "Ok Google, clear my day tomorrow as I wanna go to the cricket" - meetings are coordinated, tickets are purchased, alarms are set, friends invited, bank balances are checked, travel is booked, post game plans are drafted ... or it tells me it's likely to rain and double checks if I know what the hell I'm doing - it understands what "go to the cricket" means, for me.
But this, apparently is coming, and each "A.I." announcement seems to be a step along this way. Much like the incremental updates to web browsers together with the ever increase in affordable Internet access all lead to "cloud" being a thing so does the sophistication of the listening and comprehension lead to voice being a thing - think in your car, it's becoming all voice.
And when voice dominates the consumer world, as it will, what then for workplaces?
I leave you with a phrase I heard so many times during 2005, "Hah, you're mad Mike, no company is going to rely on someone else's computers to run their business."
Today's equivalent seems to be, "Hah, you're mad Mike, how on earth could voice replace keyboard in the workplace, it would be a cacophony and no-one could get anything done."
Both statements are wrong, the first we now know, the second we will realise soon.
Voice, it's the way computing will be in the near future, and I say, "Computer, play that funky music!"
* despite decades of trendy name changes (Chief Digital Officers anyone?), and me saying they are doomed (seems they changed), this name seems to still fit the majority of people groupings for those deigned to work at making the computers do what they do.
** "up-time", who even thinks about this these days, everything is just there all the time, there is no such thing as "down for maintenance" anymore, or shouldn't be if you are living and working in the present day. And if it's not, it's a BIG DEAL!
Well looky here, things one has scanned in eh. (ignore the photo, that's some guy that made some accounting software, not sure what became of him ;) MIKE RIVERSDALE is fuming. The expensive headphones he bought in Sydney three weeks ago have just died. His first reaction is not to randomly spill expletives into his coffee, but to use his iPhone to vent his frustration to his Twitter con- tacts, under the moniker Miramar Mike. "I will also put, 'What should I do?' It's a conversation. I'm reaching out to the people following me." The council predicts hand-held digital devices such as smartphones will rule the world in 2040. They already rule the life of Mr Riversdale, whose company WaveAdept helps businesses adapt - their computing sys- tems to allow staff to work from anywhere - and with anyone. In order of fre- equency, he uses his iPhone to tweet (1136 followers; 8363 tweets since joining), e-mail, make phone calls and use online services, such as checki
This posting inspired by the latest Gerry McGovern newsletter - read it for his views We vote. As an example, that's the power of Google search - it uses the concept that web pages with the highest 'vote' get put at the top of page 1. The 'vote' is a weighted one using the number of pages that reference it multiplied by a lot of clever algorithmic type activity - highly technical insight from Google themselves . In essence you voted me top of the "mike riversdale" Google list by linking to me. However, voting is spreading through the web in many more ways than simply linking to pages and I believe the driver is that people are starting to use the tools to group themselves into communities. In the good ol' days before " Web 2.0" (say before mid-2005) there were many informal methods of finding the 'best* content' - we would send emails to our mates pointing out cool sites, read about it from dedicated "Best of the Web ..."
MiramarMike.co.nz is very nearly wired up with equipment and needs one last thing - the laptop. And for those that have given advice, thanks and please bear with me just a little longer :-) Everyone tells me to get an Apple MacBook Pro but it's a darned expensive beastie. Having said that I am willing to pay a little premium for the ease of use over and above Windows Vista and Ubuntu. Also I have a mate currently traveling the US who's willing to pick up a laptop over there but I'm sure how much cheaper they actually are. And so, three questions I'd love some help with: Should I go for an Apple MacBook Pro no matter what (and why?) Should I get my mate to buy the laptop (any make) in the US? If not buy in US where in NZ/Wellington would you recommend? What do you think - leave a comment My calcs. You can edit this spreadsheet with more options at: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pmxKow-YfvkpQWjvBfAcpVw
I have been privileged to help create a number of successful barcamps ( Wikipedia ) alongside an ever growing number of committee members here in Wellington over the past few years both public and internally at client sites. I've also attended others around the country which have been mostly awesome but sometimes missing a certain "something". During this time I've managed to crystalise what I believe helps create and facilitate (NOT "run) a successful barcamp - here it is, by all means share it around. Oh, one more thing - barcamps are traditionally held within the realm of the geeks but there's NOTHING about a barcamp that limits it to such an industry and, much like you can hold a traditional conference on any subject under the sun, so you can with a barcamp. What do you need for a barcamp? I've always said you only need the following to get have a barcamp A venue A date A logo People On reflection I should also add, "a need" - dur. The date
It sucks out there in Wellington and around the country at the moment as the Government, tech, and media industries cull roles in wide ranging and sweeping actions. No-one except you know how this feels, and only those close to you can understand the impact, but know this, you will survive. 1: Understand, YOU are not redundant. Your role is being made redundant, you are not. For whatever reason the role you've been filling is deemed no longer viable within the organisation you used to work within. You are not redundant, your role is. This is isn't about you, don't take it personally, this is not a reflection of you. Of course the impact on your life and those you hold close is very personal, but the reason it has happened is not about you. (as a side note, you are not merely your role anyway, you are way more than whatever work thing you were doing) 2: Do not panic! If you can, take time to re-evaluate what you do before shotgunning your CV out to every recruitment agency
As I say (!), machines are definitely getting better at "comprehending" what we're saying to them but a long way from "understanding"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3vIEKWrP9Q&feature=youtu.be