DIGITAL LIFE: Social Highligths

Emancipation 
Complexity 
Availability 
Ubiquity

These traits define the exchange of information on the digital era and are the main reason why our time is being re-shaped by the social media revolution: a deep transformation in the way society interacts and develops that detaches from history by setting new grounds.

Emancipation:
From the beginning of civilization, when information was ordered and validated by shamans, by wisemen, by elders of the tribes, to the invention of written language and the coming of scholars, all the way to the invention of the press and then to the late 90’s and television globalization, content creation and distribution had always been the privilege of the few who controlled social activity by controlling the flow of information.

But the miniaturized technology that brought personal computers, cellular phones and Internet to the common people is rapidly tipping the scales and today anyone with a smartphone can capture and share anything to the entire world, effectively becoming a broadcaster himself in seconds. This, that so fast became a common experience to almost everybody, is forcibly snatching centuries of information control out of the media corporations and the governments behind them. To what end is yet to be seen but truth is anyone can deliver relevant content, even opposing mainstream content, something never seen before in all the human history.

Complexity:
Because before the information was filtered by the powers that be, available data was delivered in context and given a predefined order that mad it simple. But technology is enhancing the reach of our senses, letting us gather a lot more information of the world than ever before with sensors, cameras, gps and so on; and because, at the same time, this same technology let us share all that data immediately to the entire planet and, even more, get instant feedback, springing new data every second .

Therefore, what had been always a steady flow of information has become an overwhelming ocean of data springing from a myriad of broadcasters, creating an endless pool of data of all sorts, from the most general to the absolutely specific, the more complex as it grows.

All this complexity needs to be sorted out, sieving the data to make sense of it. But meaning is something personal and so are choices. That is why choice today is the real power.

Availability:
When books first appeared, as rare as they were on those early days, reading became the best tool for regular people to advance in life and to outgrow their background. But then books were scarce, kept in guarded libraries and written in foreign or archaic languages. Press made them common, but expensive, so they were still luxury items. Information was for a long time difficult to get.

Then came the newspapers, and the radio, and eventually TV made its debut and bewildered the world. But it was not until Internet came to life that information became truly widely available, from the very personal information about closest friends to specialized info on every topic there is.

As technology advances and data transmission speeds up, availability increases exponentially giving us the opportunity to watch detailed content in seconds, shortening the wait. The result is an increasingly anxious demand for immediacy. Patience is growing thin in the world

Ubiquity:
But perhaps the most astonishing trait about today’s digital life is its ubiquity, the amazing omnipresence of access points to the digital world.

When smartphones appeared and made Internet available through almost anywhere, our digital world could truly got out of the homes and offices and became a digital life, making it possible to share information wherever and whenever we pleased.

As communications technologies grow stronger and faster, this ubiquity of the digital world becomes more and more real. This year, with the upcoming AppleWatch, a new generation of gadgets will hit the markets; an even more personal way to communicate will come to life permanently in touch with our skin. And if anyone thinks it cannot get more intimate and personal than that, think again. This is only the dawn of a new skintight relationship between the digital world and our real, everyday life that will ultimately bond the two realities beyond our imagination. 

Inteligencia de negocios Vs Visión del mundo: Mac se vuelve Dell?

Solo por no dejar pasar la nota, les comparto que se rumora que Apple utilizará la tecnología del Kindle Fire HDX en sustitución de la pantalla retina.

Esto para muchos puede ser un movimiento natural considerando a un gigante de la tecnología aprovechando avances probados. Sin embargo, hay la otra lectura: la de como la mentalidad "Value-Chain" de Tim Cook va dejando atrás la visión "20-20" de Steve Jobs.

Sucede que Jobs era un visionario que instauró en Apple la disciplina de "futurizar", de considerar el avance de la tecnología y sus implicaciones para comprender las necesidades de los usuarios de entonces y adelantarse a desarrollar para ellos.

Tim Cook, en cambio, es el artífice detrás de la cadena de suministro de los productos "i", logrando establecer una buena relación con proveedores clave y asegurándose contratos con los principales fabricantes para garantizar que el producto se entregara a tiempo y en cantidad suficientes.

Qué resulta de esta comparación? Que mientras Jobs condujo a la empresa basándose sobre ideas arriesgadas y conceptos nuevos con la intención "idealista" de adelantarse a los tiempos, Cook va demostrando cada vez más que su interés es mantener ventas, estirar líneas de productos y llevar dispositivos al mercado utilizando tecnología probada. Esta fue justamente la mecánica que llevó a Dell a adueñarse del mercado de las computadoras personales por un largo tiempo pero que ahora lo dejan en cuarto o quinto lugar de ventas a nivel mundial, muy por debajo de Apple.

Las pruebas de esta aseveración sobre Cook son muchas: El lanzamiento tardío y "criticable" de la iPad Mini con la que Jobs estaba en desacuerdo (no se trataba de mandar al mercado otra "versión" del mismo producto), la ridícula salida del iPhone 5C que ya está en proceso de ser descontinuado, la afirmación de que saldrá un nuevo iWatch después de que Samsung lleva 2 años con su Galaxy Gear y ahora esto: cambiar la pantalla Retina, una proeza de ingeniería de Apple, por tecnología probada de su segundo competidor más importante.

Cuál de las 2 visiones de negocio funcionan mejor a largo plazo? Bueno, Apple es la prueba viviente de esa disyuntiva: La primera vez que Jobs salió de la empresa fue reemplazado por un mercadólogo con amplia visión de negocios, pero sin una visión del futuro. El resultado: tuvieron que llamar a Steve en el borde de la extinción y su regreso legendario regresó a la marca de entre los muertos para convertirla en un hito en varios segmentos.

Cómo lo logró: desarrollando dispositivos que nadie imaginaba y diseñándolos con sentido ergonómico pero sin descuidar que el aparato hiciera justo lo que prometía; obligando a su departamento de desarrollo a eficientar el espacio en sus computadoras mientras se mejoraban las relaciones comerciales con sus proveedores, reduciendo efectivamente el costo de sus nuevas computadoras al tiempo que las actualizaba significativamente; y, sobre todas las cosas, manteniendo siempre un espíritu innovador, evitando dedicar esfuerzos en tecnologías probadas, para dedicarse a buscar NUEVAS soluciones.