THE GLOBAL FUTURES FORECAST:

THE TOP TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION TRENDS FOR 2011

Web 3.0., personalized medicine,

robotics, hacking the planet. Each

year the Institute for Global Futures

maps the coming year’s top global

trends to have a look at what’s

ahead. The focus of this year’s

Global Futures Forecast is

technology and innovation —the key

strategic driver of change that will

impact global business, consumers,

markets and society.

Velocity, accelerated change and

radical transformations, even

revolutions are upon us. A better

future is what this year could deliver

if we apply our resources, intellect

and courage to lead and invest

smartly. Innovation  led by thought

leaders in business and society and

especially entrepreneurs will make a

positive impact on the future in

2011.

Tech and innovation play a dominant

role in the Global Futures Forecast as

consistent with past years. Most of

the Game Changers and disruptions

will be driven by tech and

innovation. Many of the solutions to

our challenges as well can be

addressed by tech and innovation.

There are positive signs emerging in

the global economy. Innovation and

invention, technology and tools may

point to a New Future. New

innovations especially in business

and the private sector are turning

positive and hold the promise for a

better tomorrow. A new era is

emerging, a New Future based on

fresh opportunies this year driven

by innovation, collaboration and a

positive vision of tomorrow may

well make a difference. Let’s invest

this year in the innovations that will

transform the future.

1. INNOVATION AS COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Innovation is the only authentic

competitive advantage. Innovation

is responsible for over one third of

GDP in the US. Innovation is the key

driving force of new jobs, new

markets, competition, new wealth

and value creation. Yet too few

organizations are investing in

innovation. We cannot have growth,

stability or jobs without innovation.

The innovation explosion is waiting

to happen. This will require courage

and long─range investments into

where the future consumer, markets

and societies will emerge. Invest in

innovation and thrive in 2011.

2. TOP 5 GAME CHANGING TECHNOLOGIES

The Top Game Changing

Technologies that will drive

opportunity, commerce and

innovation this year are: IT &Web

(information design),

Nanoengineering (design of matter),

Biotechnology (design of life),

Neuroscience (design of cognition),

and Quantum Mechanics (design of

space/time). Millions of new jobs,

companies and products will emerge

from investments in these five

technologies. If you want to create

the future invest in the Game

Changers that will shape tomorrows

markets.

3. THE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

A new global vision that we are one

sustainable connected planet is

needed to avert crisis and better

manage global risk. This global

vision will be shaped by

globalization, climate change, trade

and the financial crisis. We need a

new cooperative global sustainability

system to manage these global

issues such as: security, food,

climate, communications, health,

economics and energy.

4. WEBAWARE 3.0

The future of the web is coming; a

smarter more intuitive web that can

interact, adapt, anticipate and

empower you more. Web 3.0 is

about Web Personalization, the web’s─

aware─of─you. Key trends that

will drive Web 3.0 are: Semantic

processing, context awareness,

location awareness, sentiment

analysis, predictive analysis, mobility,

cloud networks and social

networking.

5. THE DIGITAL TSUNAMI

The Digital Tsunami is the

overwhelming onslaught of digital

information: video, voice and text

that’s emerging we are not ready for.

The over one million exobytes of

information that humanity is

generating from creativity, health

care, logistics, media, entertainment,

security, industry, the web itself and

countless other data creation efforts

that we are not prepared to deal

with. Think a million server farms in

space. Enterprise must prepare now

for this trend.

6. VIDEO WEB CONVERGENCE

Rich media will be pervasive this

year as every part of the web

becomes video enabled. And as the

web, mobile and TV platforms

converge, new and exciting markets

will emerge for media producers and

directors to make a living finding

audiences that can support their

creativity. Video web shows,

delivered to your mobile device,

iPad, phone or TV will create new

markets for innovators.

7. CLICKSTREAMERS

Are you ready for the next generation

of digital consumers? Consumers

who live on the mobile web: they

game, buy, talk, work and create

online. ClickStreamers will be

devouring iPads, mobile phones,

computers, videogames they Tweet,

check Facebook, Search Google, Bing

and Blog on their mobile devices.

Think about five billion plus in 2011.

It is an avalanche of digital

consumerism and a new metric for

understanding consumers──measure

the Clickstream analytics and user

trends. The ClickStreamers will be

essential to the success of your

organization.

8. ECOEVERYTHING

Customers have spoken: Be green,

don’t pollute, help the environment,

heal the planet, protect the climate

and clean the air and water. Do more

is the mantra this year. Business

needs to see this as a Mega

Opportunity and recognize this is a

Mega─Values Shij in the consumer.

This will be the trend that touches

every product, company, government

and service, from clothes to tech,

consumers will be demanding

EcoEverything and brands better

deliver or else. Bake eco into every

strategy, product and service and win

this year.

9. ALWAYS-ON MOBILE WEB

Context awareness, ubiquity, always

on awareness of the mobile web will

bring five billion folks closer to each

other and your message, product or

service. The emergence of geodata,

the location awareness of things,

people, experiences that can be

searched and tagged by the web and

then communicated will change

every part of business and society.

What is your strategy in this new

always on game? Learn, adapt, go

mobile and thrive this year. Can you

say Mobile Clouds? No room for

legacy holdouts.

10. THE FACEBOOK PLAYBOOK

Ready for the End of Marketing?

What are brands to do? Don’t beat

them──join them. The Facebook

Effect is hacking the marketplace

and revolutionizing business by

validating social media as a vital

business strategy──no longer just for

consumers. Customers are the chief

influencers of customers. Not

companies. The social network IS

the marketplace. This is the new

playbook. Facebook will have over

800 to one billion members in 2011.

How will you and your business

leverage this? Facebook is ripping a

Black Hole the size of the universe in

the traditional marketing universe

and redefining who and where

customers are. What is the next

Groupon? What can your business

learn from the new playbook?

11. MY IDENTITY MY LIFE

Privacy is under aHack. Who you

are, what you like, where you live

and shop are all up for grabs.

Identify crime will be up again in

2011 and little is being done to stop

it. Your identity is a commodity that

can be sold and stolen. This is a

global Mega Trend of huge

proportions. If you are not

protecting your privacy others can

use it or abuse it. The irony is that

business can be the white knight

here and protect consumer’s

identities. Protect your customers or

lose them.

12. CITIES THAT THINK

The complexity of managing cities

as living systems may well define

the future. Millions are moving to

cities. Cities are evolving into

systems of living and connected

networks that need advanced IT to

survive. Cities that think, adapt

and evolve are coming. Cities like

organisms will learn to optimize

their resources, food, energy, health,

communications and climate. Cities

will interact and transact with cities

—autonomous transaction

platforms for profit and survival.

13. CONNECTED PRODUCTS

Over 300 billion embedded

computer chips sharing video,

transactions, GPS locations, audio,

data in clothes, habitats, autos,

electronics, food packages and

humans will redefine the future this

year. What happens when these

products are all connected start to

think and communicate with each

other and yes, us? How can your

business leverage this trend to build

value for your customers? Think

health, security, media,

entertainment and trade.

14. CLIMATE GEO-HACKING

OK next chapter in Big Science is we

try to use science to fix the

environment. We will clean, protect,

engineer and hack the climate to

better protect our future

environment. Can we restore

oceans, engineer climate and fix the

ozone layer? Some say it is possible.

This year we will start the

experiment.

15. CLOUD NETWORKS

This is the most practical revolution

in 100 years. Cloud based

information broadcast platforms are

coming FAST. The Cloud strategy is

cost─effective, business agile,

customer friendly and smart.

Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon

are Cloud companies──are you?

Clouds are complete services and

products that can be delivered from

the Internet —get ready for a more

secure, more stable and more cost-effective new business model. Think

whatever you are buying or selling

can it be distributed from a network

cloud? What innovation could you

deliver? Voting, medicine, media or

entertainment, you name it. Clouds

are the future.

16. PERSONALIZED MEDICINE

The future of health and medicine is

emerging. The top innovation trends

that will shape personalized

medicine are health IT 2.0, consumer

genomics, regenerative medicine,

synthetic biology and health

enhancement. This year’s

Outstanding Innovative Science

Award goes to Craig Venter for

creating the first artificial cell. This is

from the scientist who mapped the

Human Genome. This massive breakthrough

in the new field of synthetic

biology could lead to new organs,

new cells and new lives for those

sick or even dying.

17. SOCIAL SHOPPING

My friends on Facebook and Twitter

are more important then anyone in

influencing my purchasing,

consumers are telling us. Are you

listening? What is your social

shopping strategy? We are entering

an era where “who” recommends a

brand or product is more impacted

then the actual brand advertising

campaign. Social shopping, where

the customer recommends to

another customer your brand or

product, will completely

revolutionize business this year.

Customers influencing, talking, and

selling to customers will disrupt the

business that is not prepared for this

revolution. Perception is reality in

the social network marketplace.

18. NEW BRAIN SCIENCE

Innovations in brain science may

influence every aspect of life from

work to love to creativity to learning.

How can we leverage brain science

for better learning, health and

education? With millions at risk and

suffering from brain diseases such as

Alzheimer’s we need new brain

sciences to move quickly to end

suffering. This is the greatest health

challenge we face today and will face

in the future. Brain science may well

transform our lives if we invest fast

to create the breakthroughs we need.

Advancements this year could further

this global goal.

19. ROBOTS R US

In the movie Surrogates humans

replace themselves with robots that

work for their human hosts. This is a

scenario predictive of our future.

Over 70% of all stock transactions

worldwide are conducted not by

humans but Black Boxes, robotic AI

artificial intelligence. There will be

more robot aircraft flying into the

skies, robotic satellites watching the

weather, robots operating on

patients, trading stocks and robots

entering the battlefield. This year will

see more autonomous robotics

emerge. Robots who are smarter

then humans are coming soon.

20. EVERYONE’S A PRODUCER

Media creation has been an

expensive business in the past. No

longer. This year will see an explosion

of innovations, from cheap digital

video camcorders to Internet TV to

3D movies to virtual worlds. Also, the

Web can broadcast and deliver to the

computer, phone or TV your movie or

web show. Apple will pay out over $1

billion this year to iPad and iPhone

media producers. Look for

videogaming to take off thanks to

Apple’s iPad. Now everyone can be a

producer.

Source and/or read more: http://3.ly/rECc

Publisher and/or Author and/or Managing Editor:__Andres Agostini ─ @Futuretronium at Twitter! Futuretronium Book at http://3.ly/rECc