everything looks perfect from far away

Lots of predictions are made. Space travel will be as common as driving a flying car by the year 2000 (which is true if you think about it). The apocalypse is coming… NOW. Anyway, I just found this flash animation about the future of media in 2015. Though some of it seems quite unlikely (mainly because most people won’t change their habits this quickly) it may happen to a great extent, but I see it happening. Newspapers are already in lower demand due the Internet and electronic news disseminated by the sprawling networks worldwide.

Bear with me as I go through this using some examples from the video and other substitutes. Google owns Picasa, a piece of software that is used to find, edit, and share pictures stored on your PC. Integrate that with Gmail vast amount of space allowed per user. Your photos can be stored online for free. Integrate that with Gmail and Google Talk, easily adding pictures emails and IMs. Please note, that Google or Microsoft could do both of these… or Apple. But anyway, just focusing on Google.

The key to this is integration and services. I have some kind of mobile device with newer software, a new (non-existent iPod) or a cell phone with a really good camera for instance. I’m walking down Connecticut Ave in DC, on my way Dupont Circle. A new restaurant has opened up to replace Thaiphoon, let’s say a new Ethiopian restaurant. I snap a picture of it with my cell phone. Moblogging is passé. Instead of posting it to a blog, I choose, “Send to Picasa, Mark for Publication”. The high definition picture is sent to Picasa along with other meta information, such as my geographical position, EXIF information from the snapshot, and the direction I’m facing, and date.

This picture is stored in the database owned by Google used for Google Earth and a newer version of the Google Maps which works on the same model, and which allows you to maneuver in public spaces and see real pictures, instead of just overhead satellite photos. The photo is reviewed against the current version of that location. If my picture is better or more accurate, it replaces the current version.

As I’m staring at the new eatery, something diverts my attention. I turn around and see an accident that is blocking the north-bound lane on Connecticut Ave and its dinner time. Traffic has already started to back up and the local neighborhood streets are looking like an impossible version of Gridlock. I open my clam-shell cell phone, hold down the lower right-hand button on the side of my Motorola cell phone, and begin a voice recording. “An accident has occurred near Connecticut and Florida Ave NW”. I select “Traffic Advisory” on my cell phone, instead of storing it on my memory card (or maybe it supports a podcast). Immediately, devices across the area are notified through the ether using your standard publish/subscribe paradigm, notifying commuters that traffic will be backed up around the area. Now Joe Smith receives this message on his cell, iPod, or maybe just as he’s starting his Acura TL. He decides since he lives in Adams Morgan, and drives at Federal Triangle, he’ll Metro today instead, he decides he’ll get his car later that night.

When Joe returns to the garage to retrieve his car, his navigation system no longer just shows the standard birds-eye view, but through his cell phone, accesses Google’s Keyhole service over 3G wireless networking. Like driving through a picture, his navigation system changes appropriately as he drives, looking very realistic. Highlighting is there too, but different. It’s nighttime. The Keyhole pictures shown are either taken at night time, converted to grey scale and dimmed, or, if it is your current route, are lit up like it is at the daytime, making it easier to find your destination, that new Ethiopian restaurant.

Just a little example. Oh, and how do you stop spam, let’s say in the case of the traffic accident? Multiple, unrelated people (read not associated through any known networks that are stored electronically, such as Orkut, Friendster, blogroll, or the local Lions club membership,) must report the same thing, giving the report a higher “page rank” because multiple independent sources have reported the same event, just like in the news today.

By the way, for all you Tom’s, Dave’s, Batta’s, and Webb’s out there, can anyone say the next killer app is the integration and service providers for all this? Create a framework that can be used, hijack the services from Google and other sources, and voila. Granted, you have almost just created a society like 1984 that the NSA could monitor.