Back to regular programming! 👋 We’re feeling psyched, feeling 20-22! Thanks for being part of the ABD journey through 2021. We have a lot on the download this year. The Return of our Conference and, really, just more, more, more: More Expert Events, More Substack, More Podcasts, More Sharing!
Themes of the Year
We’ve always believed that the world is driven by massive changes. The foundation of our content would be the biggest themes we’re paying attention to.
1. Creator Economy: Sovereign Individuals
Crypto, the individualization of enterprises through simplified software, the rise of remote working, frictionless payments, and the increased use of digital and social media have pretty much allowed individual creators to own the entire value chain for their IP. They can create content and services through their own brand while leveraging software tools; distribute through social and digital media; monetize through payments; and, even manage and monetize their audience through crypto and other forms.
2. Digital Twins: Atoms and Bits
The world needs more renewable sources of energy, improved infrastructure, and more carbon-friendly buildings and homes. Manufacturers are also tapping into automation and robots to streamline their operations. In concert with these hard steel, technologies are the accompanying ‘Digital Twins’, bits, data counterparts that allow organizations to even better improve their processes and planning. In the extreme sense, Smart Cities, enabled by 5G and IoT, among others, would also have their Digital Counterparts.Â
3. Omni-Consumer: Channel Convergence
It’s not just E-Commerce that requires companies to have both online and offline presence. Even within digitally native organizations, they have to integrate multiple touchpoints and channels with the customers: From social media to collaborative software, the lines between what constitutes workplaces, forums, social media, and video games, are converging. At the back end, payments infrastructure lubricates this omnichannel economy, while engines and platforms like Unity, Unreal, and Twilio provide developers and creators tools to constantly create new content and capabilities.
4. Internet, Everywhere: Digitally Native
Some call it ‘Metaverse’, some call it a natural progression post-pandemic, but it is better to state the obvious: we’re all digital citizens now, for better or worse. From Shopify’s changing of its address from Ottawa, ON, to Internet, Everywhere, to Stripe sourcing 74% of its hires outside Silicon Valley, the tech industry - and the world overall - is going even more global and more digital, despite the contrary. This unlocks massive value and talent creation but also brings novel political, cultural, and economic changing winds that we must navigate.
 5. The Next Frontiers: Beyond Mobile and the Web
The iPhone is old enough for a quinceanera and day by day Web 3.0 zealots espouse about the next platform shift. These things have always developed gradually, then suddenly. What’s different this time is that globally, across sectors and countries, people and companies are trying to crack what’s the world beyond the mobile phone and the internet that lives on it. From AR goggles to Quantum powered supercomputers, to personalized wearables or omnipresent voice-powered gadgets, the next platform shift could already be here, we just need to figure it out. But, hey, it took the old guard six years before conceding to the mobile phone. But there are always markers.Â
Analytics, Digital, Design In Action
FarmVille and the Quest for Mobile
Once upon a time, Facebook circa 2008, we were required to plant virtual crops to harvest for in-game currency. FarmVille marked the advent of the modern viral video game and it’s as nostalgic as the Top Songs of that time. While FarmVille’s original Facebook incarnation shut down last month, it’s legacy and parent company lives on, until today: Take-Two, the video game company behind GTA and RDR2, is acquiring Zynga.Â
This marks TTWO’s largest acquisition and its further push into mobile games, a trend echoed across the industry. Perhaps we’ll see a mobile version of GTA where we’ll play as farmers?
Tag, You’re It
Big Tech never fails when it comes to innovation and scandals, and the Big Apple already has a whopper two weeks into the year. AirTags, the nifty tracking device, have done its job, but maybe too good of a job. It’s been discovered that AirTags have been used to stalk people.
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