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A paper by Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development and the International Development Research Centre concluded that despite vast investments in digital technologies, the digital dividend in terms of greater productivity, less inequality, more democracy and greater wealth for all was not gained - they found that global productivity growth has slowed and labour markets have become more polarised, with inequality rising especially in wealthier countries. The share of free and fair elections were also falling due to the inequality within the share of digital technology

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Facebook Mark Zuckerberg Social VR Demo OC3 Oculus Connect 3 Keynote

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Facebook Mark Zuckerberg and team demo impressive Social VR software at Oculus Connect 3. A look at Facebook's and Oculus vision of how people will interact in Social VR. Please share this vid with friends and colleagues. Twitter ► http://www.twitter.com/VRvibeTV Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/VRvibe

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When people talk about "the next big thing," they're never thinking big enough. It's not a lack of imagination; it's a lack of observation. I've maintained that the future is always within sight, and you don't need to imagine what's already there.

Case in point: The buzz surrounding the Internet of Things.

What's the buzz? The Internet of Things revolves around increased machine-to-machine communication; it's built on cloud computing and networks of data-gathering sensors; it's mobile, virtual, and instantaneous connection; and they say it's going to make everything in our lives from streetlights to seaports "smart."

But here's what I mean when I say people don't think big enough. So much of the chatter has been focused on machine-to-machine communication (M2M): devices talking to like devices. But a machine is an instrument, it's a tool, it's something that's physically doing something. When we talk about making machines "smart," we're not referring strictly to M2M. We're talking about sensors.

A sensor is not a machine. It doesn't do anything in the same sense that a machine does. It measures, it evaluates; in short, it gathers data. The Internet of Things really comes together with the connection of sensors and machines. That is to say, the real value that the Internet of Things creates is at the intersection of gathering data and leveraging it. All the information gathered by all the sensors in the world isn't worth very much if there isn't an infrastructure in place to analyze it in real time.

Cloud-based applications are the key to using leveraged data. The Internet of Things doesn't function without cloud-based applications to interpret and transmit the data coming from all these sensors. The cloud is what enables the apps to go to work for you anytime, anywhere.

Let's look at one example. In 2007, a bridge collapsed in Minnesota, killing many people, because of steel plates that were inadequate to handle the bridge's load. When we rebuild bridges, we can use smart cement: cement equipped with sensors to monitor stresses, cracks, and warpages. This is cement that alerts us to fix problems before they cause a catastrophe. And these technologies aren't limited to the bridge's structure.

If there's ice on the bridge, the same sensors in the concrete will detect it and communicate the information via the wireless internet to your car. Once your car knows there's a hazard ahead, it will instruct the driver to slow down, and if the driver doesn't, then the car will slow down for him. This is just one of the ways that sensor-to-machine and machine-to-machine communication can take place. Sensors on the bridge connect to machines in the car: we turn information into action.

You might start to see the implications here. What can you achieve when a smart car and a smart city grid start talking to each other? We're going to have traffic flow optimization, because instead of just having stoplights on fixed timers, we'll have smart stoplights that can respond to changes in traffic flow. Traffic and street conditions will be communicated to drivers, rerouting them around areas that are congested, snowed-in, or tied up in construction.

So now we have sensors monitoring and tracking all sorts of data; we have cloud-based apps translating that data into useful intelligence and transmitting it to machines on the ground, enabling mobile, real-time responses. And thus bridges become smart bridges, and cars smart cars. And soon, we have smart cities, and....

Okay. What are the advantages here? What are the savings? What industries can this be applied to?

Here's what I mean when I say people never think big enough. This isn't just about money savings. It's not about bridges, and it's not about cities. This is a huge and fundamental shift. When we start making things intelligent, it's going to be a major engine for creating new products and new services.

Of all the technology trends that are taking place right now, perhaps the biggest one is the Internet of Things; it's the one that's going to give us the most disruption as well as the most opportunity over the next five years. In my next post in this two-part series, we'll explore just how big this is going to be.
Daniel Burrus is considered one of the world's leading technology forecasters and innovation experts, and is the founder and CEO of Burrus Research. He is the author of six books including the New York Times best seller "Flash Foresight."

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The Internet of Things Is Far Bigger Than Anyone Realizes

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When people talk about "the next big thing," they're never thinking big enough. It's not a lack of imagination; it's a lack of observation. I've maintained that the future is always within sight, and you don't need to imagine what's already there. Case in point: The buzz surrounding the Internet of Things.

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Trolling: harmless fun or cyber-bullying?

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Trolling: harmless fun or cyber-bullying?

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In the digital age people have unprecedented access to complete anonymity. There are interesting debates surrounding this issue, some of which are outlined in this article

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An estimated 6 per cent of internet users enjoy and engage in trolling. But who are these trolls, why do they do it, and where is the line between trolling and bullying, asks Ged Cann.
Jesse does not live under a bridge or in a cave, but he is a troll.

The internet is the Wellingtonian's hunting ground, and just like the hairy creatures of folklore, he is not particularly helpful to humankind.

Jesse enjoys posting inflammatory or off-topic comments in online forums with the express purpose of provoking an emotional response or disrupting the discussion for his own amusement.
READ MORE:
* Everyday sadists: Inside the mind of a troll
* What does the law say about cyber bullying?
* Cyber bullying prosecution figures released by Justice
He often finds himself taking 10 minutes out from work to construct a post for some news website or another. There is only one goal: to provoke a reaction - the stronger, the better.

A good troll, in Jesse's opinion, is never detected as a wind-up. He sees it as a skill, and as harmless fun.

His favourite trolls include impersonations of benefit bludgers, fundamentalist Christians and cat-haters. He recounts one successful comment he posted on an article about legalising marijuana.

"I went against, but used obviously fake material for why it should be banned, eg 'my brother used to inject it as a teen and failed at high school as a result and suffers from constant asthma attacks now'."

Reaction was huge, Jesse is pleased to recount.

"Even if I just get one person giving me a good lengthy argument against me, it's good. It is funny when you get 20 responses and 20 thumbs down.

"The whole point is not getting caught out, the moment someone says 'This guy's not real', it's game over."

Any controversial subject with a majority voice is an attractive target. "If there's a Trump thing, I will support Trump."

An internet native since he was 12, Jesse takes the hobby so seriously that he seeks out "amateur trolls" to expose them.

He says he will never target one person or aim to cause distress. He goes so far as to say those that do are mentally ill.

"I do see the things people do, they ruin people's lives ... People that end up making people kill themselves, that's way too far, and they must have psychological problems to want to do that to people."
SO WHY DO PEOPLE TROLL?
New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists president Deb Moore said a recent study found between 5 and 6 per cent of internet users said they engaged in, and enjoyed, trolling.

The Canadian research involved 1200 participants, and found trolls had particular character traits. "They were high on narcissism, that self-interest, craving admiration and attention, and high on psychopathic scores."

High levels of sadism, or the enjoyment of causing others distress, were also common.

"That Machiavellian charming aspect seems to be part of that as well," Moore said. "You wonder what's going on in peoples lives that this is their activity."

Unprecedented anonymity was a draw for most, and the freedom from social conventions. "It enables people's worst side to be unleashed, if that's what they choose to do."

Moore described trolling as debasement of freedom of speech and, while most internet users adhered to the principle of "don't feed the trolls", there were many younger users who could not.

"Young vulnerable people can't resist reading this stuff, and if you read lots of cruel comments about yourself it does have an impact."

On Jesse, Moore said his goal was still to provoke and upset, despite his own "rules".

"He's not doing that really incredibly cruel, vicious stuff, he's doing it for a bit of fun - 'people take themselves too seriously, let's just jazz things up a little bit here'.

"But that's not what's happening for many other people, where the trolling is personalised, cruel and relentless."
THE LINE BETWEEN TROLLING AND BULLYING
NetSafe chief executive officer Martin Cocker said most trolling did not amount to bullying, with the majority being one-off events.

"There are people who post social commentary and call themselves trolls, and those that are just designed to offend or upset people."

Cocker advised Jesse that, if his goal was to say controversial things to get a rise out of people, he should "go try standup comedy".

"There's no value from trolls, really."

The Harmful Digital Communications Act, established in July 2015, set out rules for the first time on what constitutes online bullying.

It set a threshold defined as causing serious emotional distress and contains 10 guiding principals, including disclosure of sensitive personal information, intimidate, encouraging anyone towards suicide, or degenerate a person's race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.

By October last year, 89 criminal charges had been laid, and seven people had been jailed under the act.

NetSafe launched a new service in the wake of the act in November. It has already received nearly 300 complaints from a range of people, including professionals, children, parents, small business owners and prisoners.

Outcomes have included having content removed, mediation, and applications to the District Court.

The majority of cases were still likely to be going unreported, Cocker said, and more than three-quarters of complaints came from over-18s.

Many of the accused sad they never intended to cause harm. "Whether they thought they were joking or that they hadn't crossed the line - that's not a category we worry about recording, because our job is to work out which qualify as offences and recommend responses to them."
HOW BAD CAN ONLINE BULLYING GET?
Suzanne knows just how bad online bullying can be. The 19-year-old Wellingtonian endured harassment for about four years, from the age of 12.

"I had this massive crush on this guy when I was younger, I had a crush on him for a year, and I honestly thought he would go out with me if I did what he said."

She was not comfortable discussing details, but confirmed that the things she was asked to do were sexual.

"Word got out that I was doing this kind of stuff and I got messages from people I didn't even know. Girls at my school were whispering behind my back."

The messages were from other boys and, without anyone to turn to, Suzanne thought the only way to make them stop was to do what they asked.

More than 10 boys, all around her age, pestered her constantly.

"Being young, it was a bit of attention. I quite liked a bit of attention, and then I started losing some really close friends ...

"The messages were never threatening, they [the boys] just kept asking for stuff, and I would say no, and then eventually I finally gave up and gave them what they wanted."

She was too afraid to delete her Facebook account in case her parents became suspicious, and so terrified of allowing appearances to slip at school that she kept her problems to herself.

"That was a really bad idea, because I began self-harming and I really wanted to end it all.

"It finally stopped when I was 16."

If it hadn't, Suzanne said she doubted she would have made it to her 18th birthday. She now has advice for young women who face the same issue.

"Don't do what they ask, no matter how many times they ask, and it will all be over eventually.

"I wish I had said to them: start being a gentleman and stop at the word 'no'. Just stop, it's not your rights, and she doesn't owe you anything."

The new service from NetSafe offers an avenue for those in a situation like Suzanne's. Though she suspects she would have been hesitant to seek help, the option would have been nice.

"It's great, and I'm glad it's being done."

She said there was no difference between a troll and a bully.

"It's basically the same thing. It can be painful for the one receiving it."

- Stuff

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Harmless fun, or cyber-bullying? An interview with a troll

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An estimated 6 per cent of internet users enjoy and engage in trolling. But who are these trolls, why do they do it, and where is the line between trolling and bullying, asks Ged Cann. Jesse does not live under a bridge or in a cave, but he is a troll.

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Patrick Dixon Futurist Keynote Speaker for Industry Conference

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Brain fuse with computer chips: biodigital brain, thought control - Futurist IT technology speaker

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http://www.globalchange.com Fusing computer memory with brain tissue. Artificial intelligence. Future of brain power, intelligence, enhancing mental performance in exams. Man-machine interfaces to control equipment or play games. Controlling machines by thought, thinking, mental concentration, and brainwaves. Innovation in brain processing and computer power. Improving memory and better brain power.

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Future Pharma Health Care Futurist Speaker

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Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

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Patrick Dixon Futurist Keynote Speaker for Industry Conference

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Computers smarter than Physicians? Future Health Care / Med Tech trends - Futurist Speaker

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Keynote presentation by Patrick Dixon on Virtual Medicine and Patient Trust. Computer diagnostics are reducing reliance on humans, theoretically reducing risk but this is not necessarily true in practice. Cloud based medicine compels physicians to follow virtual diagnosis over their professional judgement. Are computers smarter than humans?

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Virtual Reality is ... well, real. The last year has seen the launch of every major VR platform, from high-quality tethered systems like HTC's Vive and Facebook's Oculus Rift, through to cheap-and-cheerful smartphone-based platforms like Google's Daydream and Samsung's Gear VR.

The early adopters have bought in, the launch games have been launched, and now that the initial flurry of excitement has died down, the more pressing questions are left: how will the platforms evolve? What will you actually be able to do with them? And is VR just a stepping stone anyway, to the even more science-fiction future of augmented reality tech?

At its inception, VR is unquestionably a gaming technology first and foremost. The most expensive and technologically advanced systems have an almost total focus on serving the hardcore gamer market. Even the simpler systems, which lack the pixel-pushing power necessary to satisfy modern players, still end up with a preponderance of games and game-like projects, because that's what's easiest to build with the tools available.

So the number one priority for the titans of VR is to carry on winning round game developers and players to prevent the juggernaut from stalling. But if the experiences of the first wave of early adopters is anything to go by, that could prove trickier than it seems.

Right now, the pressures of AAA games seem inimical to those of VR. Games for the hardcore niche of the market are often designed and sold around having durations in the hundreds of hours, with an individual gaming session often lasting three to four hours. In VR, as the devices work today, such heavy use becomes physically punishing: painful for the eyes, face, head and neck, as well as emphatically warned against by the manufacturers.

So instead, many of the highest profile games at launch are designed for quick, powerful experiences. CCP's Eve Valkyrie and Guerrilla's RIGS both pack intense multiplayer battles into matches lasting at most five minutes, Rebellion's Battlezone does the same with single-player tank battles, and even more story focused games like Gunfire's Chronos and Insomniac's Edge of Nowhere make it fairly easy to jump in and out of the game.

In the absence of the life-consuming behemoths which constitute gaming for a large number of fans, VR development has instead been colonised by quirkier games, often made by smaller studios with lower budgets who can survive by selling games at a cut price to the comparatively small install base of VR devices.

Even those studios are betting on VR growing, though. Dean Hall, the chief executive of indie studio RocketWerkz, wrote that his company's game, Out of Ammo, "has exceeded our sales predictions and achieved our internal objectives".

"However, it has been very unprofitable. It is extremely unlikely that it will ever be profitable. We are comfortable with this, and approached it as such. We expected to lose money and we had the funding internally to handle this. Consider then that Out of Ammo has sold unusually well compared to many other VR games."

Currently, platform owners are subsidising much of the development for VR, in exchange for making those games platform exclusives. But those owners will also need to make money at some point; they're just capable of playing a longer game than an independent developer.

In that long term, VR needs to be more than an accessory for better games. Back in 2014, Mark Zuckerberg targeted an install base of 50m to 100m Oculus headsets in the device's first decade. At the top end, that's equal to the total sales of the Playstation 4 and Xbox One combined, for a device which currently needs a PC to run it that costs more than a PS4 and Xbox One combined.

Of course, Zuckerberg isn't interested in owning a gaming company, even a successful one. He bought Oculus with the stated intention of offering far more than just better video games. "Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face - just by putting on goggles in your home," he wrote in the post announcing the company's acquisition.

Perhaps tellingly, in the years since, Zuckerberg has spent far more time focusing on Oculus' smaller, more accessible product, the Gear VR, than on the weighty, tethered Rift headset. At the Mobile World Congress conference in February, attendees were handed one to try, causing them to miss the smiling executive strolling past them on his way to the stage.

Last week, Facebook announced it would split Oculus into two divisions, one focusing on PC-based VR, and the other on mobile. It's clear on which Zuckerberg is staking the future of computing, and it's not the tethered division which current Oculus CEO Brendan Irbe will be heading up.

If VR is going to become the next major computing platform, pushing mobile phones aside the way they left desktop PCs lagging in their wake, 2017 will be the crunch point: platforms like Google's Daydream, and whatever Oculus offers as the follow-up to Gear VR, need to arrive with the same pop that tethered VR entered in the past year. More, they need a compelling reason for those who don't care about gaming to buy in, be that experiences like 360-degree video, or social platforms like those Facebook wants to build.

If they don't, they could find themselves obsolete before they even hit the mainstream, thanks to the new technologies peeking over the horizon. If VR doesn't charm, could AR succeed where it failed?

AR devices, like Microsoft's Hololens and vaporware start-up Magic Leap 's prototypes, allows virtual images to be imprinted over the real world. It's not cheap - the developer preview of the Hololens retails for almost £3,000 - but it fixes a number of issues which hold VR back when it comes to everyday practicality. Hololens users can still interact with the real world, with their colleagues and companions, rather than locking themselves away in a virtual space. That interaction makes it much more appealing to imagine using Hololens as a general-purpose computing system, fitting in alongside your current life.

Or maybe neither will actually take off in the foreseeable future. For the first time in well over a decade, technology companies worldwide are looking at the end of one hyperbolic growth curve - that of smartphones - with nothing obvious to pick up where it died off. They may have a lot of interest in convincing their shareholders that something is the next big thing, but that doesn't mean we have to believe them. After all, we live in reality.

If the future of video games is VR, it needs to stop making us feel sick

Topics

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Will 2017 be the year virtual reality gets real?

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Virtual Reality is ... well, real. The last year has seen the launch of every major VR platform, from high-quality tethered systems like HTC's Vive and Facebook's Oculus Rift, through to cheap-and-cheerful smartphone-based platforms like Google's Daydream and Samsung's Gear VR.

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Technology has resulted in less paper waste.

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As seen, digital technology has revolutionised society and the way people communicate and interact with others. However, could there be any problems with how widespread digital technology has become? There has been evidence that people today are overindulging in excess digital behaviours and this could be detrimental for psychological and physical wellbeing. For example - excess internet/gaming addictions and social problems such as cyber bullying.

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Digital technology allows the typical elements of game playing to be applied to other activities.

This is useful for:

Safety critical training e.g. army, flight crew

Helping children with disabilities to develop advanced cognitive maps

Educational purposes- a good example for language learning is Duolingo

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Digital technology has enabled advancement within the health industry, most specifically within interventions. For example - technology-based tools such as sensors and mobile devices can be used to help individuals quit smoking. These technological tools afford 'automatic nudging' about different 'risk' decision such as decisions to smoke

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Millennials grew up with technology and thus their consumer behaviour is vastly different to generations that came before.

Millennials are:

1. 3x likely to talk about brand/product on social media than baby boomers

2. 2x more likely to reference peer review on products before buying them than generation x

3.  50% more likely to make price comparison on products before buying them than non millennials

4. 10x more likely to blog about it

This has enormous consequences on businesses as millennials are such a large part of the population.

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Millennials: Changing Consumer Behavior: Goldman Sachs' Lindsay Drucker Mann

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Technology has enabled a huge advancement in education programmes. For example, the introduction of computers in school has improved children's results.

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As technology has spread through our society, new behaviours and new ways of working have emerged - for example, few have predicted the impact of technology on news reporting. This impact has led to a new enfranchisement for citizens, more people are becoming more interested in the news and are proactive. Such changes has affected the structures of a society and has transformed institutions (Heath & Luff, 2000).

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Sharing, watching and commenting on YouTube videos - these can be anything from current music videos to users vlogging about their daily lives

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VIDEO #46 - 18 APRIL 2016 WHAT I DO FOR A LIVING http://www.infinite-prosperity.com FOLLOW ME http://www.instagram.com/lewismocker http://www.facebook.com/loopylitez http://www.twitter.com/lewismocker http://www.lewismocker.com Snapchat: loopylitez Periscope: lewismocker MUSIC Song #1 "Fitness Motivation" Buy: http://audiojungle.net/item/fitness-motivation/8778335 Song #2 Jeff Kaale - Lady Listen: https://soundcloud.com/jeff-kaale/lady Follow: https://soundcloud.com/jeff-kaale https://www.facebook.com/Jeff-kaale-652171294912535 Song #3 Ship Wrek & Veorra - Feelin Good Listen: https://soundcloud.com/theshipwrek/feelin-good https://twitter.com/TheShipWrek https://www.facebook.com/theshipwrek https://www.youtube.com/user/theshipwrek Filmed with a Canon G7X, GoPro Hero 4 Black and DJI Phantom 4

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Social media is a great platform to raise awareness and change people's opinions. For example, Twitter trends can advocate certain political movements.

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Communication has revolutionised because of the rise of digital technology. As society and businesses becomes more digitalised, this has accounted for the rise of social media websites such as Facebook. Facebook has changed the way in which people interact with each other, building different social constructs which may have no been seen before in the past, before the internet was born.