The Tri-City News asked Jason Leo Carvalho, founder of Tri-Cities' startup accelerator for technology businesses @TriCelerate, what the future holds for technology and business for 2015. The following is his response, edited for brevity for the paper. The full article is online at www.tricitynews.com. More information about TriCelerate is available at http://www.triccelerate.ca/home-2/about
The future of technology in the coming months will see businesses and consumers being more friendly with the term 'Internet of Things' or IoT.
1. IoT refers to the ever growing network of physical objects that are connected and can communicate with the internet. If your device has an on/off switch to the internet it's part of the growing IoT community. We are talking about everything from coffee makers, cars, to thermostats (eg. NEST to control the heat of your home through an app) to wearable hardware devices to help you track your fitness, such as FitBit.
We are seeing a growth in wearable devices to monitor human activity and health outcomes, everything from the Nike Fuelband or Fitbit to tablets and mobile devices being used by doctors to treat patients.
As well, the development and accessibility of 3D printers, one of which is available at the Coquitlam Public Library, is giving entrepreneurs an opportunity to create and design their own products.
More connections
2. Technology research firm Gartner predicts that by 2020 there will be 26 billion devices connected to the internet. Analysts see this giant network of "things" to look like this: people to people, people to things and things to things. For example, 10% of automobiles have been connected since 2013.
What this all means for businesses is that their HR teams will need to bring on board professionals with a serious understanding of the 2 D's: Data & Digital. Hiring chief data officers and chief (technology) information officers will be an important consideration for local businesses and governments.
3. Security will also have to be ramped up to deal with hacking, data breaches and viruses, and businesses will have to consider moving their data to the Cloud and expand their security budgets to deal with malware. (Two recent examples, the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment, widely believed to be the work of the North Korean government in response to the movie The Interview and a malicious file attachment infected the B.C. government's email servers in December and shut them down)
4. The demand for online purchasing will also change how companies respond to providing fast efficient secure payment and delivery services. Amazon recently announced their one-hour delivery service dubbed Amazon Prime Now. It will be some time before that service comes to Canada but consumers can expect to see an increase in on demand home delivery options offered by varying industries. A prime example, which Coquitlam residents can test out today, is Save-on-Foods' home delivery service accessible via the web and an app. More and more businesses will look at expanding their service and distribution models to accommodate this new evolution of customer service.
Collaborative economy
5. You may ask how am I part of this? The internet is offering opportunities for people to create, share goods and services, space and money with each other in the new collaborative economy. if you've shopped on Etsy/eBay/Craigslist (Goods), or donated on Kickstarter or Indiegogo (Money) or hired a developer using Elance (Services/MakerMovement) or purchased a suit from Indochino (Custom Products) or used Car2Go/ZipCar (Loaner Cars) or heard of Uber, which is not yet available in B.C (Transportation) you are part of the growing collaborative economy.
The idea, according to Jerimiah Owyang, web strategist, is that in a collaborative economy, people can get what they need from each other instead of purchasing goods from big brands. This is may seem a radical notion, but it is getting lots of attention and the internet makes it possible.
To find out more about this segment of the economy and the growing Maker Movement, attend the next meeting of the meet up group Coquitlam, BC Startups on Jan. 27, 2015 at the Coquitlam Public Library. Dallas Luther founder of MakerLabs.ca will be speaking along with a few makers who use 3D printers among other new tools to build their products and businesses.
It's free, register here.
