Category Archives: Technology

Towards a Unified Metaverse

In 2009, I published a diagram about the future evolution of the Web, called “Intelligence is in the Connections.” Much of what I predicted has occurred – we have witnessed the growth of social media, natural language search and speech interfaces, intelligent assistants, and massively multiplayer online virtual worlds and games.… Read More “Towards a Unified Metaverse”

The Keeper of the Book: My Childhood Dream of the Future

When I was eight years old, I had a very unusual dream in which I saw many lifetimes of my future. In this dream I saw a very clear picture of what the world would go through for perhaps a century or two into the future.… Read More “The Keeper of the Book: My Childhood Dream of the Future”

My Segment on the British Library Podcast Was Great

Announcing Fuzionaire Diagnostics: a True Breakthrough in Chemistry, Applied to Saving Lives

Today, we are launching Fuzionaire Diagnostics.

Technological progress often comes from incremental improvements to existing technologies, rather than major evolutionary leaps. But occasionally there is a truly fundamental advance that improves the entire foundation on which we are building. This is the type of leap we are announcing today.… Read More “Announcing Fuzionaire Diagnostics: a True Breakthrough in Chemistry, Applied to Saving Lives”

Sun Stone

It’s mind blowing. An object I conceived of and had made, which was in my house, that I held in my hand, and once carried in my pocket, is now orbiting the sun for millions of years, near the asteroid belt, moving faster than a bullet, in a red Tesla Roadster.… Read More “Sun Stone”

Arch Mission Foundation Announces Our Payload On SpaceX Falcon Heavy

Arch Mission Foundation Announces Our Payload On SpaceX Falcon Heavy

I am thrilled to announce the launch of the first Arch™ payload, on board the Falcon Heavy Test Launch, with SpaceX.

Read the full blog post here:

https://medium.com/arch-mission-foundation/arch-mission-foundation-announces-our-payload-on-spacex-falcon-heavy-c4c9908d5dd1

Our goal at the Arch Mission Foundation™ is to permanently archive human knowledge for thousands to billions of years.… Read More “Arch Mission Foundation Announces Our Payload On SpaceX Falcon Heavy”

What Did Blade Runner Get Wrong?

I’m quoted in this article in TheStreet.com on what predictions Blade Runner got wrong.

https://www.thestreet.com/story/14331182/2/blade-runner-future-technology.html

In the place of artificial intelligence, we have what Spivack calls “artificial stupidity,” which makes robots do the “stupid things” humans don’t want to do, such as vacuuming your house.

… Read More “What Did Blade Runner Get Wrong?”

Magical, My New Startup Studio in LA, Comes Out of Stealth

 

 

 

 

Today we began to reveal a little more of what we’ve been working on in stealth mode, since last December. It’s a new science and technology startup studio, based in Los Angeles, called Magical.

You might think of Magical as a moonshot factory, except that we’re not just aiming for the moon.… Read More “Magical, My New Startup Studio in LA, Comes Out of Stealth”

Announcing the Arch Mission Foundation – Spreading Humanity’s Knowledge in Space

Today we are officially announcing the Arch Mission — a non-profit foundation dedicated to spreading humanity’s knowledge across the distant reaches of space and time. I first wrote about this concept in 2015. We have been working in stealth since then and now I am proud to announce the project has reached a major milestone.

AI, BI, and the Necessity of Automating the Analyst

It’s Time to Automate the Analyst

I have been speaking about the need for “automating the analyst” for several years. This need is prompted not only by the data deluge — the Cambrian explosion of data volume, velocity, and variety of data sources — but also by the simple reality that enterprises cannot hire the number of data scientists they need to adapt to this new environment.… Read More “AI, BI, and the Necessity of Automating the Analyst”

Bottlenose Named Gartner Cool Vendor in In-Memory Computing

I’m thrilled to say that my company, Bottlenose, has been selected by Gartner Group as a 2016 Cool Vendor in In-Memory Computing.

I’m very proud of the team and what we built here. Truly the next-generation of business intelligence, powered by AI and streaming analytics.… Read More “Bottlenose Named Gartner Cool Vendor in In-Memory Computing”

How Twitter Could be 10X Bigger, 100X More Profitable, and 1000X More Awesome

Read my new article about how to evolve Twitter, on VentureBeat

 

I’ve spent many years studying, writing about, building, and funding companies (such as Bottlenose, Klout, and The Daily Dot) in Twitter’s ecosystem.

Despite the media chatter, I am still bullish on Twitter – as should be any investor who understands the social network’s fundamentals and true potential.

… Read More “How Twitter Could be 10X Bigger, 100X More Profitable, and 1000X More Awesome”

How to Solve Twitter’s Engagement Problem: Add Semantics

The fundamental problem that Twitter has is engagement. If engagement can be corrected, the whole Twitter ecosystem (and their stock price) will improve.

Improving Twitter engagement comes down to fixing the core consumption experience.

First of all what’s wrong with the consumption experience?… Read More “How to Solve Twitter’s Engagement Problem: Add Semantics”

Twitter’s Future is Actually Its Past – Where Twitter Went Wrong and How to Right It

With the resignation of Twitter’s CEO, Dick Costolo, there has been a sudden burst in commentary on what is wrong with Twitter, and where they should focus next.

There are suggestions that Twitter should focus on live real-time events. There are suggestions that Twitter should focus on algorithms to filter content so they are more like Facebook.… Read More “Twitter’s Future is Actually Its Past – Where Twitter Went Wrong and How to Right It”

Why Twitter’s Engagement Has Fallen

I have been thinking about Twitter for many years. One of the interesting trends that many of us who share an interest in social networks have been tracking is the decline in engagement on Twitter.

Indeed this decline is not only evident from Twitter’s own metrics and reporting, but also to anyone who has been an active user of Twitter since the early days of the service.

2014: A Turning Point for the Semantic Web

Read my article in Semanticweb.com about the significance of 2014 in Semantic Web history.

 

Google is moving away from hand-made ontologies — they were never a fan of them. From the early days, Google’s philosophy has been biased towards big data over manually constructed knowledge.

… Read More “2014: A Turning Point for the Semantic Web”

It’s Time for an Open Standard for Cards

Cards are fast becoming the hot new design paradigm for mobile apps, but their importance goes far beyond mobile. Cards are modular, bite-sized content containers designed for easy consumption and interaction on small screens, but they are also a new metaphor for user-interaction that is spreading across all manner of other apps and content.… Read More “It’s Time for an Open Standard for Cards”

The Next Step for Intelligent Virtual Assistants

When we talk about the future of artificial intelligence (AI), the discussion often focuses on the advancements and capabilities of the technology, or even the risks and opportunities inherent in the potential cultural implications. What we frequently overlook, however, is the future of AI as a business.… Read More “The Next Step for Intelligent Virtual Assistants”

Bottlenose Nerve Center 2.0 Released – Milestone for Real-Time Big Data Analytics

I’m happy to announce the release of Bottlenose Nerve Center 2.0 today. Analyzing 3 billion messages an hour (72 billion messages a day), and doing real-time predictive analytics on nearly 300 million data points an hour, it’s a big step in real-time big data analytics. … Read More “Bottlenose Nerve Center 2.0 Released – Milestone for Real-Time Big Data Analytics”

Did Apple Buy Topsy for Contextual Awareness?

The stunning news that Apple bought social search engine, Topsy, for more than $200M has many scratching their heads. Why would Apple want social data, and why would they pay so much for it?

There has been a lot of speculation about the reasons for this acquisition — ranging from making Siri better, to making the App Store smarter, to acquiring big data expertise to develop insights on the Apple firehose.… Read More “Did Apple Buy Topsy for Contextual Awareness?”

Bottlenose Announces Free Live Visualization of Global Social Trends

Bottlenose has just launched something very very cool: A free version of it’s live visualization of trends in the Twitter firehose.  Check it out at http://sonar.bottlenose.com and get your own embed for any topic. This is the future of real-time marketing.… Read More “Bottlenose Announces Free Live Visualization of Global Social Trends”

The Present IS the Future: Real-Time Marketing In the Era of the Stream – Part Two

In Part I of this article series, we looked at how the real-time Web has precipitated Nowism as a fundamental shift in how we understand and engage with information. Nowism is a cultural shift to a focus on the present, instead of the past or future.… Read More “The Present IS the Future: Real-Time Marketing In the Era of the Stream – Part Two”

The Present IS the Future: Real-Time Marketing In the Era of the Stream – Part One

Introduction

The pulse of the Net has gotten faster. It’s not a static Web of documents anymore, it’s a new real-time messaging medium we call the Stream.

The Stream is unlike any form of live media before it: It is a completely real-time, globally distributed, two-way conversation.… Read More “The Present IS the Future: Real-Time Marketing In the Era of the Stream – Part One”

Twitter is No Longer a Village

I’ve noticed a distinct change in how people use Twitter in the last year:

1. People are increasingly not using Twitter for actual two-way conversations or interactions. Instead it’s being used more for one-way “fire and forget” posting. People just post into the aether, without knowing or even caring if anyone actually reads their posts.… Read More “Twitter is No Longer a Village”

Making Sense of Streams

This is a talk I’ve been giving on how we filter the Stream at Bottlenose.

You can view the slides below, or click here to replay the webinar with my talk.

Note: I recommend the webinar if you have time, as I go into a lot more detail than is in the slides – in particular some thoughts about the Global Brain, mapping collective consciousness, and what the future of social media is really all about.  … Read More “Making Sense of Streams”

Bottlenose Beat Bit.ly to the First Attention Engine – But It’s Going to Get Interesting

Bottlenose (disclosure: my startup) just launched the first attention engine this week.

But it appears that Bit.ly is launching one soon as well.

It’s going to get interesting to watch this category develop. Clearly there is new interest in building a good real-time picture of what’s happening, and what’s trending, and providing search, discovery, and insights around that.… Read More “Bottlenose Beat Bit.ly to the First Attention Engine – But It’s Going to Get Interesting”

How Bottlenose Could Improve the Media and Enable Smarter Collective Intelligence

How Bottlenose Could Improve the Media and Enable Smarter Collective Intelligence

This article is part of a series of articles about the Bottlenose Public Beta launch.

Bottlenose – The Now Engine – The Web’s Collective Consciousness Just Got Smarter

How Bottlenose Could Improve the Media and Enable Smarter Collective Intelligence (you are here)

A New Window Into the Collective Consciousness

Bottlenose offers a new window into what the world is paying attention to right now, globally and locally.… Read More “How Bottlenose Could Improve the Media and Enable Smarter Collective Intelligence”

Bottlenose – The Now Engine – The Web’s Collective Consciousness Just Got Smarter

Recently, one of Twitter’s top search engineers tweeted that Twitter was set to “change search forever.” This proclamation sparked a hearty round of speculation and excitement about what was coming down the pipe for Twitter search.

The actual announcement featured the introduction of autocomplete and the ability to search within the subset of people on Twitter that you follow — both long-anticipated features.… Read More “Bottlenose – The Now Engine – The Web’s Collective Consciousness Just Got Smarter”

I Get 13,000 Messages/Day via Different Streams – Here’s the Analysis

Continuing with the theme I’ve been writing about lately, focused on the growth of the next phase of the Web, what I call “The Stream,” I’ve started to analyze the messages I get on a typical day.

First of all, through all the different channels I use, I now receive approximately 13,000 messages a day.… Read More “I Get 13,000 Messages/Day via Different Streams – Here’s the Analysis”

Keeping Up With the Stream — New Problems and Solutions

This is Part III of a series of articles on the new era of the Stream, a new phase of the Web.

In Part I, The Message is the Medium, I explored the shift in focus on the Web from documents to messages.… Read More “Keeping Up With the Stream — New Problems and Solutions”

Drowning in the Stream — New Challenges for a New Web

This is Part II of a three-part series of articles on how the Stream is changing the Web.

In Part I of this series, The Message is the Medium, I wrote about some of the shifts that are taking place as the center of online attention shifts from documents to messages.… Read More “Drowning in the Stream — New Challenges for a New Web”

The Message is the Medium – Attention is Shifting from the Web to the Stream

Shift Happens

A major shift has taken place on the Web. Web pages and Web search are no longer the center of online activity and attention. Instead, the new center of attention is messaging and streams. We have moved from the era of the Web to the era of the Stream.… Read More “The Message is the Medium – Attention is Shifting from the Web to the Stream”

StreamGlider Launches Today!

Today I’m happy to announce the launch of StreamGlider, a new tablet app (initially on iPad) that provides the first live streaming dashboard for keeping up with your interests.

TechCrunch just broke the story.

The inspiration for StreamGlider was a product that launched in the early 1990’s called Pointcast.… Read More “StreamGlider Launches Today!”

The Problem with Stream 3.0

After my former project, Twine.com, was sold, I began to turn my attention to the Next Big Challenge: How to make sense of the growing real-time Web, or what many call, “the Stream.”

I could see the writing on the wall, and it was less than 140 characters: Social media’s own success was going to be its biggest challenge.… Read More “The Problem with Stream 3.0”