What Does Bill Gates Predict for the “Second Digital Decade”?
Bill Gates said in his CES 2008 keynote speech, “The first digital decade has been a great success…the second digital decade will be more focused on connecting people.” He mentioned improved ways of using devices and phones to connect with each other. This post will describe, in simple terms, the technology that has just begun to change the way we connect with people via the Internet and our mobile phones.
Most people still use their phones to connect on a person-to-person basis: Dennis connects with Artie; Artie connects with Chris - just as we did when the phone was first invented. The future (available now) is to use our phones to connect on a person-to-network basis (network of hundreds of family, friends, associates, sports partners, etc.) for multiple purposes never before possible: Dennis connects with Artie, Barbara, Chris, Amy, Ken, Kevin, etc.
“Multiple purposes never before possible?” To quickly understand what this means, picture those phone commercials on T.V. that show a huge network of people following one mobile phone user wherever he/she goes. In the commercial, the people are symbolic for the network engineers that maintain the phone products and services. But, for our purposes here, imagine those people are your family, friends, associates, neighbors, etc. (constantly expanding as you befriend new people). Imagine that wherever you go they literally move along with you, quietly waiting behind you to do whatever you ask of them!
If this funny scenario were possible (in effect, it is – details below, so play along), how would you engage this network of people; what would you ask them to do from day to day?
You’ve never thought about it before, but there would be many uses and benefits to you, such as:
- You jog regularly, though always concerned about safety or boredom, so you turn, face your network, and shout, “Does anyone want to jog with me tomorrow morning?”
- “I’m looking for about 5 more folks who want to play beach volleyball this Saturday.”
- “Who knows French and wants to converse with me 2 days a week on Fri/Sat? I’m studying the language.”
- “Hey, who wants to come to my surprise pool party for my boyfriend on Sunday?”
- “Who drives into town on Mon, Wed and Fri and wants to carpool to save on these gas prices?”
- “I’m going to have some cool stuff at my garage sale next week, how many of you will come?”
- “Who wants to get wild and go dancing with me Friday night?”
- “Can any of you drive me home, my car broke down?”
- “Who wants to join my basketball team?”
- “Who wants to form their own teams, so we can play each other on Saturdays?”
The list grows with your imagination. In addition, people in your network can be proactive, and invite you to do things, too:
· “I’m going to the fitness center this afternoon, do you want to work out with each other?”
· We’re having a golf skins tournament, want to participate?
Even more, you also have the option of walking past other traveling networks of people and shouting out requests to them, too, and vice versa!
(If you don’t care how it is done, you can stop reading and just enter our website that already offers all this technology at: http://www.sportsmatchmaker.com .)
What makes it all work is a combination of mobile phone and Web technologies (for the tech minded). Bottom line is that the you can use the Sports MatchMaker® website or your mobile phone to key in a Match Request™ to do anything, on any date/time/level, location. Let’s say you want to play tennis next Sat. and need 3 more for a doubles game. When you push the request submit button, you’re match request details are automatically recorded on the website and sent to everyone in your network via email and/or text message to their mobile phones (to those who opted in). Your request can also be found and joined when people outside your network search for match requests, like yours, on the website, if you choose to have it displayed.
This Match Requesting amounts to your SHOUTING out to your network walking behind you, in the examples above. Then folks in your network can answer you by simply replying on their mobile phones with one keyword: “Join” (they do NOT even know your mobile phone number), or they can use the website to “join” with one-click.
In either case, their join is recorded automatically on the website, and an email and/or text message is sent back to you, notifying who has joined. This amounts to your network SHOUTING back to you - your RSVP system.
Then you can “accept/deny” anyone who joins via your mobile phone or on the website, in the same simple manner. All are automatically notified. When you have accepted the 3 players (in the case above), the match is automatically closed and anyone who tries to join after that point by mobile, is immediately informed the match is closed.
Connecting spontaneously to a large number of people in a network is useful ONLY IF all responses, cancellations, etc. are handled and recorded automatically and efficiently by the system. This is the backbone of the Sports MatchMaker® proprietary technology that makes it all possible. We call it P2N (person-to-network) calls, as opposed to the term person-to-person calls.
With the tennis match example above, if you did everything via your mobile phone and were to look at your Matches page on the website, you would see you have a tennis match with the 3 people (with their pics and links to their profiles). Anything done over the phone is recorded on the website instantly. The system even sends you and the other players an automatic match-reminder via email/text message one day before each match.
Welcome to the future! - http://www.sportsmatchmaker.com
