December was a slow month in terms of work: We had a baby and I took a few weeks off, using what little time was left to tie up some loose ends and to make sure the lights were still on. In January, I’ll be back full time, digging into some nice, big, juicy research questions.
My capacity planning for 2018 is in full swing. If you’d like to work with me in the upcoming months, please get in touch quickly.
Media
SPIEGEL called to chat about insecure IoT devices. We chatted about the state of the IoT ecosystem, externalized costs, and consumer trust. In the end, a short quote about cheaply made, and hence insecure, connected gadgets made the cut. The whole article is available online (in German) here: SPIEGEL: Internet der Dinge Ist der Ruf erst ruiniert, vernetzt es sich ganz ungeniert.
Thinking & writing
Just two quick links to blog posts I wrote:
- The key challenge for the industry in the next 5 years is consumer trust is something I originally had written for our client newsletter, but figured it might be relevant to a larger audience, too. In it, I explore some of the key questions that I’ve recently been pondering and that have been coming up constantly in peer group conversations. Namely, 1) What’s the relationship between (digital) technology and ethics/sustainability? 2) The Internet of Things (IoT) has one key challenge in the coming years: Consumer trust. 3) Artificial Intelligence (AI): What’s the killer application? Maybe more importantly, which niche applications are most interesting? 4) What funding models can we build the web on, now that surveillance tech (aka “ad tech”) has officially crossed over to the dark side and is increasingly perceived as no-go by early adopters?
- Focus areas over time explains how the focus area of my work has shifted from across a number of emerging technologies and related practices.
Newsletter
I’ve pulled my good old newsletter out of storage, blown off the dust, and been taking it for a spin once more. I’m experimenting with a weekly format of things I found worth discussing, some signals on my radar, and some pointers to stuff we’ve been working on. To follow along as I try and shape my thinking on some incoming signals, sign up here for Season 3.
What’s next?
Capacity planning for 2018 is in full swing, and it’s shaping up to be a busy year. There’s a couple of big projects that (barring some major hiccups) will kick off within the next few weeks. Just like I’ve done a lot of self-directed research in 2017 which has been tremendously useful, I’ll continue this kind of work in 2018. I’ll try to also write a lot to help spread what I learn that way. Between all of that, the year is filling up nicely. It looks like 2018 won’t be boring, that’s for sure.
If you’d like to work with me in the upcoming months, please get in touch quickly so we can figure out how best to work together.
