In 1804, shortly after the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark went on a westward expedition from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean to explore and map the newly acquired territory. 210 years later in 2014, HEROfarm followed that spirit with our own expedition, heading west to SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas.
SXSW Interactive is an event where the digital world’s smartest people come to talk, collaborate and learn, a focus that has earned the festival a reputation as a breeding ground for new ideas and creative technologies. These ideas often form the foundation for online trends and technology for years to come.
After completing our journey through Austin, here are five of the prevailing trends we came across at the massive event.
Privacy and Tracking
It’s no coincidence that NSA whistle blower Eric Snowden was a featured speaker at SXSW, albeit via satellite from an undisclosed, undocumented, uneverything location somewhere in Russia (see his talk here). From data collection and online tracking to cloud management and privacy tools, there’s no shortage of ways to monitor, manipulate and even block your online life from being spied upon. Companies have developed ways for you to actively see who is tracking you online, what they’re looking for and options to block them, essentially creating a stronger defense to protect you and your information during your online experiences.
➤ New Privacy Website Lets You Opt Out of Tracking In Retail Stores
➤ Ghostery Privacy & Tracking
➤ How will the new privacy laws affect smartphone tracking?
➤ Smartphone Tracking by Retailers Is a Common Occurrence
➤ Tips for Protecting Your Privacy Online
Data Management and Analytics
Like a CVS and a Walgreens staring each other down on opposite corners of a street, companies on the flipside of privacy and tracking were looking to help businesses utilize data in more effective ways. Since almost everything and everyone is online these days that means massive amounts of potentially beneficial information is up for grabs in an avalanche of data.
Data management tools to streamline that information and analytics systems to study exactly what it all means have evolved to include incredible precision. All of this insight offers pinpoint information you never knew you needed or thought was even possible to assemble.
➤ Big Data and Analytics Is Where the Growth Is in Tech
➤ Data analytics: the new currency
Wearable Technology
Before the first iPhone launched, few foresaw the tremendous impact it would have and how virtually everyone would have a smartphone within a few years. Consider 2014 the year that begins the next big wave of products: The Year of Wearable Technology.
Although last year’s Samsung Watch and Google Glass were met with lukewarm receptions, the upcoming versions look to garner greater results after many kinks were worked out. Then comes other pieces such as The Bluetooth Ring and Wrist Bands, potentially revolutionary devices that allow interactive use of various products, hands free.
While The Ring lets you do things like write emails and texts in the air using only your finger, play games or change the TV channel with a quick swipe of your hand, the wristbands can turn anything into musical instruments, make other toys come alive, track your sleeping and workout patterns and more.
While wearable technology at the moment may look odd or even appear Zack Morris brick cellphone-like, you can count on it being incorporated into almost everything and becoming more commonplace in the next few years. The exciting possibilities for wearable technology is as endless as an imagination.
➤ How wearable tech goes from geek fad to mega-trend
➤ Bluetooth Ring
➤ Wristband
➤ The wearable tech that got pulses racing at CES 2014
➤ Wearable gadgets search for mainstream appeal
Location Isn’t Everything
Back in the day location meant everything. Now? Not so much. While still a major player, Silicon Valley used to be the focal point for where you had to be to launch great ideas. Today, almost anything can be done from anywhere. That’s why competition for talent and standing in the world has become so fierce over the last decade.
Italy, Chile, Spain, Australia, England, Germany and several other countries all had booths at SXSW pushing their advantages over the others in the digital and technology realms. Oklahoma, Louisiana and several other states added to the mix with their own attributes. Over the last few years, tech hubs have been sprouting up all over the world as it becomes easier to do business from anywhere. (Is Canada, Ireland, Vietnam the next “Silicon Valley” ?)
Many of the biggest companies started in small towns and if the up and coming businesses at SXSW are any indication, you may see more tech hubs in every state over the next few decades.
➤ A World Map of All the “Next Silicon Valleys”
➤ Why your city should stop trying to become “the next Silicon Valley”
3D Printing
While it teetered between novelty and practicality during its infancy, the great 3D printer revolution is now at hand and beginning to break mainstream! Although 3D printing is certainly no Star Trek replicator, spitting out fully formed items in a matter of seconds—at least not yet – a few minutes can deliver a growing number products we use every day. While 3D printing has been teased for quite some time (since at least the 1980s) and has often been showcased commercially by large companies, the technology is finally beginning to hit its stride in the private sector. Inexpensive 3D printers, while small, are finally on the market and can be bought by whoever has the funds.
If you’re unfamiliar, 3D printing is a process of making a three-dimensional solid object of virtually any shape from a digital model… essentially making something out of nothing. Over the years most of these printers have typically been used to create 3D models of objects, yet its uses are quickly expanding to almost unthinkable levels. From clothing, shoes, medical devices and organs, acoustic guitars and even working firearms, 3D printers are on pace to be this century’s miracle device capable of change on a global scale—a magician of sorts that is capable of pulling pretty much anything out of its box. Soon, you will even be able to inexpensively create common household items like coffee mugs and utensils without leaving home.
Although the 3D printing makes sense for some uses right now, it has yet to prove itself as a technology we can’t live without—for now—much like cellphones in the late 1980s and 1990s. But cellphones needed that growing period to become the ubiquitous devices they are today. For 3D printers, 2014 is just the first step to an incredible future full of possibilities.
➤ 6 Creative Examples of What 3D Printing Can Do
➤ Why You’ll Want A 3D Printer In Your Home
➤ Examples of 3D Printings