Poll: What do you think is the top trend impacting digital life and business. Pick one.

Mobility - we take it for granted now but it has changed everything.

New Venture, hands down.

The new ecosystem of incubators and rapid/efficient early stage investment are innovations on innovation itself. This is a compounding accelerator that is changing the DNA of what Business actually IS. Big companies are desperate to maintain (or fake) the culture of the startup, examples are everywhere, Google being the most obvious.

The MBA originated with the first business schools in the early 1900s, it was an unprecedented success that taught a (relatively) reliable way to build successful entities. Now that the pace of technology has quickened and competition is everywhere, the old way of doing things just isn't good enough. Incubators and startups are becoming the new graduate schools for the business of innovation. These new methodologies and environments will accelerate every other technology out there.

I recommend checking out Steven Blank, Eric Reis and Steven Johnson, their thoughts on the topics of innovation and business are pretty interesting.

Macro (5-10 years) - Mobility
Micro (1-2 years) - Social Media... what's happening in the Middle East right now is a product of the democratization of 'voice' powered by social media apps.

This is tough. There are a few in here that have changed the game.

I would sans: 5, 9, and 11. The other eight have played different parts in making the internet as progressive as it's become. Mobile is changing the game, sure. Design has also changed the way we approach the web, venture is rampant online now, geolocation has changed the digital marketing game, digital media has revolutionized the way news papers and information is published, crowd-sourcing has become a business model, and cloud computing has expedited the delivery of content, media, design, software, etc and helped stabilize the infrastructures of companies 100x over.

To pick one would be silly to me. These all play together.

11. Other: "Fads"
Negative equilibrium; positive feedback of modern communication that accentuates mob mentality, forcing otherwise intelligent people to believe it is mainstream thought.

"Social media": We did tech support and promotion on newsgroups 20 years ago. Yeah, pre-Internet. Chat addicts since 1983. AOL, had to be a member then, grew based on social contacts and porn. MySpace was a means to college kids getting laid. Now FaceBook. It beat out its competition by membership and by easy personal website tool. Celebrities used it hence the huge following. Mob mentality at its best. Then Twitter: chat for those in the office that always hit reply-all. How popular was it before celebrities like Paris and Lohan tweeted how drunk they were? When my Bank wants to text me about their value I think of the Gen(?) pair sitting next to each other and texting instead of talking. Most companies I represent have policies regarding personal use of company computing resources; contrary to marketing your company on FaceBook.

"Mobility": I'll buy the improvement in message (voice,text) transfer which is stirring the mobs in Syria and Lybia. But the Newton came in 1993 and by 1995 only UPS liked it. I could run remote apps on my iPaq and Treo phones, so what? My 2006 Nokia Internet Tablet ran a better version of Linux than Android. Now the iPad is as big a FAD as the Newton was in 1993. "Viral" is the right term for it. Just wait for the mobile version of stuxnet to attack cell enabled vehicles.

And why does 160 bytes of text cost same as 480000 bytes of voice? Could there be a financial interest in promoting "mobility" and "social media" that runs counterproductive to our true business needs?

I think mobility. It gives us ubiquity. It's the always on, always present, always accessible and involved, everywhere. It allows us to be in many places simultaneously and can give us freedom, visibility and if done right, security. It can also bring work, personal and social worlds into alignment and balance. As the technologies and applications evolve, we are entering the time of presence: a time where we can have the ellusive life / work / family balance everyone has been searching for over the past few decades. Being master of your presence means being in control. For some people, there is a need to learn how to control their technology and to learn the airs and graces that go with the new world, but this is no different to people having to learn manners and airs and graces in the past.

Be mobile and in control - that's my motto.

James

I'm with Scott on this one. +1 for mobility.

9. Social media networking and marketing

I am going with 1. Cloud and hosted apps. Mobility plays in to this since the most interesting apps connect to the cloud for geo-location data, etc.

I agree with Richard. My vote goes for Cloud and hosted apps. Mobility comes in as a close second though.

Tough to argue with Mobility as it's such an enabler...I'll say the future trend is Cloud. Similar to mobility, it's changing how everyone/everything operates.

I am going to break the rules and say either cloud computing or social media. Both of these are exploding right now and I've seen many statistics that show how businesses are investing heavily in each.

None of the above - Big Data

Mobility, especially if you take a global perspective on technology.

Mobility - you can access information from pretty much anywhere on so many different devices now

I was going to pick a best answer for consumers, and then one for businesses. Then I realized that mobility has been highly influential for both. So mobility it is.

Mobility. 100%.

Of all the phenomena listed, mobile apps (from productivity to entertainment), mobile access to data on the go, and increasing ability to transact is reshaping the way we do a lot of things.

I will not pick one because it depends on the business. I will pick two for their universal impact across businesses: Cloud Computing and Mobility.

Mobility.

The convergence of all.

My vote goes to: cloud computing and social media.

Things are so intermingled as you all know. For example, we see many social networking sites supporting local marketing which means that localization is a growing need that social media is satisfying. In turn, both trends will skyrocket. That's a smart social media move if you ask me. Also, social media is catering to mobility big time. As a result, my two thumbs up will go to social media!

Still, I can't overlook cloud computing. It's HOT!

Other - Emotional intelligence because people still buy from people. Technology is a vehicle. Now more than ever before digitizing emotions (if that is possible) will impact businesses more than ever before especially with the data showing the significant trend to mobile and targeted marketing.

Transparency is the why of emotional intelligence as are many other behaviors including ethics and beliefs. When I recognize and positively manage the emotions of others and of myself, I cannot be anything else but transparent.

Sales is still about people connecting with people hence the popularity of social media integrating digital access to that human touch. With continued brain research about value creation, emotional intelligence will become a necessary business criteria not only for leadership but for sales as well.

Mobility. It powers the rest of the options.

I would select Mobility for the big gains in usability over the past couple of years that has reached critical mass. Cloud computing will be the next wave.

I vote for mobility, but agree with Leanne about.emotional intelligence. Underpinning everything we do, the connection between people is the common denominator that ultimately determines success.

Social media networking and marketing is my number one choice for impacting digital life and business. These two concepts have converged together and now blur the lines between busines and life.

For example, now even B2B businesses can place profiles on social media sites (i.e. Facebook & Twitter) and reach individuals that might be key influencers as their companies are searching for business solutions.

Social Media sites offer the ability to have an interactive and impactful conversation over the Internet via real life individuals trying to reach businesses with their feedback. This also works in reverse where businesses can reach consumers with their feedback.

Email Hyperlink tracking back to social media web sites has offered businesses a useful way to send their email recipients back to their business profiles and postings to encourage a deeper look at the company and the business solutions that they offer. This offers two advantages - first the company knows that the recipient went to the social media site and two, the recipient can go there on their individual life time and not necessarily during regular office hours.

Finally, social media marketing is offering the ability of even the smallest business to reach a global community over the Internet, in an affordable way, that can attract individuals during their own time zone; at their own convenience; in a way that fits their own lifestyle.

Social media.

The transparent *use* of social media to listen to and participate in the conversation consumers are having about your product/service and your brand. The terms to describe this vary from Social Marketing (more focused on brand building and traffic generation), Social CRM (more focused on monitoring and analyzing what's being discussed) and Social Commerce (more focused on just-in-time crowd-sourced merchandising and SEO).

7-Mobility ... of course! It is the only real change that affected human behavior in the past 10 years, the business is still based on human interaction, and what affects human behavior affects business. My second choice would be "9-Social", as it is true that we are facing a new frontier between man and the digital world.

I tking that Mobility beacuse is one of the best tools for the bussines process in our industry, Tourism.

it's very interesting that nobody doesn't care about Security in this digital life/business. So maybe not on the first place but definitely on the podium should be SECURITY OF THIS DIGITAL LIFE and BUSINESS

2. Crowdsourcing - wisdom of the masses, micro-work tasks

Cloud and crowd sourcing built in together - a very powerful form.

Mobility and Social Media. Both combined in many different applications are changing the world. The mobility help people without an IT background to access to technology, social media, online data, etc.
A simply example, the old aged middle class begun to use facebook, twitter, etc from when the smartphone and relative platforms have integrated it. Than, the big contribution to social media came now from mobility.

Cloud computing and mobility

#7 Mobility - answer clients instanty. Access your work info from anywhere.

Cloud computing and hosted applications - it will change how we interact with software and services. And - over time - change the PC and SW industry.

I think that consolidation of multiple platforms like social media, search, searching in more non-linear dynamics, and storage of data among others. This consolidation will lead to greater simplification and seamless experience on the Internet. A major trend I believe will be greater security and the rise and the proliferation of new Internet Laws. Public agencies will begin using innovation to track all activity of citizens online and offline in real time coupled with more powerful web analytic technology will be capable of making better decisions about population data as it evolves in real time. Also, the storage of all information on a person's digital life will be tracked via a personalized IP address, which will take data and store it in a secure database to protect citizens from identity theft but also locate Internet criminals. Overall, I think data at a more micro level will become more manageable and greater storage space to track entire generations of citizen activity and then protect that information absolutely under privacy laws. This will also lead to digital money and the destruction of real money creating entire new monetary strategies and budgeting capabilities.

The one not to see is Security, for security should be a consideration within every one of these trends. When security is not considered, it becomes a negative trend that creates instability in all markets, ask Sony. With that in mind, I'm torn between these. I see Mobility as a combination of Cloud and Croud and others. I don't see Mobility as being tied to a platform though, as it is defined here. Mobility isn't a phone or a tablet, it could be a car, a set of keys, a laptop an e-reader. I think that flexibility is what makes Mobility my choice.

Greatly increased information theft and identity theft.

interesting perspectives so far! thanks Michael S. for posting the question :)

it's a tough choice between mobility, cloud computing and social media. it's almost like the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg. :-)

bottom line though, i think MOBILITY and CLOUD COMPUTING have driven social media, and other trends, to the level of success they have reached today, especially if one were to consider Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Wordpress, LinkedIN, and many of the big social media applications to be cloud computing..which in essence they are. that is not to say social media didn't have two legs to stand on without mobility. but with so much information on the internet to process, i don't think we could consume it all, to the extent that we do, if we only had our laptops and desktops to rely on.

#Anonymous... Just look what the red-headed stepchild LulzSec has done... I might be able to retire early if they scare ppl anymore. XD