WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

A short run down on personal technologies coming our way soon.

WHY THISI S IMPORTANT

I've been speaking about the impact of digital technologies to transformation our personal lives and the opportunities this brings to business for a while in my "me.com" and "we.com" conferences (http://fmcs.digital/conferences). Looks like there is even more to it than originally I anticipated with the convergence of InternetOfThings, AI, BigData, and wearables. Your employees in the future will be even more connected and digital and companies should take notice and leverage it to 1) improve productivity 2) support work-life-wellness balance 3) tap the social networks to their benefits (ie. social recruiting).

A detailed explanation of how buffer has refactored its android mobile app source code to be more efficient and better organized.

Sharing experience on an IT audit that has proved very successful.

Looks like in-store technologies - screens, beacons, kiosk, mobiles apps, etc. - should be considered for other purpose than to increase revenue.

Bluetooth 5.0 technology will enable new devices and applications.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

With new wireless devices and beacons being deployed in stores and cities, retailers should prepare to embrace wireless devices and solutions in the coming years. This should become part of their digital strategy.

Always interesting reading on digital transformation by Capgemini which has been at the forefront of defining digital transformation. Read this one, then flip through old ones...

With the introduction of robots, the fear is that humans will loose their jobs. In the short term at least, it may only transform work.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Any strategic plan should include a chapter on robotics and the replacement of human labour with robots (and possible AI as well). The article shed some insights on historical perspective - farmers have not disappeared with introduction of mechanical devices but they have become much more productive - as well as raises some interesting ideas about our cohabitation with robots in the near future.

Use this link to access the Forrester report for free on solutions to help protect your organization from the digital threats your corporation faces on its brand, cyber presence or physical locations.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

First, the paper describes the various risks you may face in a digital world. If you don'T know the difference between OSINT, TECHINT, SIGINT, HUMINT, CHINT then you must read it.

Good to know.

Second, it lists the various ways in which you can protect yourself.

Interesting.

Finally, it lists tools you can use to secure your company.

Useful.

A very good review of the human computer interfaces and what the future may hold for us.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We cannot hold a mouse and keyboard in our hands to interact with physical world objects that have been digitized. Think of a warehouse employee that needs to interact with an automated shelves to fetch a specific product. Today we would use buttons on a mobile phone touchscreen. But would it not be simpler if we could simply interact with the shelves itself in ways that our body would recognize, then send appropriate commands to the devices we interact with? 

In the article, the far fetched story about the couple in a bar may not be very realistic but it provides some very useful insights about how to leverage our bodies to do things we cannot with our devices today, for privacy reasons for example. Very interesting.

Describes a new set of hardware components to build IoT solutions.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

It is with hardware devices like these that the penetration of digital in our daily lives will grow. In recent years, we've seen Arduino, Raspberry Pi and other hardware toolkits that simplify the prototyping and innovation to move the web, sensors, cameras, and other digital devices that bridge the real world with virtual one.

Outstanding 20 minutes video that explains what geofencing is and how to it, them in layman's terms.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We all carry mobile devices in our pockets so we are all targets for beacons and geofencing by retailers and brands. We were just getting used to being tracked everywhere we go online, and now we have become targets in the physical world as well. It is essential that we all know what level of tracking we are subjected to.

On the other hand if you are a brand or a retailer, you must know about beacons and geofencing and ensure your marketing team includes it in their digital strategy otherwise you may be missing out over your competitors.

Outstanding 20 minutes video that explains what beacons are and how to use them, in layman's terms.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

We all carry mobile devices in our pockets so we are all targets for beacons and geofencing by retailers and brands. We were just getting used to being tracked everywhere we go online, and now we have become targets in the physical world as well. It is essential that we all know what level of tracking we are subjected to.

On the other hand if you are a brand or a retailer, you must know about beacons and geofencing and ensure your marketing team includes it in their digital strategy otherwise you may be missing out over your competitors.

Brian Krebs exposes the attack his security blog has recently suffered, along with clear explanation of the attack and ways to prevent it.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

It is by sharing stories like this one that we can all learn of potential danger that any website faces when a properly motivated opponent targets you.

Very technical summary from dropbox of their password encryption algorithm.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

I expect all cloud service providers to treat my information as confidential, starting with my passwords. With the care and attention that dropbox protects its password, you can see how top tier cloud providers - Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook - will most often be more secure than anything you can do, even if you are a fairly large corporation. Trust cloud services as they are probably more secure than whatever your internal IT can provide. It is their bread and butter and their reputation - and ultimately their whole business - relies on it.

A reference chart of neural network architecture, with detailed explanation of each one. Very useful reference.

GE's industrial Internet means that in the future they may be best known for their infrastructure than their products and devices. Watch for it.

More importantly, the industrial internet and Predix tools came out of a strong digital transformation vision carried out by an exceptional Chief Digital Officer (CDO), Linda Boff. See her profile for more details: http://cdoclub.com/us-chief-digital-officer-of-the-year-linda-boff-on-digital-transformation-at-ge/ 

I wrote about GE industrial internet in the past: see here http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-transformation-of-businesses?q=ge 

Read the article but you can skip the 7min video. For a better - and more relaxed - discussion, consider watching this 1hr interview full of descriptions of self-driving car insights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zy_07g2IrM

For a more technical speech, view the Berkley presentation, even though there are elements that are redundant it provides additional insights into the technology: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxoke1lDJ9w

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

His approach is radically different than others and more "purist" from an artificial intelligence and crowd sourcing and I believe that makes his approach something to consider in other areas.

For more reading on the subject, this bloomberg paper also brings good insights: http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-george-hotz-self-driving-car/

Moreover it appears that Google lead is slowly shrinking: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-12/google-car-project-loses-leaders-and-advantage-as-rivals-gain 

A review of new tatoo-like devices that may soon replace wearable devices we carry with us today. 

Facebook explains how it tests its data centers resiliency to failure by removing some during real world operations.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

There are limits to testing you can create. Nothing like testing in real situations to ensure your solutions work! Then again, they are not making planes or heart defibrillators - domains where live tests could have serious implications, even kill people.

Interesting study. Reminds me of 1980s electronics class where I had to build a system with audio feedback. Professor surprised us by asking the sound to be "nice". We we re forced to add electronics that were there only to improve sound quality, not changing the basic task in itself. Few engineers then - and I assume now as well - go beyond the functional requirements to include human behaviour, pleasure, interaction, etc. as part of their designs. Especially not robots.

Well this study suggests that users will prefer those robots that are made to be "nice" and "human". Apple got this a long time ago. Others should as well.

Not a surprise but rather an interesting news snippet: dedicated chipsets for AR are starting to appear. This paves the way for lower cost, better quality solutions. Be aware, AR may become a reality in the coming years as forecasted...

Bloomberg video interview that provides motivations for the explosion on VR in the coming years:

1- applications are numerous, with opportunities in different space, not only in gaming but in medical, movie, etc.

2- big players are lined up : Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc.

That being said, there have been multiple false starts for VR and #D (remember 3D TVs and google glasses?), so I remaining cautiously optimistic with both VR and AR. They may not be ready for consumer market but may expand into certain key niche applications and industries.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT

In that context, it is essential for digital transformation strategies to consider VR and AR in their roadmaps. There must be clear business needs to drive adoption of this relatively immature technology which requires a number of user constraint (least of which is wearing a headset which makes you look like a dork and prevents you from living in the moment). But there are multiple types of industries where professionals can find benefits in viewing things in 3D in a lifelike fashion: those should be prioritized.

5 must read papers to understand where we stand in the area of direct brain communication with machines. In a nutshell; still very early.