Not long ago “computer literacy” meant being able to use office applications on PCs. For a growing number of people around the world, smart phones and tablets are far more important than desktop—or even laptop—PCs. This article from The Economist illustrates the growing importance of mobile gadgets using clear prose and several illuminating graphs.
http://www.economist.com/node/21531109
Month: November 2011
Our digital planet is being transformed every day by new ideas and inventions. In this fascinating Fast Company article, Farhad Manjoo describes how Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon are battling for the future of the innovation economy. If you want to better understand how the “Fab Four” will change your life over the next few years, this feature-length essay is well worth reading.
fastcompany.com/magazine/160/tech-wars-2012-amazon-apple-google-facebook
In this NPR Fresh Air interview, Terry Gross talks to the article’s author, Farhad Manjoo.
npr.org/2011/11/03/141976518/the-war-between-google-amazon-facebook-apple
Here’s a quote from the first edition of Digital Planet (then called Computer Currents), written almost two decades ago:
“It seems likely that, at some time in the future, machines will be able to do most of the jobs people do today. We may face a future of jobless growth–a time when productivity increases, not because of the work people do but because of the work of machines. If productivity isn’t tied to employment, we’ll have to ask some hard questions about our political, economic, and social system…”
Back then, this prediction seemed farfetched to most people. This NPR story about the Race Against the Machine conference suggests it’s not farfetched anymore.
www.npr.org/2011/11/03/141949820/how-technology-is-eliminating-higher-skill-jobs