stedavies.com - communications consultant

I’ve been reading The Economist’s yearly prediction publication, aptly titled, The world in 2006, and I thought I’d give you a rundown of some interesting points. Well, interesting to me at least.

From blogs to brands
The Economist claims that we’ll see a growth of more responsible social media that exploits the medium’s possibilities, but which also adheres to self-imposed standards that is usually seen as unacceptably restrictive by the original bloggers. It says: “A group of information websites will emerge from the world of blogs – small in relative number, but weighty in impact – which accept that the internet is not just a licence to peddle prejudice and individual interests.”

Connecting the next billion
Mobile handset makers will be reaching out to new markets in 2006. September 2005 saw the number of mobile phones pass the two billion mark. Since nearly everyone in the developed world has a mobile phone, most of the next billion subscribers will come from developing world including, China, India, Latin America and Africa.

The next little thing
The next big thing in business and management will be a little thing. Or rather lots of little things. “The smart concept that will shape thinking on management and business will be detail – breaking large things down into small parts. Grand global strategies will be desperately out of fashion. Instead companies will respond to competitive global markets in two ways; by concentrating on efficiency and exploiting local markets. Both involve attention to detail.”

Sounds like the Longtail to me.

The class of 2006
“Scientists in America will win more Nobel piece prizes than those in any other country and produce more high-quality academic articles. America will attract more foreign students than any other country, particularly among the world’s best and brightest. European intellectual stars will continually to forsake the common rooms of Oxbridge and the cafes of Paris for the research facilities of American academia.”

It goes on to say the fatal flaw in the European model is it grants to much authority to the state. Except Britain which is a semi-exception.

One laptop per child
Very interesting piece by the chairman and co-founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, Nicholas Negroponte who is working on a not-for-profit project called One Laptop Per Child. The plan is to produce a $100 laptop for every child in all under developed countries because “the greatest natural resource of any country is its children”.

Very admirable.