Technology Predictions Are Mostly Bunk says L. GORDON CROVITZ of the Wall Street Journal.

Crovitz’ article lists some of the funniest (or saddest depending on your point of view) technology predictions of years past.

Two of our favorites:

“The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys,” Sir William Preece, chief engineer at the British Post Office, 1878.

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home,” Ken Olsen, founder of mainframe-producer Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.

All kidding aside, Crovitz makes this excellent point, “The more we invent, the more we invent. Knowledge grows on itself.”

Most of us grew up watching some version of a show based on what the future might be like. Maybe it was Jetsons, Star Trek, or even Futurama. Our cultural obsession with the future is a result of our inability to control or predict it with high amounts of accuracy.

When the invention known as the internet first emerged, the world had no idea how great the impact would be on every aspect of our lives. Getting an entire education online? No way! Being able to communicate and collaborate with people from all over the world with the touch of a button? Impossible! Sounds silly now, but let’s not forget it wasn’t that long ago that earth was thought to be flat!

Cell phones provide another great example of the speed of technology evolution and understanding. The evolution of cell phones from something that had to be carted around to now an item that is so small it gets lost easily is incredible. The smart alecs may be thinking, “but of course they did!” But as the quotes above illustrate, predicting the future of technology is near impossible. Its incredible how many kids under the age of 12 have a cell phone, multiple social networking site profiles, and are more tech savvy then their parents and teachers.

Technology, if given the right environment, will continue to evolve.

After all, we’re still hoping for many of the technologies advertised in our favorite sci-fi movies and shows!

Cheers to a Wisconsin in 2010 that welcomes tech innovation and development with Future Thinking Technology Policies!

Stories of people getting laid off and companies closing dominated many of the headlines in 2009. Sad times for hundreds of thousands of people with the unemployment rate rivaling that of the Great Depression.

When Wired Wisconsin was first beginning, we talked a lot about what technology issues our organization should focus energy on. High-Tech Job Creation and Industry Development made it to the list early on because as history has shown, technology related jobs and fields were always the bright spot in a gloomy economy. One look at our Strategic Partners page, demonstrates Wired Wisconsin’s dedication to fostering an environment in Wisconsin that helps create jobs with both regional economic development groups like the New North and small tech businesses like Perceptral listed.

SO what if your previous experience/education is not in these fields?

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal

Career experts say the key to securing jobs in growing fields will be coupling an in-demand degree with expertise in emerging trends. For example, communications pros will have to master social media and the analytics that come with it; nursing students will have to learn about risk management and electronic records; and techies will need to keep up with the latest in Web marketing, user-experience design and other Web-related skills.

The point is that in today’s technology driven and enabled global marketplace, to compete you must be committed to a lifetime of learning—always looking for opportunities to increase your breadth of knowledge and experience.

And becoming more tech savvy needs to be top of the list.

The holidays are always a special time of year.  And the role of technology in making this season bright will just continue!

Being green is not just for hippy, college students anymore. Many companies and families are choosing to send virtual e-holiday cards. There are a number of sites that allow you to send free holiday e-cards. All you have to do is type in your email contacts and a message. Voilà!  Instant holiday cards that didn’t cost you a cent!

Even Santa uses technology to keep all the people on the naughty and nice list updated on his progress during his most busy season. Check out his blog to read up on Santa’s day-to-day activities and other important things like what kind of milk he prefers.

And for those skeptics, who think that it would be impossible to deliver toys and presents all over the world, we encourage you to check out this article in which scientists ponder the technology Santa Claus employs!

At Wired Wisconsin, we know that technology touches every aspect of our lives. We have worked really hard this year to bring greater visibility to different technology issues such as electronic waste legislation and broadband deployment (so every “kid” can read Santa’s blog!).

We wish you and yours Happy Holidays!  We look forward to the New Year where we will continue to advocate on important technology issues in Wisconsin.

This past week, we at Wired Wisconsin experienced what many do every day—the inability to maintain and build our organization because we didn’t have access to technology. In our case, it was our website being down. I tried to log on and post a new blog, but was met with an error message. A call to our hosting company confirmed it; the server had experienced a corruption during file backup and no time line of service reinstatement was available.  Grrrr!

It was so frustrating not being to post a blog or news story or hear that potential coalition members couldn’t sign up.

Because we don’t have a traditional brick and mortar office like many businesses do, we rely on our website to be the one-stop-shop for all things Wired Wisconsin.

When the website was down, we had a lot of time to think about all the people in Wisconsin who experience these types of frustrations everyday.

But the silver lining of this situation? Our coalition’s commitment to advocating on behalf of broadband deployment as a means of economic development  was further justified.

We will continue to work with our coalition members and strategic partners, businesses, and policy makers to make broadband access a reality for all of Wisconsin’s residents.

Read our Broadband Deployment Issue Statement Here.

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend an event held by an organization very similar to Wired Wisconsin. The Illinois Technology Partnership hosted ‘The Impact of Public Policy on the Tech Evolution’ last Wednesday, December 9 in downtown Chicago.

Attendees walked away with a better understanding of the importance of policies that “keep up with the pace of the technology” innovation and development.

Click here for a highlights reel of the event.

Future-thinking technology policy is so important, especially when one looks at the connection between high-tech job creation, economic growth and a consumer’s ability to access as well as use technologies like broadband.

Maybe Wisconsin should look to our neighbors for ways to collaborate and achieve our shared goals?

A huge thank you to all the folks at Illinois Technology Partnership for a thoughtful look at the impact of technology policy for consumers!

Back in October Wired Wisconsin hosted our first event, Government 2.0: Utilizing Social Media, with the goal of encouraging elected officials and government agencies to take greater advantage of the collaborative aspects of social media like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to connect with their constituents.

Using technologies like social media to collaborate, educate, and for outreach is no longer the wave of the future with President Obama releasing the long awaited Open Government Initiative today.

The goal of this new directive is to force government agencies to make their websites more interactive and for government to create an environment of transparency and openness.

As a spokesperson for the Sunlight Foundation said,

“The directive shows the administration has carefully considered how to foster a government characterized by collaboration — a government that engages citizens to participate in decision-making,” foundation spokeswoman Gabriela Schneider said in a press release. “Most significantly, the White House has given all of us the tools we need to hold them accountable for all of this.”

It’s not quite the full leap to using the social media communication channels many of us frequent on a daily, ok hourly basis, but it’s a great step in the right direction! Hooray!

Have some thoughts on what content each agency should include to meet the directive’s goals? Find out more information about how to add your comments here

The Pentagon announced today that they will award a nice cash prize to the first person that enters GPS coordinates of 10 weather balloons hidden across the United States.

The goal of the challenge, which isn’t the first run by DARPA (the Pentagon’s Research Agency), is to measure how quickly people are able to work together to complete a task using all the wonders of the internet.

Facebook and Twitter apps are in the works to help spread word of a balloon sighting.

For complete information about the challenge see https://networkchallenge.darpa.mil/default.aspx

And while the chance to win some extra cash would be cool totally, unbelievably awesome (!!), we at Wired Wisconsin will be really interested to hear the results because of the challenge’s requirement  of using technology to collaborate to win.

Wired Wisconsin is committed to working together with individuals, businesses, and organizations to better utilize technologies like the internet for education, collaboration, and activation.

Be part of our collaboration team: www.wiredwisconsin.org/join

With the prevalence of crime solving shows (the many versions of Law and Order and CSI) filling the TV line-up most nights, using technology to nail the “perp” is nothing new. From accessing incriminating hidden files on a suspect’s computer to using the miniscule amount of saliva (DNA) found on a straw—the important role technology plays in solving crime is obvious.

As Scott Adams says in his blog, “The technology for catching criminals is improving faster than the criminals are getting smarter.”

In a world where it seems just about everyone has a camera phone, the likelihood of having an illegal act go undocumented will just continue to diminish.

Milwaukee cops recently used a mobile fingerprinting device to identify an uncooperative suspect who refused to give his name. For the whole story click here.

Before the advent of such technology, someone might not have gotten caught. With recidivism rates over 50%, one can only postulate how technology may decrease crime rates in the future. Minority Report anyone?!

The high incidence of crime in Milwaukee is well-known. It’s great news that the city is working to take greater advantage of technological innovation in their crime-fighting efforts.