Digital will serve as the playing field and social media will be how it will be broadcasted, but tech is the game that will be played.

The future is in the applications – both mobile and internet – as well as devices, and what they can do for us. It does not have to be something cute like instagr.am, but more like location-based services, virtual wallets along with their devices, and food-photo-calorie-translators.

Sure we’ll talk about it through social media via digital platforms but the pendulum has already moved.

“Andy Warhol said that, in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. But I think he misunderstood what was happening. I think what people are demanding is 15 minutes of fame every day. & mark my words, they will get it. That’s where we’re heading, whether we like it or not.”
— Josh Harris

In many ways Facebook is the curator of online vanity, and in a recent move where they integrated Skype’s video capabilities those who dismissed, even ridiculed Josh Harris’ vision will look like the old fogies of technological and cultural advancement.

The best technologies helps us operate in a more natural fashion and allows us to be more human. Social media is a good example of this by “humanizing” the web. In Chris Brogan’s best-selling book, Trust Agents, Chris talks about how social media is bringing “human” back into business and the web. Even text in emails and print are more readable by using narrow columns to allow the reader to function in a better capacity. So as great as technology is it is even better when complimenting the natural functions of how we operate as human beings.

About a year and a half ago, I read Tim Ferris’ post Vibram “Five Finger” Shoes, and as technologically advanced that I thought these shoes wereI realized that they were in fact as basic as shoes can get. Basically, if you think about a rubber glove slipped over a bare foot with separate slots for your toes you’d have the Vibram Five Fingers shoe. The difference between modern running shoes and Vibrams are both visually opposed as they are functional.

Why would one run almost barefoot you might ask? Our feet were made for running. “Biomechanical analysis shows that long toes require more energy and generate more shock than short toes, making them one of many adaptations that may have helped our savannah-dwelling ancestors chase their prey.”

The modern shoe was not created until the 1970′s. They were developed to help the foot along, but more accurately the modern shoe shifted the burden of work from the foot to the shoe. So, while running you are depending on the shoe to do the movement than the foot. This means less muscles and tendons are used while utilizing a shoe as opposed to being barefoot.

It took me a couple of times to relearn how to run without a shoe. Running toe-first is awkward at first, but when you get the hang of it you experience a liberation in movement. The other thing to note here is noting how all your muscles in your foot and leg come into play. You will be sore. The takeaway here is that your leg – and foot! – will get a workout and will be stronger than before. Building up to running in this manner is key to efficient progress.

Technology is great, but getting back to basics by allowing the human body to act more naturally is more efficient. And if you’re the type to worry about injury, know that we’ve been running for millions of years without any assistance of the foot (yes, I know we have asphalt/concrete but if you read the above statement there is a significantly lower impact here than with modern shoes). However, because our feet are not used in the manner evolution has designed them taking to the Vibram or any minimal shoe should be done very, very, very slowly (you can read this thread for a commonsensical discussion on foot injuries while running).

If you ask a room full of marketers and businesses, why mobile is big you’ll hear about the number of increasing ads being served and new customer acquisition. Walk across the hall to another room full of techies and you’ll get hit over the head with a new way of viewing transportation, the world around you, and productivity tools that begs the question of how you got by without them before.

Here’s a personal reason why mobile is going big: Plenty of times – like right now – I’ll leave my smart phone somewhere while I’m on the computer, and think “I wish I can control my iPhone from my computer.” That notion is HUGE.  Why?  Because, it’s the opposite of how everyone used to think.  In the past, apps were created to control your computer from your phone, but not the other way around.  That’s a 180º turn, and a step up – the step up are all the implications mobile computing offers.

Will mobile replace desktop computing?  Not exactly, but the changes will be evolutionary.

Big companies like IBM and Microsoft are no longer in the forefront of the public’s mind and therefore have lost the influence that they once enjoyed.  The thought here is that mobile apps combined with cloud technologies are where the next game changing technologies exist.  This is a directional change (and leap!)  from desktop computing.  To quote Marshall McLuhan, mobile is a medium that is the message.  The first successful company that can be as flexible as a user with the ability to jump to different devices like a phone, a tablet or a can opener will have their seat at the throne…at least for awhile.

We saw and heard what the Harlem community and other urban-influencers were doing with such hyper-location applications like WeHarlem and video ad serving application – AdSmoke. Other companies present were Influential1s, Qynko, and HarlemSocial.

Two of my favorite questions from the panel were about mobile apps and what is the future of social media.  I think there is plenty of room at the top for fledgling companies to innovate and capture an audience.  Large companies dominate the market, but they don’t do it forever (think Microsoft).  Mobile apps just may be the game changing technology as social media gets more synchronous.  So never be intimidated.

I was only half joking when I stated that it would be great if Martin can make Tech Uptown into an App.  Because, if we note our changing attitudes toward technology from such expressions from Apple like “there’s an app for that” we begin to see applications not as a “technology” but as tools to get things done in our lives (which is what the definition of technology is anyway).  And what better way to get something accomplished than hopping offline and getting together live?  Now that’s a great app!

Cheers.

Flying below the radar of the hype behind mobile photo sharing are the search capability opportunities present, which prompts a few questions:  Will we see eventually see ads on these networks?  Will this impact the stock photo industry? Will we see the adoption of Creative Commons to protect one’s creative work?  Will Google index these networks?

I equated the title of this talk by asking which came first – the chicken or the egg? What I mean is did technology just show up – the chicken – or was there a thought process from where it hatched – the egg?

To understand where we are going it is imperative to understand how we got there. So are we shaping technology or is technology shaping us? And how did it all start?

I’m a very curious person by nature, so when the question is asked – How is social media impacting technology? – I seek to understand the very question.  I also seek to understand what our attitudes are towards social media and technology.

Let’s start with technology. What is technology?  A broad definition of technology is anything that is used to solve a problem, including a system or methodologies.  By that definition, a hammer at one point was considered advanced technology, so was an arrow head or an oxen driven plow.  These days we think of technology to solely mean computers and processing advanced electronic tools.

What is social media? Social media is any web/mobile based platform that turns communication into an active process (media here is information stored and delivered).  Social media is not Twitter, it is not Facebook.  However, Twitter and Facebook are social media sites.

So, what we are really asking is how are our active digital conversations changing our technological solutions? The question is a little different when you ask it that way.  It delivers a very much focused query rather than an otherwise open ended question susceptible to personal viewpoints and discriminations.

On the cover of the Atlantic (slide 4) we see the question: Is Google making us Stupid? Thankfully most people don’t think so – almost 9/10 thinks that the internet will make us smarter!  How is that possible?  The only thing that has given us the capacity to do things faster and better than humans thousands of years before is our access to information.  We are exposed to massive amounts of information in any single day that would take years, maybe a lifetime of humans thousands of years ago.  Implant anyone from the past in our current time and they will be as smart as us by being exposed to Google.  We are biologically no smarter than any human thousands of years before us; it is only our exposure to vast amounts of information that propels us.

Here are some numbers:

1. 107 trillion emails sent in 2010
2. 255 million websites
3. 152 million blogs
4. 88.8 million .com domain names
5. 1.97 billion internet users

These numbers are staggering.  More amazing are that these numbers are being fueled by regular people.  “Technology” is no longer a term endeared by geeks and IT folk.  Regular people (called “users” in IT departments) are catapulting this lead – and it all started with blogs.

I remember watching the Super Bowl in 2005 (uncensored version), and I said to myself “How come a domain registrar is advertising to the general public?” By the numbers given above the answer was obvious.  Blogs are the entry point to technology for users.  Through blogs they have become familiar with Content Management Systems, coding languages, DNS servers, API’s, software patch management, new technologies that improved their blogs such as Twitter, smart phones, plug-ins and the list goes on and on.

Technology no longer was intimidating – it was friendly, and solved problems.

People now carried their interactions into the enterprise, where traditionally IT dictated a department’s solution now found themselves servicing tailored requests and input from personnel.  The approach to marketing products changed as well.  Freemium models started to appear and put great value in the number of “users” supporting a product instead of the other way around.

If you missed evaluating how important social media don’t worry…social media is changing almost every industry in the world.  Money and finance are on the cutting board right now.  It started with Paypal giving users a little independence from traditional banks and credit cards.  Another step into the virtual wallet is now being heralded by Square.  Square is a little device that plugs into your smart phone and gives “users” the ability to accept credit card payments that deposit into their accounts, thus circumventing the entire banking industry.

Blogs have lowered the entry point to technology and have empowered people to take contributory roles.  Through social media we are making demands on technology to help serve our needs and improve our lives.  We have seen social media impact many fields from journalism, to politics, to the enterprise and now to our money.  Through the power of many we are seeing technology being democratized.  At first glance it may seem that technology has made this all possible, but what makes our technology unique is it being people driven…maybe it has always been that way, but now only more apparent.

My excitement peeked because this is the first worthy rival – IMO – to Apple’s iPad. The Motorola Xoom is the latest advanced tablets to hit the market and the first to sport the new Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS.

The Motorola Xoom arrives in an unassuming cardboard box. In its powered-down state, the blackened screen intrigues you as you peer into it imagining what capabilities the device holds.

Turning it on was an exercise for the sense as stroked my fingers around the sides of the device to finally discover the power button on the back of the device next to the 5-megapixel camera lens. The darkened screen now flashes a red Motorola logo, then text, then a colorful display of honeycombs flicker across the screen which reminded me of a peacock displaying its tail – was this the Motorola Xoom’s mating ritual to entice techies that it’s a worthy component?

Besides the one power button on the back, there are no other buttons.  No home button, no volume button controls – nothing.  There are a few ports along the sides of the Xoom – headset jack, a SIM slot, micro USB and HDMI port, and a power jack.  And getting back to the power button on the back…it was a little weird to be back there, but knowing that this was hardly a device given minimal consideration by the designers I knew there was good reason…and, I think I get it – this is where my fingers are naturally placed when holding the device and is the perfect location in order to maintain the omnipresent screen experience for the user.  Why bother with buttons?

Getting back to boot up…

When the home screen finally presents itself, the time, date and a lock in the center of a circle glows back at you. I’m not one to look for instructions when trying out a new device, but for that matter I don’t recall seeing any instructions and it took me a few tries to ‘unlock’ the device correctly. My first inclination was to take my finger and follow along the circle where the lock was didn’t work. I happened to accidently drag the lock to touch the circle and – Viola! – an ‘unlocked’ lock.

So I started to explore…

Positives
The overall appearance and usability of the UI is pleasant and appealing.  There is a lot of real estate for organizing your icons and the default widgets work very smoothly.  Once you have settled on an application be it an email, webpage, or program you feel very comfortable in the Xoom world as the presentation of such actions are satisfying.  I gather there was a lot of thought put into the user experience by the designers.

The wireless internet access on the Xoom flies on the Verizon Wireless 3G network. I did not look into data plan structures, as this was a loaner so you make the call there. And while we’re on the topic of speed, I’d say just about everything is fast on the Xoom – viewing photos, animations, web browsing, opening programs. The thing has plenty of horsepower.

You’d think the Xoom’s battery life would suffer from what’s under the hood (NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2: 1GHz dual-core processor/1GB DDR2 RAM) is like no other. Sometimes it felt like I went for days without a charge. During heavy usage and multitasking I have not had a better battery experience…and when you’re mobile, battery life is either King or Queen. Period.

The weight of the thing and overall size is comfortable enough to take with you almost anywhere with no complaints. With some type of cover or carrying case this would just get better.

Negatives
As with other tablets, data entry is always a challenge when typing on a screen. What was not expected were a few keys were in odd places, and learning how to minimize the screen with the arrow set on the bottom corner of the keyboard screen took some practice.  But in defense of Google Honeycomb this should be expected when learning a new OS, and I should of anticipated this.

There were a few hiccups with some sites, namely Facebook. When trying to upload an image or edit a link the screen started to jump up and down very rapidly. I tried the same in different locations and the issue persisted. After another day of this I did very minor updates to Facebook. Other than that browsing was very fast as I stated above.

Another disappointment was that the screen did not look as ‘crisp’ as I thought it should on the 10.1” 1280×800 resolution screen.

The scrolling and pinch-and-zoom did not seem as smooth as it should be by appearing to be delayed by some count of  milliseconds.  I don’t think the problem here stems from hardware, maybe software.

I downloaded a couple of apps – games – and was left disappointed by the graphics, but this may be due to my game selection and I can’t make a good call here.

Conclusion
Overall, the Motorola Xoom is an exciting piece of hardware/software.  I think we will see more features and improvements after the first rendition and is one to watch.  Personally, I always wait at least until the second rollout (or service pack) of hardware or software as bugs and improvements have been identified and addressed.  That being said, I’d be very interested in seeing what happens with a Motorola Xoom2.

NOTE:  There’s a lot of talk about price on the Xoom, but if you compare the price tag of $599 with Verizon to the iPad’s nearest competitor – the iPad2 WiFi + 3G on AT&T then cost is no longer comparable.

In his TEDTalk, Charles Limb reviews his groundbreaking work studying creativity and the brain — by putting musicians inside an fMRI and watching as they improvise. For the past decade, he’s been working with jazz piano players, revealing astonishing new data about the way the brain creates art. And his research has recently branched into a new genre: hip-hop.

I can’t help wonder what the results would be if a blogger, or any writer would step into this study and start creating her work. How would the results compare to the regions of the brain of a musician?

As I understand, the study is still ongoing and Charles Limb is looking to recruit more rappers to compare the results against Jazz.

People often get defensive when asked if technology is changing them – “Technology is not changing us, we are the creators of technology,” is usually snap replied.

I think the case of technology influencing us is more prevalent than we realize. After all, only a few programmers created Twitter and Facebook yet the masses consume it. It’s true that our collaborative behavior can influence some modifications and feature additions, but how many times did we were purposeful in our usage? When using a hashtag (#) on Twitter to stay focused on a conversation do we really do this with the mindset that the hashtag is going to be the next big thing, or did we just languidly follow (but with enthusiastic excitement) what caught on as being cool or useful? With that in mind, can you really believe that we are really driving (read: in control of) change, or are we just another link in the chain?

Most people don’t particularly like the idea that they are merely products of their environment, and I have to admit the thought is unsettling. But, I’m starting to digress and I don’t want to turn this conversation into a behavioral or metaphysical debate. Let’s just say that there’s more in technology today that’s influencing us than we realize, or want to acknowledge – your free to disagree.

Here are a couple of ways I’ve notice my thinking has changed:

• Text Messages – quick communication, segmented and ongoing; feel this to be an synchronous platform and response should be fairly quick

• Phone calls - looked at as asynchronous (voicemail), and need an extended amount of time to properly communicate message

• Email - asynchronous even with mobile phones

• Social media friends – distance no longer separates; they might as well be across the street or the house next door

• Work virtually – commuting to work even more apparent as down-time (smart ways of getting work done vs traditional – but make sure the work is done)

• Books – Digital or print…Print or digital…

It would be great to hear your input (even if your vehemently disagree).