Digitizing everything, convergence, integration and ease of use just keeps on digitizing, converging, integrating and getting easier to use.

Two things stimulated me this morning … Joe’s point about IBM formalizing the term "Cloud Computing", and Rob’s story about his wife Robin’s increasing use of and familiarity with digital services and content (and maybe devices .. Rob ?)

I have a sister-in-law who just turned 50 who has been until recently remarkably (and determinedly) resistant to online activities.  She has basically not ever used the Internet for anything but email, and even that sparingly.  Part of her reluctance and resistance is lack of familiarity (beginner’s embarrassment) and the other equally strong aspect has been her clear sense of how online can encroach on or steal time from what many will call "real life".

That there are forms of emergent social isolation and alienation, and addictive behaviours, that have developed as the online world has grwon and spread is irrefutable … just as the number(s) and types (s) of connections and interactions have multiplied and led to interesting behaviours and outcomes.

Back to my sister in law.  She is also a very good cook (let’s say amateur gourmet chef) and a talented amateur photographer.  As she has grown in her capabilities with a digital camera, she has also gotten more familiar with online environments.  Bit by bit, her attitude has been changing.  Recently she discovered StumbleUpon, and has almost become an evangelist, taking time out from conversations to show people who visit the interesting things that one can stumble upon just by clicking once.  It was also interesting to see her and her girlfriends’ initial reaction to finding people they knew on Facebook.

Slowly and surely, more and more people will use services and tools on the Internet as it weaves its way into and throughout our lives.  And as that happens, people will notice more and more the smooth sides and sharp edges of ways this spreading and weaving will impact the ways we live and work .. as will whatever the Cloud becomes.

"2008 is the year that sees Microsoft’s ambitions challenged" is a line halfway through the movie posted below.  Eerily prescient, no?

What also seems certain is that even if Microsoft does not acquire Yahoo !, other acquisitions and mergers (and the concomitant convergence and integration) are sure to happen over the next decade

Maybe EPIC 2015 (originally released as EPIC 2014 in 2004 by Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson) does not seem so weird or impossible today ?

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