Predicting the future

 A well thumbed issue!

Hidden away in the back of this month’s Wired magazine is a great article on how Wired uses 7 rules to spots the next big trend, idea, product or service. I’ve always been really interested to know how people do this so I wanted to share this with you.

Here are the 7 rules you need to follow to spot the next big thing.

You need to:
1 - Look for cross pollinators > Ideas that can cross boundaries
2 - Surf the exponentials > Ideas that take advantage and spot things that are becoming faster, cheaper and smaller
3 - Demand Deep Design > Ideas and products that keep design at the heart of development
4 - Give points for audacity > Ideas that are bold and daring can often be very good
5 - Bank on openness > Ideas that are open and want to integrate (explain, integrate with what?)
6 - Favour the liberators > Ideas or products that are making changes to something that's usually closed off
7 - Spend time with the time-wasters > Ideas that come from people playing and not looking for a direct solution to the problem.

What do you think? Has this triggered some new thoughts or do you think you have the next big idea? For me, it made me look at the things that could be used to make your day a little bit easier. For example, why don’t tube announcements give you the weather report outside? Would it not be useful if you knew that you needed to get your brolly out of your bad before you step outside the station?

Go and grab of a copy of the new Wired to get the full article, it is totally worth it.

Also, this month’s issue (June 2012) features a great editorial piece on Troy Carter, who's best known as Lady Gaga’s manager. His knowledge and thoughts on social media made her the sensation that she is today. What surprised me was his big focus on data. He really wants to understand how and why people buy records and what they do with it. In this data rich age, this type of data is not available to record companies. They can’t build a complete picture or the fan who follows the tweets and downloads the records.

Anyway, go and enjoy it for yourself before I spoil the rest of it for you!

Got some thoughts? Share your comments with me! I’m always up for a good discussion.

Cheers,
Originalsteve