5 for Friday

Another week has passed so quickly, I have at least five items to share with you:

1 - From Robert Fulgham

But I can hear the voice of my mother, “When they change the length of inches you can have a new ruler.”

Read his full posting here.

2 - From Peter Hagopian at InformationWeek

Zoho, a provider of hosted productivity applications, last week introduced Zoho Share. Zoho Share addresses a long-standing user community pet peeve by bringing the documents and files created across Zoho's online applications into one interface which can be shared with other users, and, longer-term, within an organization.

Read Peter's full posting of the latest from Zoho here

3 - From John Palfrey and Urs Gasser

The first generation of “Digital Natives” – children who were born into and raised in the digital world – are coming of age, and soon our world will be reshaped in their image. Our economy, our politics, our culture and even the shape of our family life will be forever transformed. But who are these Digital Natives?

Read about their new book "Born Digital"

4 - Michael Greene talks with Ray Kurzweil and reveals this future

Greene: Do you see video communication as an area that can also expand seniors' accessibility?

Kurzweil: I think in the next decade, the teen years, we'll be routinely visiting with each other like you and I are doing now in real reality, even if we're hundreds of miles apart and not just as a grainy postage stamp sized video conferencing image on your screen but as a full immersion experience where we really seem to be with the other person. It will be a full immersion visual and auditory virtual reality. We'll have images beamed into our retinas from our eyeglasses. We'll be online all the time. The electronics will be woven into our clothing and in our belt buckles and we'll routinely be visiting with other people in these full immersion environments.

We'll have augmented reality so we'll see real reality but there will be an overlay of virtual reality on top of that helping guide us through the real world. It will direct us inside and outside, not with a navigation system on a small screen that we carry in our palm, but one that's actually built into our field of view. We'll look at a person and it will remind us who they are and give us background about them. That will be very helpful. I mean how many times are you at a cocktail party where you see someone and think you know who they are but you're not quite sure. It would be great get that confirmed and we will have technology like that. It'll help the elderly but it will help all of us. You don't have to be 80 years old to have a senior moment.

Can I put my order in for one of those now, please!

Read the full interview here.

5 - In light of this future vision, what can you add to Terry's call to action:

We must be careful. We must heed the danger. We need to draw our lines in the sand as to what’s a proper balance of “plugged” and “unplugged”.

Read Terry's full posting here