San Francisco - Institute For The Future

San Francisco Day 1, originally uploaded by johnmknight.
Here's a picture taken on the Powell Street Car. I was in San Francisco attending the Institute for the Future's Life In Context conference. For three days research by the institute was shared with member companies such as HP, Fisher-Price, Disney, BMW, GM and Whirlpool. The main topic of research this round was on the world around us being aware and full of sensors and information and hence, our life and surroundings understanding "context". A simple example might be an RFID reader built into my cell phone and the following scenario. When I'm browsing through a music store with my RFID reading cell phone and I decide I want to comparison shop online, the software application in my phone has already guessed that I want to look up information on the last album I picked up. It has read the RFID tag and prepopulates the search and price comparison on Froogle giving me a faster and more relevant experience.
There were many example and more radical ideas presented to challenge the participants into stretching their thinking. Overall I found the conference very interesting but something else unexpected came out of it; once again I've been reminded of the power of software. It is the through simple communication and software that enables the world around us to become that more engaging, relevant and accessible. It is surpising after the conference how many ideas and solutions, truly simple solutions, await right around the corner.
As time goes on, I hope to write more on my thoughts around the conference and what actions I've taken as a result. It could get interesting. Stay tuned.