Thinking through IoT from MIT Sloan Management

IoT is just at the early adopter stage, which is the peak of the hype cycle. What's that meme about not being able to spell idiot without IoT ? Michael Fitzgerald has a terrific piece on "Hype vs. Reality: A Reality Check on the Internet of Things" in the MIT Sloan Management Review. He covers nine topics of relevant interest. The one that sticks out for me speaks to the security of IoT as under fire before it even exists. In a reference to Cisco's Chris Young's interview with The Register, he says that the criminal element has one focus: "They're stealing money, they're stealing information, or they're trying to disrupt someone's operations. Those are all problems that we see in the physical world. It's just magnified and scaled in a way that we can't contemplate in our own physical world."

Hopefully, IoT can be built out slowly, with security introduced on the ground floor. After all, we all know what happened with the creation of email.

Every Year It's the Same -- the Future is Not What it Used to Be

Every Saturday I have a video chat with my Dad, who is 87 and 3,000 miles away. On one hand, it's amazing to be able to communicate so simply and directly. His phone is voice controlled, "OK Google," and his transportation has been happily Uberized.

However, my present is his future, which was imagined in the thirties and forties. No matter how much incredible tech is created or changes are made in geo-politics--it's still a downer from the dreams of yesteryear. The take-away lesson ? We still have a lot of work to do.

Welcome to 2016, yesterday's future, today.

Content Marketing is on the Rise -- but there is Immense Potential on Images versus Copy

"Visual assets have taken on a broader role and are responsible for continually and consistently representing your brand, communicating your value proposition, and cultivating brand image on a daily basis, " so says Jerry Kane is an associate professor of information systems at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College and the MIT Sloan Management Review guest editor for the Digital Business Initiative.

If you have responsibility for SEO, or any aspect of web analytics, then the Rise of Visual Content Online is a must read. In a short space, Jerry summarizes a shift in content presentation that is drawing on visual content (photo and video) to graphically engage the reader.

Nearly 60% of all digital impressions are now driven by images. Unsurprisingly, 70% of marketers are planning to increase their use of original visual assets this year, meaning these brands are not just repurposing images and video, but creating new visual content.

I'm accepting Professor Kane's analysis, but it does seem an odd twist that many news outlets have culled out their professional photography staff. 

As we become more saturated with visual imagery, we also become much more sophisticated consumers of it. Defaulting to adding a stock image into a post or an email is no longer sufficient. Quality imagery is a must, especially in the face of the millions of iPhone owners turned amateur photographers. Visual assets demand more time and investment to stand out among the trillions of images competing for consumer attention.

Maybe the core news photography hasn't been keeping pace with the advancing discernment of the general public ?  So, just to be in the game, that click-bait image of a dragon is my own capture from visiting Diagon Alley in Universal Orlando.

Aguamenti !