• Web3, Metaverse, and Blockchain Take Center Stage at CES 2023

The Consumer Electronics Show, now known as CES and produced by the Consumer Technology Association, is a major industry event that showcases the latest in consumer technology. Although the conference is not open to the public, several media outlets report on the innovations unveiled at CES. Join me as I share how CES, and before that COMDEX, have shaped my career.

First Impressions: The Difference Between God And Larry Ellison

As I prepared to start my new job at Oracle Corporation, I had the chance to attend my first COMDEX conference in Las Vegas. This event, COMDEX Fall 2000, was my first opportunity to see the latest technology before the rest of the world. I was immediately struck by the innovative products and services at the event. The experience sparked my passion for attending technology conferences like WebSummit, SXSW, and CES.

I did not understand The Difference Between God And Larry Ellison*, and I can’t take credit for the clever book title from Mike Wilson (*God Doesn’t Think He’s Larry Ellison), but I remember being impressed by the combative keynote of my new CEO. Ellison’s “Software Powers the Internet” speech took aim at Microsoft and its CEO Bill Gates. But Microsoft was ready for Ellison. As I walked out of the Las Vegas Convention Center, I saw a team of people distributing coffee mugs with a list of reasons why Microsoft was better than Oracle. It was my first taste of the power of guerrilla marketing in action, and I wish I still had that coffee mug.

I don’t Know What It Is, But I Like It

In 2009, I became an early adopter of the Qik live video streaming app (before it was available on the Apps Store). I used it to capture videos from all over CES in 2010, including the unveiling of the Parrot AR. Drone and demonstrations of the iOS apps used to control it. You can watch my reaction to the drone in this video and notice the quality of the video.

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I also captured Lady Gaga being named creative director for Polaroid at CES 2010; what do you think of the video quality from 2010?

Google Glass and Shaquille O’Neal

Four years later, I attended CES with a better device for capturing the conference: Google Glass. This voice and motion-controlled Android device resembles eyeglasses and displays information directly in the user’s field of vision. I remember NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal extending his long arms to borrow my Google Glass to record Nick Cannon during CES 2014; watch Shaq here.

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Later that day, my friend Jeff Cutler and I were asked to leave the Wynn Casino for wearing the device while playing roulette.

Where Are They Now? 

Today, iPhone and Android users have many options for high-quality live streaming. “Cinematic mode” on the iPhone 14 series allows for 4K recording at 30 fps and 24 fps.

The Parrot AR. Drone received a CES Innovations award in 2010 for Electronic Gaming Hardware. By early 2013, around half a million units of the AR. Drone and its successor had been sold. The company has since shifted its focus to commercial drone solutions.

Instant film pioneer Polaroid was a cultural icon for decades, but the company could not withstand the shift to digital technology and shut down all production in 2008.

CES During the COVID Era

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, CES featured over 4,000 exhibitors and 170,000 attendees from all over the world. Due to the pandemic, the show went entirely virtual in 2021. It returned in January 2022 as a hybrid live and digital event. However, a winter COVID surge caused CES 2022 to be a debacle, with exhibitors and journalists asking the Consumer Technology Association to cancel the show.

Looking Forward to CES 2023 

CES 2023 will take over Las Vegas Convention Center, with overflow at other venues, including the Venetian Expo and C Space at Aria. More than 1,300 confirmed exhibitors and 323 Fortune Global 500 companies have registered for the event. The Web3 Studio at LVCC’s Central Hall will be the hub of all things Web3, metaverse, and blockchain at CES. Industry leaders and visionaries will gather to discuss the most significant advancements in these areas across various industries, technologies, and capabilities.

One of the exhibitors I am looking forward to seeing is Magic Leap, a company founded by fellow University of Miami alumni Rony Abovitz. In the early 90s, Abovitz was responsible for the weekly cartoon for The Miami Hurricane student newspaper, where I was the business manager. In their two-story exhibit (Tech East, LVCC Central, Booth #15875), Magic Leap will showcase the power of their platform and eight of the latest AR solutions on Magic Leap 2, including Cisco’s Webex Hologram. 

Webex Hologram allows meeting participants to collaborate in more profoundly inclusive and engaging ways than ever before. By projecting the presenter and their content into the viewer’s physical space, Webex Hologram creates an unprecedented experience of co-presence.

Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to attend CES and witness firsthand its impact on the industry. It offers a glimpse into the future of technology and provides valuable insights into emerging trends and innovations.

As a technology enthusiast, I am always eager to share my experiences and insights with others. Please let me know if you have any specific topics or areas of interest that you would like me to cover in my next article. Whether you are a tech professional, an industry expert, or someone interested in staying up to date on the latest trends, I hope you will continue to follow my articles and join me in exploring the exciting world of consumer electronics.

Indy Autonomous Challenge Returns To CES 2023 

Driverless racing cars, also known as autonomous racing cars or self-driving racing cars, have the potential to bring many benefits to all drivers. 

The Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) returns to CES 2023 to push the boundaries of head-to-head autonomous racing and showcase the benefits of autonomous mobility. 

Some of these benefits include:

1. Improved safety: Driverless cars have the potential to reduce the number of accidents on the road significantly. Because they are programmed to follow traffic laws and can react more quickly to changing conditions, they may be less likely to get into accidents than human drivers.
2. Increased efficiency: Driverless cars can also help to improve the efficiency of transportation. By optimizing routes and speeds, they can reduce fuel consumption and emissions.
3. Enhanced convenience: Driverless cars may also provide enhanced comfort for drivers. For example, they could allow drivers to relax while the car handles the driving or enable people who cannot drive due to disability or age to get around more easily.
4. Better use of resources: Driverless cars may also help to make better use of resources, such as reducing the need for parking spaces and allowing for more efficient use of roads.

The nine university teams seeking to compete in the Autonomous Challenge at CES 2023 are

• AI Racing Tech – University of Hawai’i (Hawai’i), with University of California, San Diego (California), Carnegie Mellon University (Pennsylvania), and University of California, Berkeley (California)
• Autonomous Tiger Racing – Auburn University (Alabama)
• Black & Gold Racing – Purdue University (Indiana)
• Cavalier Autonomous Racing – University of Virginia (Virginia)
• KAIST – Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (South Korea)
• MIT-PITT-RW – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Massachusetts), University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), Rochester Institute of Technology (New York), University of Waterloo (Canada)
• PoliMOVE – Politecnico di Milano (Italy), University of Alabama (Alabama) 
• TII EuroRacing – University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy), Technology Innovation Institute (United Arab Emirates) 
• TUM Autonomous Motorsport – Technische Universität München (Germany) 

When: Saturday, January 7, 2023, Las Vegas Motor Speedway

• 10 a.m. PST – Time trials and elimination rounds begin
• 1–3 p.m. PST – Live broadcast of semi and final competition rounds

• Follow the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) @IndyAChallenge and #IAC2023 on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & YouTube. 

Join us as we cover the top tech-for-good startups revolutionizing Digital Health

A number of technologies and approaches are being developed and used today to create more secure health records. Here are a few examples:

1.  Health records are often stored in centralized databases, which can be vulnerable to data breaches and may not be easily accessible to patients and their healthcare providers. Blockchain-based health records give patients control over their data and make it easier for healthcare providers to access and share information with proper data encryption. This involves converting sensitive data into a coded form that only those with the appropriate decryption key can access.
2. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) enable the creation of new types of decentralized health applications. For example, companies could use Web3 technology to create applications that allow patients to track their health data and connect with healthcare providers, potentially improving the quality of care they receive.

Join us as we cover the top tech-for-good startups revolutionizing Digital Health in a live pitch competition during CES 2023, as well as a conversation with Dr. Susan Turney, CEO, Marshfield Clinic Health System and Dr. Vidya Raman-Tangella, Chief Medical Officer, Teladoc on “The Future of Care in America: A New Hybrid Model.” 

Find our team at CES 2023, Jan. 5-8, 2023 – Las Vegas.

This is third and final installation of a 3-part blog series on a Futurist’s perspectives on some buzzy terms and technology trends.

TL;DR on my first three opinions:

• The Metaverse will be more potent as an augmented experience than a virtual one.
• There are two types of Metaverses: Open and Closed.
• The entire internet will not be decentralized.

So let’s move right into my last three unpopular opinions…

Most people won’t care about the ethics of a decentralized Internet.

Web3 is, in part, a movement to democratize the internet, but the desire for decentralization isn’t just about removing centralized control over data, money, and more. Supporters of the Web3 movement have been strongly motivated by a lack of trust.

• Trust in institutions has fractured — especially in the United States.
• Decentralized currency appeals to international investors who do business in certain volatile, unpredictable economies.
• Many believe Wall Street has gated wealth. As such, non-traditional investors often seek alternative paths to generate wealth.

A fierce, vocal, passionate group of people are the ones leading the decentralization movement. They highly value its autonomy and advocate for decentralization on behalf of the Greater Good.

Today, the number of purists who care about the ethics of decentralization is relatively small, yet it represents a critical component in seeing the future of decentralization. Early adopters are more likely to care about transparency and the value of a democratized Wall Street than the average user. The middle of the bell curve will need persuading that Web3’s incentives — like lower transaction fees vs. a central bank (someday) or getting paid to allow a company to use your personal data — validate engaging in something new and unknown. Even some early adopters are getting hit by thieves who are faster to take advantage of security loopholes in today’s burgeoning Web3. 

Overcoming the ambivalence of the many will be critical to Web3’s adoption, and that’s not only related to why Web2 isn’t trustworthy. It’s also critical because for Web3 to succeed, we may have to change how we pay to use the Internet, leading to my next unpopular opinion. 

Convincing users to pay for Web3’s Creator Economy remains a challenge.

The Creator Economy is the movement of individuals creating internet content and media that is consumed, and it plays a significant role in driving Web3 forward. This Creator Economy is driving engagement, but millions of creators also seek to monetize their creativity. Increasingly, we are seeing creators charging for their experiences, sometimes in novel ways. It’s easier than ever to do that on Web3, where your crypto wallet can easily tap into the sites you visit, and cryptocurrency micropayments should be easy to make. 

But consumers aren’t used to paying for engagement. We get tons of the internet for free today, but it comes at a cost: our personal data. This harkens back to Redditor blue beetle’s famous quote in an August 2010 thread:

“If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.”

– Andrew Lewis, aka blue beetle on Reddit

With the centralized Web2 economy, the questionable use of personal data has been widely publicized and criticized, evidenced by the backlash against Google and Facebook over the past few years. That said, user data collection has long been the currency companies use in exchange for free experiences. Consider social media platforms like TikTok. Or collaboration tools like Google Docs. Or news sites like CNN.com.

User data collection drives the effective ad targeting these companies use to drive their advertising revenue. This is what allows them to forego subscription costs. Thus, to build Web3 business models, decentralized applications (dapps) will likely do one of the following:

• Require users to opt-in to data collection (like we see in Web2), but with transparent user data on the blockchain. This would allow users to verify what is happening with their data. Given that some understand what happens with their data, it will be interesting to see whether consumers are interested in having control of their data on the blockchain. This is also given the collaborative nature of the community.
• Reward users who opt-in to data collection with reduced or free site usage, charging higher fees to users who do not share their data.
• Reward users who opt-in to data collection with public-or-proprietary cryptocurrency or tokens they can use to pay for experiences or products.
• Create a business model that doesn’t rely on customer data, with enough substantial value that their site validates subscription usage fees, or uses publicly available data from the blockchain.

Selling, gamifying, tokenizing engagement

Selling within this new value model, and gamifying and tokenizing engagement is a critical step in bringing Web3 from the margins into the center of Internet interactions. Younger demographics have shown to be keener on expecting rewards for engaging with a brand. In fact, 78 percent of Millennials are more likely to select a brand with a loyalty/rewards program.* By the time Web3 truly emerges as a prominent aspect of the web, tokenized engagement might already be a larger portion of the actual economy.

However, Big Tech Web2 will still retain control of a portion of user data from those using their services. As long as they provide exceptional value, users will continue to pay by allowing them to retain their data on centralized servers.

This is why I believe Web2 will continue to have a strong presence in the Metaverse, among other consumer applications, even with the rise of Web3. Web2 represents the ability for companies to have more control over information. Information is money. And they will continue to build solutions that validate the value consumers get in exchange for the data they provide.

Now let’s look at how those companies engage in Web3, driving my next opinion…

The Internet of the Future isn’t as decentralized as many might hope.

The Metaverse’s democratic (or debatably, anarchic) roots have led many to characterize the Metaverse as “the Wild West.” That terminology has extended to Web3, crypto, and, more recently, NFTs, as they lack formal governance. But going back to the ethics of decentralization, that’s the point.

Decentralization offers freedom from central entities controlling the Internet. However, the tide is shifting toward a formal, transparent, democratized governance through establishing Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs).

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)

In DAOs, users partner in groups formally connected through blockchain-based contracts. They pool their crypto and vote on investments. Think of it as small, coordinated groups of people voting on rules and actions based on their own personal beliefs and preferences. It represents pockets of unified ethics developing around the type of experiences Web3 believers want to see. This collaborative DAO approach has extended into the Metaverse – and it is as close as we get to governance in both Web3 and the Metaverse.

Here is what is especially interesting to me, though. Although DAO investments are substantial enough to replace traditional VC investments in some areas, some see DAOs as a necessary evolution of VCs. But within that shift, entities — instead of individuals — will begin to insert themselves into Metaverse investments and experiences. It’s similar to how large shareholders can exert more pressure on publicly-traded companies than individual stakeholders. For instance, investors in the PleasrDAO include Andressen-Horowitz, a notable VC.

“There are a lot of people who have money to invest. They need some vision to throw money at.”
– James Grimmelmann, Cornell University Professor, Law and Technology

A DAO is at the mercy of its investors. Only if investors are willing to take risks and if their investment strategies align, can DAOs experiment dynamically and collaboratively, thus building Web3 and, by design, the open Metaverse. DAOs function just like stocks because investors purchase crypto tokens – like shares. The more crypto token investors own, the more power they have in their vote.

With an increasing presence of companies participating in DAOs, I expect well-resourced companies and VCs to exert more control than individuals in some decentralized investor pools. But when that happens, it will be interesting to see how they balance their interests without alienating or damaging the connected communities they are a part of.

“If we stay in the current paradigm, we will move further and further into a realm where a small handful of companies run by a small number of people run our experiences in cyberspace. And in that world, the problems of Big Tech are exacerbated.”
– Sam Williams, Founder of Arweave

Promises of human-machine interactions in the future

Let’s recap all six of my unpopular opinions.

• Metaverse will be more potent as an augmented experience than a virtual one.
• There are two types of Metaverses: Open and Closed.
• The entire internet will not be fully decentralized.
• Most people won’t care about the ethics of a decentralized Internet.
• There is still work to do in persuading users to pay for the Creator Economy that is constructing Web3.
• The Internet of the Future isn’t as much of a movement away from centralized control as many might hope.

These are my opinions as of now. However, in the next couple of months, I could learn new information that persuades me otherwise. That’s the beauty of learning. Our knowledge and opinions remain malleable as new developments evolve to impact them. I delight in keeping tabs on trends and watching them evolve, giving us runway to influence decisions. This leads to actionable outcomes, as my team and I are talking about adapting our customer experiences for this future, from tokenizing engagements to interacting virtually in the Internet of the Future.

Human-Machine Interactions of the Future: Unpopular Opinions [ Part 1 ] [ Part 2 ] [ Part 3 ]

If you haven’t read the first installation of this series on human-machine interactions of the future, I highly recommend digging into the definitions of some of the concepts I’m going to share here. With that foundation, let’s move to my first unpopular opinion about the Metaverse.

The Metaverse will be more powerful as an augmented experience than a virtual one.

Gartner announced that by 2026, 25 percent of people would spend at least an hour a day in the Metaverse.* But how we define the Metaverse stands to reason. Many individuals associate the Metaverse with Virtual Realities and Worlds, commercialized by the Facebook rebrand to Meta. This immersive virtual reality is critical and core to the embodied web concept – but even with Apple’s announcement of their long-awaited VR headset, I don’t foresee us living our real lives largely in virtual worlds.

However, Augmented Reality is also rising as a valuable asset in creating the Metaverse. Webex Hologram is a great example of that physical-digital hybrid through Augmented Reality collaboration. Although Webex Hologram leverages AR headsets, other AR applications like Google Maps and Pokémon Go! show us that even a mobile phone can unlock meaningful, powerful extended reality experiences.

Unlike VR, AR is more accessible to devices across the socio-economic spectrum. It has more use cases. It takes less bandwidth. It generally makes more logical sense. I believe the most powerful Metaverse will be accessible by all, via mobile devices that aren’t just reflecting virtual worlds, but devices that add a digital layer to augment the physical world.

That said, my next unpopular opinion reflects my belief that these interactions won’t all live on the blockchain.

There are two types of Metaverses: Open and Closed.

In my opinion, are two Metaverses: the Open Metaverse and the Closed Metaverse. I’ll explain the difference, but their core concept is how each relates to Web3.

In mass media, the Metaverse has been characterized as this collection of virtual worlds, where digital versions of themselves represent people – typically with avatars or in volumetric video. However, I consider the Metaverse as consisting of immersive and extended reality experiences – which encompass fully virtual reality worlds, but also augmented reality experiences that include a digital overlay on the physical world, haptics, voice assistants, gesture control, and more.

“The Open Metaverse is an interoperable world where users can carry
with them their proverbial blockchain-based baggage like NFTs.
The Closed Metaverse is where it gets stopped by customs.”

When engaging in the Metaverse, your experiences are often tokenized and require digital payment. Today, your purchases can be made by buying tokens in a world – just like in Fortnite today, or even the Chuck-E Cheeses out there – and then using those tokens to pay for experiences or digital assets. However, in open Metaverse worlds that run on Web3, the currency is a cryptocurrency built on blockchains with multiple connecting smart contracts.

These two backends, a blockchain backend (likely Ethereum) for Web3 and a Web2 backend, will support the development of Extended Reality Metaverse spaces. Both will contribute to it – not just the decentralized web. But that difference in the backend creates an issue that although the vision for our Extended Reality experience is unified, I don’t foresee an easy route to evolving a Web2 backend to include persistent assets on the blockchain.

Thus, I’ve been using “open metaverse-closed metaverse” terminology to represent the XR experiences that will be interoperable (open) and those which will be separate (closed) based on whether or not they will be blockchain-based.

The decentralized Web3 paradigm requires a blockchain backend. But I, and others like me, see the future of the Internet as being less like Web3 and more like what I’ve been referring to as “Web2+.” That concept was also cited in the Exponential View podcast episode, albeit referred to as a “centralized Metaverse” and a “decentralized Metaverse.”

I like open-closed nomenclature because it strongly correlates to the experience I foresee users having. The Open Metaverse is an interoperable world where users can carry their proverbial blockchain-based baggage like NFTs. The Closed Metaverse is where it gets stopped by customs.

I even foresee Closed Metaverse applications with select integrations with blockchain – but not built fully on the blockchain itself. There will be myriad iterations of centralized-decentralized, open-closed experiences, leading to my next unpopular opinion.

The entire internet will not be fully decentralized.

The movement towards Web3 has gotten so much press and has a tremendous amount of investment and support. But many aren’t talking about how today’s Web3 is mainly running on the backbone of Web2. Right now, even cryptocurrency trading has high costs, and many of the platforms are built on Web2 infrastructure. Although many wish it weren’t so, Web2 is woven into the fabric of Web3.

This perspective was also discussed in the podcast, and at SXSW this year, I spoke with some Web3 investors who confirmed their perspective on the same. Other developers are saying the same. In addition, many large enterprises have spent considerable time investigating Web3, and they too see the value of Web3 in certain areas and contexts – assuming that we can solve the interoperability problem, which analysts estimate will take another 8-10 years.

According to Ghose in the podcast episode, the ideal he foresaw was that on a person’s mobile phone or personal device, you could seamlessly switch from Web2 to Web3 applications. The user experience of Web3 should mirror that in Web2, and they use the same front-end technologies (Java, CSS, HTML, etc.), but the backend shifts from the cloud to the blockchain. Web3 developers have some of the same tools in their toolkit, but then they add a few new ones depending on what they’re building and where. For example, Web3 SDKs like  web3.js, web3.py, and ethers.js are essential for building any decentralized application, and programming languages like Solidity and Vyper are also key skills a Web3 developer needs.

To be sure, some purists are focused on a complete reinvention of the Internet, but that isn’t my perspective. In the future, I believe that consumers and companies will toggle between Web2 and Web3 experiences, focusing less on the ideology and more on the value.

Whereas many Web3 advocates predict it as the future of the Internet, others believe that Web3 will exist alongside Web2, but not replace it. I tend to agree with this concept of coexistence, a movement I’ve referred to as Web2+. Web 2+ has proven to be an unpopular opinion, but I stand by it based on what I’ve read and heard.

In the next installment, I’ll dig deeper into decentralization, Web3, and the Internet of the Future, so stay tuned!

Human-Machine Interactions of the Future: Unpopular Opinions [ Part 1 ] [ Part 2 ] [ Part 3 ]