As MSI’s Director of Interactive Services, I love the part of my job that involves geeking out over technology. I was about 12 years old when Blade Runner came out and remember thinking, “Giant video billboards. Pfft. Yeah, right.” I pooh-poohed my way through the movie, scoffing at such impossibilities as video conferencing, in-ear communicators, tablet computers, and glowing umbrellas, among many other flights of fantasy.
Watching Blade Runner while sprawled out on the brown shag carpet in front of my father’s monster Betamax machine, I don’t think I could ever have imagined that so many of these items would have trickled into our everyday use within my lifetime. They seemed so far away as I would get up on hands and knees to flip the knob (”ka-CHUNK”) on our living room TV. I certainly wouldn’t have believed that only seconds after the birth of my son, I could wirelessly beam an image of his beautiful newborn face to my 95-year-old great aunt in Galveston, Texas from our hospital room in Chicago. I pass no fewer than 5 massive video billboards during my morning commute. People Skype each other regularly, Bluetooth devices pegged into random ears, and even the infamous glowing umbrellas are for sale on Think Geek. Now come developments like the iPad and Google’s response, the Chrome OS Tablet.
Maybe take some time today to think about the differences between the world that surrounded you as a child and the convenience and amazement that technology offers today.
MSI makes it our business to keep up with the monster steps that Interactive technology takes every day and how you can apply it to your marketing strategy. It’s not just our business, it’s our lifelong passion. If you think of your website as a static piece of brochureware, give us a call. I bet you’ll be amazed by what technology, and MSI, can do for you.
Caesar when he was in a great rush could travel 50 miles a day, sometimes a little more, and George Washington almost 18 centuries later rarely did as well. Â Â It wasn’t until the high pressure steam engine emerged in the early 1800s that living conditions for the average person really began to change, starting with travel. Â And that change accelerated with all the new things that followed including electricity, the telegraph, flight, industrialization, radio, television, new medicines and the computer, to name a few. But that took place over a period of about 150 years.
What’s really mind boggling is trying to conjecture what activity in the year 2050 might be described as that was so five minutes ago. If you are ever sitting alone in a bar staring at your drink, this is a good subject to ponder.
