I used to call myself a Computer Consultant.  I've changed that to Technology Consultant, because it just isn't about computers anymore.  It's about communications, its protocols, and its infrastructure.  It's about ever-changing terminal technology (phones, tablet PCs. streaming video to your car).  It's about GPS and what it does for us - so much more than just telling us how to get from point A to point B.  It's about connection reliability and stability.

It's about data - how they're created, stored, backed up, maintained, communicated, and presented.

When I was in third grade (many of you PowerCore people have heard this story at least a few times), I was bored with what I was reading for school.  My reading and comprehension skills were beyond what was being assigned.  When I brought this up to my teacher, she took me to the librarian, who, after asking me about my interests, took me to a shelf with about ten books on it in the back of the library.  The shelf was labeled "Science Fiction".  I picked one, read it, and, for me, the rest is history. 

Flash forward about 15 years later, and I found myself working in High Tech, but also doing a lot of strategic thinking with a group of very talented young people at Scientific-Atlanta (eventually acquired by Cisco).  Our job was to give our division of the corporation clues and advice as to what was coming from a technology and industry standpoint so we could address the future with thoughtfulness.  That was one of the best jobs I ever had.

Then I read David Brin's Earth.

The overall story is great - fun to read, intelligently written characters, global travel and communications.  Good stuff.

What caught me most, though, was David's view of the future of communications and collaboration.  The story was centered fifty years in the future from when the book was written, which is about 27 years from now.  He took what he knew and where he saw trends and developed the idea of a totally global communications infrastructure that, at the time (1988 - pre Internet!) was considered prescient, but absolutely possible.  He even predicted the rise of the iPad, only it was a bit smaller and would fit in a pocket (iPhone and Android phones, with much more capabilities - keep in mind, we have another 27 years to go).

He had me hooked, and it mirrored some of the work I was doing.  Then someone recommended I read, "The Art of the Long View", by Peter Schwartz, a discussion about think tanks and how corporations use those organizations to plan for their future (and how some of those plans worked out).

I continued to develop and hone my skills at predicting the future of technology and society based on trends that exist.  I've done well with that capability in my lifetime, and I'm proud of it (narcissistic, remember?).  So today, I use those skills for the benefit of my clients.  As I said in the previous post, it's my job to use what I know about technology and technological and societal trends to build plans for my clients' technological implementations as well as how to grow them as the clients' needs change, evolve, and expand. 

Keep in mind that these skills are not easy for micro businesses (under ten employees) to find, or even to afford if they do find them.

Beginning this weekend, I'll tell some of those stories.