Over a decade ago, I started thinking about what life would be like with connected cars. Erratic drivers, speeding tickets and unfavorable weather could be avoided while driving. I read an article recently that takes a more in-depth look at the future of connected driving titled, Big Data: When Cars Can Talk by Jeff Bertolucci of InformationWeek. It begs the question: how can connected roads, cars and drivers make for a safer traveling experience?

Wouldn’t it be great if you could stop an accident before it happened or at least lessen your chances of being involved in one? In the future, connected roads, cars and drivers will be able to gather data to make informed decisions about traffic, weather and other vehicles on the road creating – quite literally – a communication highway. Vehicle speed and driver attention, enabled by automation features, will be communicated to surrounding drivers and help those sharing the road prevent accidents. By sharing this data with other vehicles, drivers can make cautious decisions based on if drivers around them are paying attention to the road, distracted or traveling at unsafe rate of speed.

A deeper look into the future of connected vehicles and how humans currently utilize transportation gives way to the idea that one day, we will not drive our own cars at all. All vehicles communicating data with one another will eventually lead to self-driving cars that will deliver safer road conditions and more predictability while driving. According to Ford, today there are about 1 billion cars on the road. By 2050, 4 billion cars will be in operation with an estimated 70% self-driving. The technology represents the role IoE plays in creating safety, sustainability and efficiency.

Would you ride in a connected vehicle? Comment below or tweet me at @DaveTheFuturist.

Tags: Big Data, car, cars, Cisco, connected car, data in motion, Information and Communications Technology, Internet of Everything, internet of things, IoE, IoT, network infrastructure, Smart + Connected Communities, smart connected vehicles

My colleague Norm Jacknis (former CIO of Westchester County, New York) passed along a list of CIO concerns for 2013 that was prepared by Alan Shark of Public Technology Institute, a nonprofit that provides technology guidance to local government. The list for cities and counties included:

1. Big Data (Smart City)

2. Consolidation

3. GIS as centerpiece for strategic decision making

4. Mobility and broadband deployment

5. Cyber and network security

6. Cloud-based solutions

7. Legacy/modernization, RFP

8. Unified citizen engagement (311, social media)

9. Consumerization of technology (BYOD)

10. Shared services (across all jurisdictions)

What would you add or subtract?

I’d want to expand on a few of these items to include another emerging issue for CIOs and other government leaders: getting cities to embrace cloud and networking tools – while moving their urban economies forward.

Well, there’s good news to report on that overarching concern. There are several opportunities to learn more about how cities can embrace technology for economic growth:

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Tags: #economic growth, Big Data, CIO, CIO concerns, Cisco, cloud, cloud infrastructure, Cloud Management, economy, government, IBSG, ICT, Information and Communications Technology, network, network infrastructure, Smart City, urban economy

By Steven Shepard, Contributing Columnist

I have always loved trains. Never knew why, but I think I just discovered the reason. They’re part of the industry I work in – or at least played a founding role here in the United States. And, they gave us much of the terminology that infuses our telecom vocabulary: switches routers, hubs, trunks, lines, etc.

But one railroad in particular played a fundamental role in the development of the industry and, more importantly, in the development of a truly competitive U.S. telecommunications industry.

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Tags: fiber, investment, network infrastructure, Service Provider, telecommunications

It took me awhile to go through all the random Top 10 of 2011 lists for various topics, so now I’m ready to look ahead to 2012’s preponderance of pundit predictions. Or maybe I’m just fashionably late. I’ve tripped over a few reports here and there – some quite possibly developed by caffeinated squirrels on a treadmill.

Not me, but she looks like she's predicting something...

On the technology front, I found one more interesting than others. Instead of putting a small group of experts in a room and not letting them out until they agree on a list, Baseline Magazine annually surveys business and technology managers at companies with 100+ employees to ask about their organizations’ investments, plans, and strategies. Across several hundred respondents, patterns evolve.

Whoever these people are, coming from the desk I use, I like the way they (and their companies) think. Following – their predictions and my two cents (maybe three or four).

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Tags: 2012 predictions, Cisco Jabber, cloud_computing, collaboration, Customer Care, network infrastructure, security, web conferencing, WebEX

By Steven Shepard, Contributing Columnist

Science, science fiction…which is it?

In October 1945, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke published a paper in Wireless World entitled, “Extra-Terrestrial-Relays: Can Rocket Stations Give World-Wide Radio Coverage?” In his paper, Clarke proposed the concept of a platform orbiting above the Earth that would serve as a relay facility for radio signals sent to it that could then be retransmitted back to Earth with far greater coverage (‘footprint’) than was achievable through the terrestrial transmission techniques of the time. He describes his platform in the article:

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Tags: history, network infrastructure, satellite communication, technology, wireless networking