Eight questions about the future answered by Microsoft's Chief Envisioning Officer Dave Coplin -- you'll love his answers! For the original post visit: http://goo.gl/VxzWFL

1. We asked ‘Envisioner’
Dave Coplin eight questions:
you’ll love his answers
Microsoft UK’s Chief Envisioner and self proclaimed ‘creator of
crazy job titles’ gazes into the future of digital, search & privacy

2. Question 1:
• What have the next five years got in store for digital, and what
does it mean for privacy?
• I think the next five years are going to be about a couple
of things: blurring the digital/analogue boundary and a
brave new world of 'contextual' interactions.
• Blurring the digital/analogue worlds is about ensuring
that humans can get access to the best that the digital
world has to offer wherever they are, whatever they're
doing it and use that 'experience' to change what they
do in the real world (for the better).

3. Question 2
• Will email ever be replaced as the work communication tool of
choice?
• Replaced? No. Complemented by other tools? Yes -- and
it's happening right now as organisations embrace the
principles of communication we use in our personal lives
to fundamentally change the culture of how we
collaborate at work.

4. Question 3:
• Do you know of any business that does not need reimagining?
• Every business and industry has the potential to be
'reimagined'. At its heart, reimagining is simply about
freeing ourselves from the constraints of our past to look
to the real potential that technology and a modern
digital society can bring about.
• There is no single organisation doing everything, but
many are already starting down the journey and often in
some really unusual locations. The DVLA's example
of retiring the paper tax disc is one of my favourite
examples of the magnitude of change that becomes
possible.

5. Question 4:
• How do you envision the future of search?
• For me, the future of search should be to make search
invisible. Don't get me wrong, search is one of the
fundamental foundations of how society will leverage
the power of the internet, but I just don't think in the
future it will be about homepages, query boxes and ten
blue links. The future of search will be much more
natural and transparent to our lives; it will be ever
present, but in a way that is contextual, accessible and
valuable to everything we do.
•
(Visit http://goo.gl/VxzWFL for the full post)

6. Question 5
• Can digital help with the world's really big problems, such as
famine, war and climate change?
• Of course -- and it already is. At risk of playing IT
Buzzword Bingo, in a Big Data world (someone at the
back just called 'house!'), a great many things become
possible. Having access to all the data makes a world of
difference to how we understand the world around us.
We will stop fixating on causation (why something
happens) and instead, settle for simply correlation -- the
fact that it does happen. This will enable a great number
of significant breakthroughs in the scientific world over
the next few decades.
•
(Visit http://goo.gl/VxzWFL for the full post)

7. Question 6
• What gets you up and out of bed in the morning?
• Talking, listening and learning with others about the
potential that technology offers our society, and how we
can help others make it real.
•
(Visit http://goo.gl/VxzWFL for the full post)

8. Question 7
• What career advice would you give?
• Never, ever call yourself a digital guru! Instead, focus on
how your skills could empower those around you to be
successful (be they your colleagues, customers or even
family and friends).
(Visit http://goo.gl/VxzWFL for the full post)

9. Question 8
• And finally, what digital tools do you use in your job?
• This is a bit like asking, what sort of air do I breathe? All
of it, of course!
•
(Visit http://goo.gl/VxzWFL for the full post)

10. If you liked this interview or want to learn more about the
work of Fresh Egg, then please visit our blog:
http://www.freshegg.co.uk/blog/microsoft-uks-chiefenvisioning-officer-dave-coplin-peers-into-his-crystal-ballfor-fresh-egg