It is tough to predict the way in which information sharing technology will change over the coming years. Most people probably couldn’t predict the way in which the more modern age started to change things.
Recent COVID-19 developments have had major changes on the way information is shared. In fact, face to face meetings at many places of business seem to be a thing for the past. Nowadays, we can carry out digital meetings. It is quicker and simpler. While this isn’t something that is ‘new’, we are certainly using it more than we did previously, and we can likely see major changes in the way digital phone calls like this take place.
Tying into this, we may actually see bigger changes in the way education is delivered. While we do not envision schools and universities disappearing completely, mostly because people do need actual social contact, we do believe that more education will be carried out online. We wouldn’t be surprised if most learning was completely digital in a few years. This means teachers preparing seminars and lectures that can be consumed whenever the student has time. This will also include the sharing of important educational materials such as text documents and videos.
In order to cut costs, and be a little bit greener in their energy consumption, it is likely that we will see more and more companies switch to digital information rather than mailing letters out. In fact, it is likely that many of the companies that you deal with on a daily basis right now are doing this. Expect it to get even more prevalent as time goes on.
We also predict big things from eBook technology. Not in terms of replacing books (although, this may happen eventually), but more in the way that information can be pushed to people. eBook technology almost makes it appear as if you are reading a real book or a sheet of paper. Some people enjoy this, and we reckon that information will be shared like this more often as time goes on.
Microsoft and Amazon have been doing big things in the world of cloud computing. In fact, they have managed to get so good at it, that we are now able to stream digital games online. Sure, this is probably not going to have an impact on information sharing, but it does show how fast this technology is getting. It becomes quicker and easier to share information wherever you are in the world. In fact, it is going to be a whole lot cheaper to share this information too. Most companies will likely utilize cloud services from one of these two platforms (or maybe one of the new players in the market!).
One area that we really believe will be developed extensively over the coming years will be cyber security. Yes, cyber security is already at a decent point. However, as more and more information is shared online, we do need to discover new ways to deliver cyber security. After all, if our security systems are getting tougher, the people that want to crack them will get even smarter. Cyber security is big business when it comes to sharing information, so expect lots and lots of focus to be placed on this.
While this does not necessarily tie into information sharing, we do believe that more ID verification will be digital. We are already seeing this sort of thing in countries like Sweden where pretty much every bit of information access and identity verification is done via an app on a telephone. This includes making payments online!
Finally, we believe that companies will continue to find new ways to digitize their old content and share it with the world. We believe that this is going to be big for museums and other places with historical content. While this will not necessarily benefit businesses (outside of access to archival information), we do believe that this type of technology is going to benefit the world as a whole.