Presented by Alfons Cornella and Antonella Broglia

1) Re-greening
The future is green.
The need to introduce alternative energies to be more sustainable will have a considerable impact in economy. The next big thing in business is related to this issue. The Economist has published a story about the “Greening of America” and the “Future of Energy” and Fast Company has highlighted how the green policy of the California “governator” Arnold Schwarzenegger, as the one which will have more impact in its economy. The magic number in this field is 20% in 2020. This means the CO2 emissions have to drop by this percentatge. This will make the difference between countries that succeed and those that fail.
This trend to green will lead to big green facilities: “Big is beautiful”
Moreover, consumers are more and more interested by green. And companies take actions: Wall Mart has sought to sell 100 million compact fluorescents in one year, Ikea has produced cheaper reusable bags, Australia switches off incandescents bulbs.
As for future sources of fuel, serious attention has returned to the electric cars: For example, Tesla has introduced the Tesla Roadster, which runs entirely on electric power.

2) User-centered innovation
This is the most important idea of the year or even the decade!
As a reference, you can read the book of Eric Von Hippel, Democratrizing Innovation, and the one by Patricia Seybold, Outside Innovation.
The leading-edge user is the man or woman who has used your product to the fullest and now is pushing the limits in how it can be improved and changed.
There are many examples of products invented by active users. Revelations is a fan film created by fans of George Lucas Star Wars saga. Linux and related products are made by smart users who invent new ways of writing software. There are surgery tools invented by surgeons, which are then shared nationwide. The Engadget website plays an important role in the gadget discovery.
Several companies like Neuros, a Chicago based enterprise, Nutricia, Tate Modern Gallery in London, Communispace, and Telefonica, in Spain, are already taking advantage of this model.
As for governments, Denmark has developed a laboratory for user-centered innovations.

3) Hybridization business
In the internet world, it’s called mashup. That’s the possibility to merge things to create new products. Consumer electronics are a good example of this trend which will emerge in other fields. The question is how many products there will be in the middle.
We can think as well in the combination of ideas. There are examples in different areas. You take the best part of two products to create a new one: For instance, the combination of private vehicle and public vehicle can result in car-sharing. The combination of home and hotel has given birth to extended-stay hotels with a small kitchen in the room. “It’s less like a hotel, and more like a home”, they say. The combination of reality and fiction results in programs with actors playing lives of celebrities, and so on.
The future is hybrid: 1+1=3

4) Gamer generation in the workplace
The new generation works in a different way, says John Beck in his book The Kids Are Alright.
They consider themselves highly prepared, and they want to prove it. They see competition everywhere. The more they have played, the more they feel interested in their companies. They love diving amongst great amount of data and analyse several factors and alternatives very quickly. They expect high compensations: they want to be heroes, because only heroes play. They don’t believe in hierarchy very much, but they believe in teams. Failure does not hurt them: They try until they find a way out. They see risks as something natural to be successful. They are natural born managers: they put everything in perspective. They are global by nature and believe in a better world. Just consider all this if you have to hire one of them.

5) Emerging Technologies
The MIT technology review selection for this year has put forward a bunch of emerging technologies, like reality mining, offline web applications, probabilistic chips, modeling surprise, wireless power or nanoradio.
At Update, we want to draw the attention to some more:
-The greater digital capacity: we have more data in a smaller space.
-Optical antennas: free space optics.
-Ibiquity, which is different from ubiquity: new applications with information adapted to the place where you are.
-Telepresence
-Geolabelling: a combination of Second Life and Google Earth, for example.
-Augmented reality: the invisible train project can be an example: you have the railroad made of wood and the virtual train in a palm and you combine both things to see the train work.
-Artificial artificial intelligence: See, for instance, the Amazon Mechanical Turk.
-Personal manufacturing: Ponoko is an example: they manufacture any piece you want.
-Neo-Flight: trend to use more small airports rather than large ones in the US. This may change the way people move around.

Anna Solana