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Trends for a broadband-enabled future

Australia's National Broadband Network will provide more speed, yes, but what will come of that? Out of all the technologies and services and ways of doing things that broadband enables, which ones are the trends to watch? How will they change the way business is done?
Written by Stilgherrian , Contributor

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Australia's National Broadband Network will provide more speed, yes, but what will come of that? Out of all the technologies and services and ways of doing things that broadband enables, which ones are the trends to watch? How will they change the way business is done?

Those themes are the subject of a new Australian book, A Faster Future by Brad Howarth and Janelle Ledwidge. On Patch Monday this week Howarth runs through just some of the trends.

Video will be everywhere, Howarth says, as the means of production, storage and distribution become so cheap. Businesses will need skills in video production, just as in the past they've needed to be able to write. Could this even lead to a post-literate culture, as Dr Terry Percival suggested on Patch Monday last month?

Technology will be more pervasive but less prominent, as object become smaller and more and more objects are network-enabled as part of the Internet of Things. Security will need to be considered as part of all this.

There's also my usual look at some of last week's news headlines.

To leave an audio comment on the program, Skype to stilgherrian, or phone Sydney 02 8011 3733.

Running time: 26 minutes, 57 seconds

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