Trends Identified
Incomes are rising in the U.S., but the increase is not being felt equally by all Americans.
Household income in the U.S. is at or near the highest level it has been in the last 50 years. At the same time, income inequality continues to grow, and the growth has been more pronounced among some racial and ethnic groups than among others. For example, the gap between Asians at the top and bottom of the income ladder nearly doubled between 1970 and 2016. Over that period, Asians went from being one of the groups with the lowest income inequality to the highest. A separate analysis found that, among Hispanics, the median income of foreign-born workers – but not U.S.-born workers – had returned to its pre-Great Recession peak in 2017. The share of Americans who are in the middle class has fallen over the last several decades. About half (52%) of adults were considered middle class in 2016, down from 61% in 1971. The share of adults in the middle class has stabilized around half since 2011. Meanwhile, median incomes have grown more slowly for middle-class households than for upper- or lower-class households. More broadly, the public also sees differences by race and ethnicity when it comes to getting ahead in the U.S. today. A majority of Americans (56%) say that being black hurts a person’s ability to get ahead a lot or a little, while 51% say being Hispanic is a disadvantage, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. In contrast, about six-in-ten (59%) say being white helps a person’s ability to get ahead in the U.S. today. Views on the impact of being Asian are more mixed.
2019
6 demographic trends shaping the U.S. and the world in 2019
Pew Research Center
Connected Clouds (Public, Private, Hybrid)
Honestly, we can just file this as “the continued evolution and growing pains of cloud adoption.” Basically, what’s happening is that companies are realizing that going all public cloud, private cloud, or data center isn’t the best option. Sometimes, they need a mix of all or both. Thus, connected clouds are continuing to develop to meet companies’ changing needs—whether they want to cloud-source storage, networking, security, or app deployment. Major public cloud providers like Amazon and Alibaba are answering the call, offering private cloud (or in Google’s case, container-based) options. We are also seeing Microsoft via Azure, HPE with their 2017 acquisition of Cloud Technology Partners and their consumable IT services as well as VMware with their recent acquisition of CloudHealth Technologies all show increased commitment to connecting clouds. The term, Multicloud will be the new buzzword for the cloud conversation and what I believe this movement means more than anything else is that no matter which workloads are being run in which cloud, the experience for IT and those that are utilizing the applications needs to be seamless, secure and streamlined. For most businesses this means a mix of workloads running in public, private and hybrid environments and this will be a big topic in 2019.
2018
Top 10 Digital Transformation Trends For 2019
Forbes
CEOs Take the Reins
Honestly, it’s about time and while I’m putting this as my closing prediction, it is also the one that has me the most nervous. Countless studies have shown an overwhelming desire from employees to see digital transformation start at the very top of the company, however, trends are still showing that the task is being too often delegated to IT, Marketing or HR departments. So even though we’ve seen a range of C-suite leaders charged with taking the reins of digital transformation, I believe that the CEO will (must) finally step up in 2019, realizing digital transformation isn’t going anywhere. They’ll be making it more of a priority to hire for digital transformation, recognizing the critical nature of building cultures that can change, and the value of reskilling employees and hiring for agility—learning to trust data more than ever before. That’s good news for all companies in 2019.
2018
Top 10 Digital Transformation Trends For 2019
Forbes
Home Healthcare System
Home healthcare system is a healthcare service that collects biometric information at home and sends it to hospitals for diagnosis, and provides care in case of emergencies. As a fundamental technology for aging society, the home healthcare system can provide prescriptions for minor ailments or chronic conditions.
2010
KISTEP 10 Emerging Technologies 2010
South Korea, Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP)
Digital holography technology
Holography is the technology that records or reproduces the distribution of light, which is reflected or diffracted by the actual image. This technology completely reproduces the actual image to give a three-dimensional effect to viewers. Digital holography is implemented by using the electronic devices and optoelectronic devices, and the holographic data is processed by the optical information processing technique. Digital holography is the core base technology that can be applied and used in various industries, such as culture, arts, display, measurement industry, healthcare, and academia.
2012
KISTEP 10 Emerging Technologies 2012
South Korea, Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP)
Hologram
Holograms can help revolutionize business travel and by extension the consumption of oil. This is likely to –should it scale – impact business travel in particular. Given some travel constraints and the fact that the majority of air travel is either cargo or ‘private’, holograms are only expected to have a low single digit effect on air travel consumption, with no robust estimates to date on scale.
2018
The bigger picture- The impact of automation, AI, shared economy on oil demand
The 2° Investing Initiative
The end of gender generalization
Historically, when companies designed products, the first decision they would make was whether the brand was intended for men or for women. As gender becomes more open, inclusive, and nuanced, the overarching traditional gender decision is no longer the best starting point for brand personality. Gender roles will continue to blur and gender will often not be a helpful categorization for many brands.
2019
The top trends for brands to watch in 2019
Landor
Solar desalination
Historically, people have tried to increase water availability to meet demands by exploiting unutilised fresh water sources, such as rainwater, groundwater and atmospheric water, or through improved water management practices, including demand management, water recycling, river flow regulation and so on.245 while these practices are widespread today, their potential mitigating impact on escalating levels of water stress is somewhat limited because fresh water only accounts for around 3% of global water volumes. As a result, increasing attempts have been made to harness the remaining 97% of saline water, comprising seawater and brackish water.246 experts argue that methods to turn saline into fresh water are likely to play an important role, especially in developing countries. Some go as far as to suggest that ‘desalination [could] make a revolution in water supply globally.
2016
Ten Frontier Technologies for International Development
Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
It’s the green economy
Historical, carbon-intensive models of economic growth are unsustainable. Since the Industrial Revolution there has been a strong correlation of GDP per capita with CO emissions.77 The use of carbon has yielded extraordinary benefits and none of the now advanced economies would have developed without it, but the negative costs arising from the consequent climate change now pose
a rising threat.
2013
Now for the long term - The Report of the Oxford Martin Commission for Future Generations
Oxford Martin School
High-sensitivity biosensors
Highly sensitive biosensors to measure physical and physiological parameters of the body will be able to diagnose and identify deviations and faults in the functioning of various organs and physiological systems in the body based on changes in objective operational indicators (physical, chemical, etc.) using instrument based or laboratory research methods. Multicomponent measurement systems will appear which will be integrated with analytical programmes based on chemometric approaches and artificial intelligence drawing together several diagnostic and visualisation technologies.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation