Envisioning the Next Innovation

Paul Saffo, a futurist associated with Stanford, recently gave a talk about what comes next in the information industry. An excerpt from mediabistro (fishbowlNY):

"If you want to look for a short-term success, look for something that's been failing for 20 years," the futurist said. "If everyone agrees it's a bad idea, do it."

Saffo cited Amazon's Kindle as a good example of this. "We've been failing at ebooks for 20 years," he said. "The Kindle is the 128k Apple of ebooks. It's not the iPod of ebooks. That is coming. ... It might come from Apple. It wouldn't surprise me."

This is an important topic and I find it fascinating given the recent destruction in financial markets. In banking are we going to see companies like Prosper.com taking over when the smoke clears?