Happy New Year from Earthling Interactive! We asked Earthlings to share their tech forecasts, speculations, and predictions for the coming year. From hopeful to apocalyptic, they delivered.
Connected devices will become more prevalent but also more invisible and context-dependent.
Adam Simcock, CEO
We will see major progress in coding for accessibility and greater tech inclusion overall.
Amanda Starich, Developer
Project Gutenberg in WordPress is going to dramatically change content entry in 2018.
Bekee Gibson, CMS Architect & Team Lead
I predict that Bitcoin will go to $100K on the heels of the collapse of at least two national economies.
Don Smith, Developer
Now that the FCC is repealing #NetNeutrality, local or municipal networks owned and operated by local governments or advocates of the open internet could become a viable alternative to ISPs that could block or throttle content.
Eric Anderson, Developer
Despite Mattel’s choice to take their connected device for children off the market in 2017, I expect there to be a major influx of these products in 2018. This will further complicate the landscape for parenting decisions related to technology.
Erin Courtenay, Communications
eSports or competitive gaming will grow to be a billion-dollar industry in 2018.
Jelani Harris, Developer
In 2018 we’ll see many more applications designed to integrate seamlessly with Alexa and Google Home type smart speakers/home assistants.
John Samuelson, COO
Developers will be held to higher ethical standards, we may even see the implementation of a type of Hippocratic Oath for developers to create ethical software.
Linda Brudz, Product Manager
The introduction of infinity or edgeless screens will have a significant impact on web design. Moving beyond the grid will present some interesting challenges for developers but will open up new possibilities for storytelling.
Lisa Sperling, Designer/Developer
As impressive as home assistants like Alexa are now, they still struggle sometimes to respond accurately to questions. I think we are about to see major improvements in their capacity to respond to our requests and to be much more useful.
Margo Baxter, Tech Lead & Developer
After so many years of people taking Internet security for granted, or not acknowledging its importance, 2018 could be the year that users start to take it very seriously.
Nick Guries, Developer
Digital experience will be de-coupled from computers and mobile devices. We’ll see more products and items that can interact with computers, getting away from such highly immersive interactions with computers.
Scott Rouse, Creative Director
In 2018 someone will integrate the IBM Watson supercomputer platform with the humanoid robot Atlas from Boston Dynamics and an army of those robots is going to take over California.
Steve Brudz, Application Architect & Team Lead
In the coming year, we will see significant progress toward cross-device attribution in analytics, giving marketers the ability to track customer interactions through multiple touchpoints.
Tom Kuplic, VP Business Services
