European commissioner Viviane Reding (Information & Media) has plans for a European music market, although national copyright laws are in her way. Licenses for copyright, which have to be taken care of separately in every country now, could cover several countries, or even the whole European Union (dc, Dutch). In the past local copyright was introduced, like countries borders were a couple of years before that. The world however isn't divided in countries: we have done that ourselves at some point. To protect us from evil from outside. As this threat is fading, borders slowly fade too (the process of denationalizing), and we have to start thinking of copyright on a worldwide level. Let's start with Europe. This will prove to be hard enough...

Related trends

• De-nationalizing

Telephone service Skype will soon be available on Sony Playstation, Sony's game console (dc, Dutch). Brands will be available at all media, including radio, TV, or a screen mounted to a shopping cart. Now it involves calling, but soon we will be able to just call the brands by name. Calling out 'Shell'. 'Nike', or 'L'Oreal' will then be enough to start the dialogue. Skype is the first on this kind of screen.

Elsevier magazine makes the digital version of its forerunner, Elsevier's Maandschrift('Elsevier's Monthly Writing, 1891-1940) available online. This magazine mainly covered literature and arts (zb, Dutch). In this step we can see two developments. First: brands, including publishing brands, provide insight in their past more often and in more detail. This is part of the call for authenticity, which in itself is part of the brand coming out. Second, it is a media development: we also completely record the history of our lives on earth. Now by making everything digital. Soon everything will be connected, and we will be able to get digital 3D reconstructions of earlier times, based on written stories and thousands of pictures. Before we get there however, this step has to be taken first.

Related trends

• Brand coming out

The newest version of Dutch real estate website ZoekAlleHuizen (Find All Houses'') shows the houses that have been found immediately on the map, and besides that shows the most important criteria. When you change the criteria, the map is adjusted automatically. Even earlier asking prices for the house are shown (em, Dutch). In the race for the consumer's favor, in 2008 in first instance completeness is important: who has the most houses? (or jobs, insurances, holiday destinations, books, etc). Then the ease of finding becomes important, and after this phase has passed, the relationship becomes most important: what else can you offer the individual consumer once he or she has chosen a house, and wants to buy it, and move into it? This is the foundation home coaching brands can grow out of.

The internet is about to burst:

• The amount of spam e-mails rapidly increases (now already 94 percent of the total e-mail traffic, evl), and correct e-mails get more and bigger attachments. Almost half of all office employees send between five and ten e-mail attachments a day, and 31 percent send ten to twenty attachments a day in e-mails. This accounts for huge pressure on the network.


• The amount of available IP-addresses is ending. As only real solution the new version of IP, IPv6, was developed ten years ago. In the Netherlands, Europe and the US this version hasn't been used very much yet, although China started using it in 2006.


• Energy consumption is earth-rocking. 50 percent of the money spent on computers goes to electricity companies. If we don't take action, this will rise to 71 percent over the coming 4 years, research shows us. These costs will be passed on to consumers.

(based on am, Dutch). Read further to see that it will even be (much) worse than predicted here (although in the end everything will fall in place). .

Orange is the first brand that uses large gesture based screens. In the UK the shop window of the first Orange shop has been equipped with this type of screen. With gesture based screens the display doesn't even need to be touched any more: the screen reacts to (hand)movements we make in front of it. In this application Orange chose for selecting music, dragging the music to a cell phone and then actually playing it. Bystanders are asked for their experience, and from young to old people are very enthusiastic (fc, Dutch).

Thus brands go even further in dialogue. They learn to pick up feedback from people. Not just through text messages, but also by what they say, and how they move. Soon our body language and facial expressions are included. The dialogue then will be supported by the brand agent. And not just in a shop window: our screens at home, and especially the TV, will start reacting to us this way. Thus this development will progress step by step. But this is a great step! See the video below:

Dutch people in 2007 watched less television than in 2006: then a Dutch person watched for an average of 197 minutes per day, in 2007 this decreased to 186.3. The (digital) video recorder won. In 2006 the average viewing time was 0.7 minutes, in 2007 this more than doubled to 1.9 minutes. Per day an average of 7 minutes was spent on watching dvd's in 2006 (mo, Dutch). TV will have to be prepared for hard times. The free consumer doesn't like to have his or her life dictated, not in the physical world and especially not in the virtual world. The digital video recorder is only child's play compared to what will happen when the virtual world transfers to TV. This year we can expect the first breakthroughs in this respect.

iTunes is now offerering movies, starting in the US with 1000 movies, and varies the price per movie. For an existing movie you pay $2.99, for a new movie $3.99 and for an HD movie $4.99 (em, Dutch). We slowly say goodbye to the fixed price. Soon we will pay $0.39 for a very old movie, or $28.00 for a top movie at 3x HD with interactivity. Besides we will get discounts if we buy more often: we get discounts for being loyal customers. Or we will get a free movie every now and then. With that the fixed price, the fixed P from the 5 Marketing P's, will be reduced to something we temporarily knew in the mass production and mass communication era. Step by step we say goodbye to this. And we go back to the time when the grocer recognized you, and every now and then gave you something for free. Back then it was all about relationships, and that is what it will be about in the future again.

Through WatWasWaar (What Was Where'') old maps such as those from the Land Office can now be seen ( dc , Dutch). We map the physical world better and better. Real time: today's reflections, but also through time: in the past (and future). Now still limited to one country, soon worldwide. Now still limited to maps, but soon we will be making 3D reconstructions with millions of photos. And we can once again walk around in whatever place we prefer. This step into the past comes one step closer every day.

In China a 17 year old boy put a class mate on fire because he thought he was a fire magician from World of Warcraft (cb, Dutch). We imitate the physical world so well, that the virtual world looks more and more real. In 10-15 years our virtual experiences will become so real, that we can hardly understand in what world we have what experiences. In the decades after that the virtual world will keep developing, and the experiences will become more real, but we will get an international ban on violence against other people, against animals or against nature. To make it clear: violence in movies then will also be banned, as those are part of the virtual world as well, and movies too will become more and more real. Earlier or later a total ban on violence on a worldwide scale is unstoppable.

The FBI wants to install 150 digital billboards in 20 major U.S. cities to show fugitive mug shots, missing people and high-priority security messages from the big bureau. The billboards will let the FBI highlight those people it is looking for the most: violent criminals, kidnap victims, missing kids, bank robbers, even terrorists. And the billboards will be able to be updated largely in real-time -right after a crime is committed, a child is taken, or an attack is launched (nw). The world as well as organizations are becoming real-time. Soon we will directly see the shots of a burglary on a neighborhood billboard, or the people in the neighborhood will directly get a picture on their phone of the person who now should be within 100 meters. Simply breaking in to someone's house becomes a bigger challenge. We will be guarded with cameras everywhere, and (cameras of) people will have an important role in guaranteeing social safety.

German vacation concept Club Robinson uses a video avatar at its website. She shortly tells us in spoken words how the site is built up, and thereby moves over the site to point out several elements (hw, Dutch). Now this is still done with prerecorded video, in the future we will be able to ask all kinds of questions, also through speech. We then don't use the navigation any more, but have the lady explain everything to us. Before we will get there though, we will have to keep working on understanding questions, on understanding the dialogue.

A new device featuring GPS, made by Satski, follows your routes at the ski slopes, guards the trip you planned upfront, and gives information about the restaurants on the way. You can also see how many miles you have traveled, what top speed you reached, and you can print the road you have traveled. You can save this, and compare it with other athletes (vo, Dutch). Thus sport coaching brands slowly evolve. Now connected to a device, in the future also available through all kinds of screens, like our mobile phones among others. Now it measures the results after the achievement has been made, in the future it will give you real time tips when you're going down the slopes: bend your knees a little bit more, now 'carve', put your hand on your side, etc. Our ski coach then always accompanies us.

At MyCyberTwin people can make their own digital replica. After a short profile 79 questions follow, psychologically sound, which determine your CyberTwin's character. You then can have your CyberTwin represent you in various way. I just created CyberErwin. Thus your CyberTwin can chat with people through the website, but it can also log in under your account name in Windows Live Messenger. It even is possible (but you have to pay for it) to have your digital self appear in Second Life. (a href="http://www.fan.tv/digitaal/toontext.asp?id=18835" title="ft">ft, Dutch).

We might find it strange, but in the future we will have ourselves represented by virtual personalities more and more. We have been used to voice mail for a long time: a standard message you recorded yourself, which is repeated. Everyone gets the same message, be they English, German, or Dutch, but we can live with that inconvenience. The Out-Of-Office messages in Outlook belong to the same category. While with this type of chatbots we can make a step forwards, and have frequently asked questions answered automatically. After all, it is quite irritating to have to keep repeating the answer to the same question over and over again. This inconvenience will slowly disappear. And this step marks the careful start.

Amazon.com introduced its own e-paper reader: the Kindle. This device contains so-called e-paper: electronic paper that can be rolled up and doesn't use energy once the page has been loaded. Books can be imported from Amazon.com. Now it still is a technical device in black-and-white, but Philips in the mean time has shown a color version. For the time being it is mainly a toy-for-boys, but once it gets out of its hard shell, and can be taken in any writing pad, in any beach bag, in any inside pocket, then the reading experience will get a totally new dimension.

US researchers at the University of Virginia say the use of a localized magnetic field can reduce swelling after an inflammatory injury. Thomas Skalak, a professor of biomedical engineering, and graduate student Cassandra Morris found that application of an acute, localized static magnetic field of moderate strength can result in significant reduction of swelling when applied immediately after tissue trauma. The findings were published in the American Journal of Physiology. (up)

Much of the knowledge humans have gathered over thousands of years, like the healing power of magnetic fields, will be recognized over the years to come. We are getting better in understanding the non-tangible (non-atomic) nature, and prove these understandings scientifically. This will dramatically change the way we (at least the western world) treat health issues.