The Near-Futurist: Recent Episodes
Guy Clapperton
Fortnightly look at the impact of future technologies on our lives - what can we do now to prepare for the next few years? Senior journalist Guy Clapperton presents a series of interviews with consultants, technologists and future thinkers in general that takes the shorter-term view rather than forecasting decades ahead.
Near futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton concludes his chat with Name.com's product engineering lead Katie Wokasch (and finishes off this series of the Near Futurist!) continuing the discussion on vibe coding; when do you need an engineer and indeed why do you need an engineer at all if the code is written for you? And if an app can be made so easily to what extent is it part of your business?
Good news - if you need an app or website for your business you no longer need to understand coding as you used to. There's this thing called Vibe Coding which enables you to ask AI to code it for you but there are gotchas. In this episode Guy Clapperton talks to Katie Wokasch, product engineering lead at Name.com, where this leaves us.
In this second part of the interview between Near Futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton and Plate-up co-founder and marketing director Jade de Thorpe, we continue to consider vibe coding and AI but also look at customer trust - and what sort of advice de Thorp would give others thinking of starting a business using this sort of technology. Should you wait until your offering is perfect?
In this series of the Near Futurist we've looked at some pretty grand stuff but technology is also good for the smaller things in life. This time we talk to Jade de Thorpe, marketing director of Plate-Up, about how something as simple as meal planning can be kickstarted with AI and Vibe Coding (more on vibe coding in a couple of weeks!)
Tropical rainforest damage, supply chain delays - so muck damage happens to the environment and we basically stand by and watch it. A company called Another Earth wants to do something more active and is developing synthetic data on our planet to support AI forecasting - co-founder and CEO Maya Pindeus explains to Near Futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton why this is important.
Tropical rainforest damage, supply chain delays - so muck damage happens to the environment and we basically stand by and watch it. A company called Another Earth wants to do something more active and is developing synthetic data on our planet to support AI forecasting - co-founder and CEO Maya Pindeus explains to Near Futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton why this is important.
Continuing the discussion with IOWN Global Forum with its technology director Dr. Masahisa Kawashima on why photonic networks are going to be important in the next few years. In this episode he explores more about the elimination of the need for personal computing and smartphones, how this will be good for the environment and of course the skill sets that will be required to put this into effect. Guy Clapperton is the interviewee as always.
If you're as old as Near Futurist Guy Clapperton you'll remember dial-up networks while everything in the office was connected by cable; now we have wireless networks almost ubiquitously, having seen copper, ISDN and now fibre underpinnings. But wait for it - there's a new standard in the offing. In this episode we offer the first part of a chat with Dr. Masahisa Kawashima, technology durector of IOWN Global Forum - a cross-industry group of 170 organisations working on photonic networking. Listen to find out why this is going to be important.
The concluding part of Guy Clapperton's interview with Emilee Tellez, field CTO of Veeam. How organised are hackers these days, how "professional" have they become - and how can someone follow Emilee herself in starting off in sales and ending up on the board as a technologist?
The Near Futurist remains on a security theme as Guy Clapperton explores best practice with EmileeTellez, field CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of Veeam in the first part of this interview. Why do board members so often think their tech is safe while the actual IT staff are panicking - and why, even now, are so few of the tech staff women?
The second part of Guy Clapperton's interview with Glen Williams, CEO of security specialist Cyberfort. This time we explore certifications and what you need to be aware of when engaging a security specialist; also why a certificate is a snapshot rather than a guarantee.
Tech security has gone way beyond basic antivirus protection - in this next interview spanning two weeks, Guy Clapperton talks to Glen Williams, CEO of Cyberfort, about how the threat is evolving and what really hasn't changed.
Guy Clapperton concludes his conversation with Lawrence Rosenberg of Rosenberg.media about the future of public relations and communications - where AI is going to fit and more importantly why the human factor is going to be more important than ever. Also covered: ageism and false positives.
The fifth series of the Near Futurist kicks off with an interview with Lawrence Rosenberg. Fresh from his run on this years's "The Apprentice" he is setting up his own PR company, Rosenberg.media, and he has ideas on where the industry should be going.
Continuing Near Futurist Guy Clapperton's discussion with Manoj Chawla, inventor of the Studiobox - in part 2 we look at the practicality and ease of use of the device which aims to repair eye contact and improve communications and human contact over video channels.
To watch us discuss this on video have a look here:
https://youtu.be/Zbu0aUNeDwk
Above is a pic of the Studiobox itself:
We're so used to video calls now that we hardly notice how naff they are. No eye contact, people looking around the room - whatever happened to human contact? A phone call is often better.
Technology industry veteran Manoj Chawla has been looking into what's gone wrong and has a potential solution in his device called the Studiobox. Near Futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton has been playing with it. so they have a chat.
And of course what would be the point if they didn't put it on video? You can watch rather than listen to this episode here: https://youtu.be/v-yABH82zAE
Continuing the conversation between Near Futurist Guy Clapperton and TomTom's global business manager for traffic, Douglas Gilmour. We finish the conversation by discussing increasingly smart and collaborative map projects and how they're going to affect our daily lives.
We all take satellite navigation for granted but maybe we shouldn't - it's finding its way into smart cities, fleet management, delivery and huge amounts of other areas. In this interview Near Futurist Guy Clapperton speaks to Douglas Gilmour, global develpment manager for traffic at TomTom to about how increasingly smart maps are making a huge difference to us. https://tomtom.com
In part two of this interview, Ten10 co-founder Ash Gawthorp continues his conversation with Guy Clapperton about the impact of sudden innovation in artificial intelligence on people and learning. They cover company culture and the ability to fail, learning patterns, how to avoid burnout - and the impact of sudden technological change on smaller organisations.
Find out more about Ten10 at https://ten10.com
Artificial Intelligence has been hitting the news even more than usual as Chinese company Deep Seek has turned the market upside down, hitting numerous businesses dependent on the complexity of building AI where it hurts - in the share price. But what about the people using and developing skills in AI?
In this episode, Near Futurist podcaster and speaker Guy Clapperton speaks to Ash Gawthorp, chief academy officer and co-founder of consultancy and education company Ten10, about what sort of learning culture needs to be in place for businesses to be ready for this and future sudden sea-changes.
In this second part of the interview with Dimitra Simeonidou of Joiner, the academic project to explore what's coming next in 6G and beyond, Guy Clapperton asks about when to upgrade our devices, what the role of academia is in all this - and gets advised not to try to trademark the term "7G".
Which is a shame. More on the work of Prof. Simeonidou here.
You thought the conspiracy theories over 5G were bad but had stopped - well, we can only hope it won't all happen again because, wait for it, plans for 6G are afoot. Surely, asks Near Futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton. we don't need it, isn't 5G fast enough? That's until our guest, Prof. Dimitra Simeonidou, head of the UK 6G Testbed, called Joiner (website https://www.bristol.ac.uk/research/groups/smart/projects/joiner/), reminds him that 5G signals tend to fail immediately you get on a two hour train journey or something. She also explores how the metaverse might actually happen but with a more "real" experience than you'd get from modern networks as well as the role of satellite technology.
Tune in here for part 1 of this absorbing interview - part 2 will be here next week.
In the second part of this interview with Smartrectuiters CEO Rebecca Carr, near futurist Guy Clapperton explores the advantages of using artificial intelligence for recruitment. AI isn't the whole answer - but it's going to offer a lot of shortcuts!
Should we be worried about AI in terms of job seeking? Rebecca Carr is a specialist who sees pros and cons. She speaks to Near Futurist Guy Clapperton in. part 1 of this interview.
We keep hearing that we're too stressed because we're always on and we spend too much time in front of screens. No argument there but technology can also help. Dr. Emilia Molimpakis of Thymia explains to Guy Clapperton that monitoring of employees in an anonymised, non-intrusive manner can expose all sorts of behaviours that indicate someone is heading for a crash. But to what extent should employers be monitoring people in this way in the first place - and what should they do with the information?
Listen to this episode to find out!
So many myths about selling electricity between neighbours and yet it never seems to happen - meanwhile the cost of living is set to continue skyrocketing this year. Near Futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton speaks to Jo-Jo Hubbard, CEO of Electron, about how the infrastructure and business models are coming around to enable people to trade electricity with each other at last.
Noise cancelling headphones work by adding noise. What's more, if you measure the annoyance of someone when a contact centre agent asks them to repeat their contact information more than once, it gets disproportionately high.
This matters when it can all be a matter of fixing the audio engagement. In this edition of the Near Futurist, IRIS Technology CEO Jacobi Anstruther explains the issues to Guy Clapperton - and looks into why the music industry still hasn't quite taken it in.
Find out more about IRIS at iris.audio
Shopping is changing - we're abandoning cash almost without realising it and you can walk out of an Amazon Go store feeling as if you haven't paid at all. In this edition of the Near Futurist Guy Clapperton speaks to Charlie Hope, retail principal at IT services company BJSS, about what his retail clients are asking - and therefore what we can espect next! Also Guy looks at the Logi Dock to tidy his desktop environment.
Find out more about BJSS at BJSS.com and the Logi Dock here.
And if you wanted to find out more about Guy's media training service you can find the website here.
We are all making too much rubbish and it's going to landfill. This is generally agreed to be a bad ikdea - so of course we still do it. Chris Williams of ISB Global thinks this is an extremely bad idea and he's prepared to talk about why.
His company offers a software solution to managing the disposal of what would otherwise become landfill but he also has some ideas about the sort of things we could all be doing to reduce waste - as well as explanations as to why waste is a bad idea in the first place.
He speaks to Guy Clapperton, near futurist podcaster - and Guy also has a look at some of the note taking devices he uses in the new gadget slot.
What's that? There's another social network out there? There certainly is and we don't mean Threads. Guy talks to Sue Fennessy, founder and chief executive of WeAre8, which aims to restore value to the participant (or "citizen" as it calls them), enable them to donate to charities and stop using hateful messages.
Also Guy's thoughts on the Amazon Kindle Scribe - the e-reader that also works as a note taking gadget.
Your car isn't just your vehicle any more, says Yasmine King of ADI - it's your workplace in some cases and not in others. You also need a quieter environment for your mental health and the fact that electronic vehicles are silent makes this more difficult, not easier, because of the background noise.
MeanwhileOlivier Bessi of Star Global has been grappling with in-car payments. Both speak to me, Guy Clapperton, in this latest episode of the Near Futurist podcast.
We've all heard of the metaverse by now - but is it a "thing" or a marketing construct? There are no holds barred in this Dividing Lines debate, the series in the Near Futurist sponsored (but never dictated) by Diffusion PR. Futurist.com supremo Nikolas Badminton takes on Based.AF head honcho Robin Schmidt as they consider whether it's more than immersive VR, whether Damien Hirst should have burned his pictures and whether host Guy Clapperton can afford to not buy the NFT of the original lyrics to "Hey Jude".
If you enjoy the show please do leave a review on the iTunes store or wherever you came across it!
Received wisdom suggests that we're all going to work flexibly and it's going to be great. Winter is coming, however - so will we scurry back to the office to stay warm or do the figures still add up? And what if we suggest that home working is actually less productive than office working anyway? It's a polarising debate but in this episode of Dividing Lines, a series-within-a-series from the Near Futurist supported by Diffusion PR, the positions are nuanced. The University of Essex' Christoph Siemroth and BT's Nicola Millard debate, chaired by me, Guy Clapperton.
The paper referred to by Christoph is here:
https://bfi.uchicago.edu/insight/finding/work-from-home-productivity-evidence-from-personnel-analytics-data-on-it-professionals/
Dr. Carol Nakhle of the University of Surrey and Robin Peters of Snugg Energy discuss the energy crisis with near futurist Guy Clapperton:
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Is the increase in pricing a useful tool to dampen demand?
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How long will payback take if people invest in their homes?
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Are the high prices prompting the right action?
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What practical steps can we take early on?
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What's the view on energy from non-Western countries?
In association with Diffusion PR
A preview of Friday's Near Futurist interview:
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Dr. Carol Nakhle of Surrey University and Robin Peters of Snugg debate
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Is the dice loaded against us reaching Net Zero? Should fuel prices be part of the plan?
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What are the obstacles, like payback times?
Education was doomed and schools would universally suffer as a result of the pandemic, we were told. It's certainly changed stuff. but has the disaster rteally happened and what part has technology played?
Alexa Joyce of Microsoft discusses with Guy Clapperton.
If you enjoy this or would like to feed back/suggest future guests why not join the LinkedIn group?
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Also the podcast has its own website at nearfuturist.co.uk - and if you liked it, it would be really helpful to leave a review on whichever platform you found it - thank you! - GC
We all have a lot of information about our bodies - we might own smartwatches or phones that count our paces or measure our pulse rate, we may have a blood pressure monitoring machine and there are apps and devices to help with diabetes.
Is it all too much, though? Has self-diagnosis gone too far? In this debate I speak to Dr. Gigi Taguri of LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor and Hamish Grierson of Thriva about whether we have too much data and when we need to get advice from a human.
The Near Futurist now has a LinkedIn group you'd be welcome to join - and if you like what you hear why not leave a review wherever you downloaded it?
Lab-grown meat or factory-made fillets - is the future of meat away from the farm? Daan Luining of Meatable thinks the balance could change while Tim Bonner of the Countryside Alliance in the UK thinks otherwise. Guy Clapperton presents the latest in the Dividing Lines mini-series within the Near Futurist podcast, sponsored by Diffusion PR.
If you enjoy the Near Futurist why not leave a review on the iTunes Store - or join the LinkedIn group? Just search for Near Futurist Podcast, see you there!
Lab-grown meat or factory-made fillets - is the future of meat away from the farm? Daan Luining of Meatable thinks the balance ay change while while Tim Bonner of the Countryside Alliance in the UK thinks otherwise. Guy Clapperton presents the latest in the Dividing Lines mini-series within the Near Futurist podcast, sponsored by Diffusion PR.
If you enjoy the Near Futurist why not leave a review on the iTunes Store - or join the LinkedIn group? Just search for Near Futurist Podcast, see you there!
It's been an exciting 12 months for astronomy enthusiasts - Jeff Bezos actually took Captain Kirk to outer space! But in the past we've jettisoned a lot of parts of our spacecraft, so how much junk is there out there? And is it a problem?
Prof. Moriba Jah of the University of Texas and Privateer is tracking the issue and discusses how it's become difficult and why it matters.
See his image of all the space junk at astria.tacc.utexas.edu/AstriaGraph/
If you like what you hear, why not leave a review on the iTunes Store or wherever you picked this podcast up? Also you'd be welcome to join its new LinkedIn group:
(99+) The Near Futurist podcast | Groups | LinkedIn
We've all heard about the Great Resignation and in this episode of the Near Futurist, Vodafone's chief HR officer Leanne Wood tells Guy Clapperton there is culture as well as technology in play.
If you like what you hear, why not leave us a review on the iTunes Store or wherever you found us?
We've all heard about the Great Resignation and in this episode of the Near Futurist, Vodafone's chief HR officer Leanne Wood tells Guy Clapperton there is culture as well as technology in play.
If you like what you hear, why not leave us a review on the iTunes Store or wherever you found us?
Graphene used to be a theoretical thing but nobody was sure they could extract it - now it has the potential to change the way we make and keep clothes, engineer flights and even build houses. Neil Ricketts, chief executive officer of graphene specialist Versarien, talks to Guy Clapperton.
If you like what you hear why not leave a review?
A lot of people advocate getting back to nature as the way to preserve the Earth but they may be wrong. Geo-engineering, in which we intervene artificially, may be more sustainable. Near Futurist Guy Clapperton asks visiting associate professor at Columbia Business School, climate economist, academic, and author Gernot Wagner and assistant professor of environment and sustainability at the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, New York, Holly Jean Buck, for their perspectives.
This is part of the Dividing Lines mini-series of Near Futurist podcasts sponsored by Diffusion PR.
As the Cop26 conference convenes in Glasgow we are aware we'll have to make changes and flying remains a major carbon polluter. This may be about to change, however, and in this Dividing Lines debate, sponsored by Diffusion PR, Guy Clapperton speaks to Tom Grundy of Hybrid Air Vehicles and Cristina Garcia-Duffy of the Aerospace Technology Institute about alternative technologies for freight, military and carrying people from A to B.
If you like what you hear why not leave a review on iTunes or wherever you found it?
And if you're one of the literally thousands of people who've listened to the podcast for the first time since the middle of October, welcome and thank you!
Suppose a pair of trainers could not only assure you they were genuine but enable you to sell them back to the manufacturer for remaking so someone else could have them? The process starts with smarter labelling - Guy Clapperton speaks to Max Winograd, VP of connected products for Avery Dennison.
Like what you hear? Leave a review! Thank you.
Vertical farming - put your crops into a high rise building, maybe based on hydroponics so they take up less space and you control the climate. Is this the way forward to eliminate poverty? Neither of our guests think it's that simple. In this podcast Angry Chef blogger Anthony Warner debates Agritecture CEO Henry Gordon-Smith about what's going to work and what's not. Guy Clapperton chairs in this debate in the Dividing Lines series, sponsored by Diffusion PR.
If you enjoy this show, why not put a review wherever you found it?
The Coca-Cola song from the 1970s, the Bond theme, Windows start-up, Apple switch-on - we're surrounded by aural branding as well as logos and visual cues. Michele Arnese, CEO of amp, talks us through what's going on.
The show starts off with an explanation of an error I made during the interview - with apologies!
New to the Near Futurist - a mini-series of debates sponsored by Diffusion PR. In this episode Vinay Nair of Lightful returns to speak to Guillaume Bouchard of CheckStep - are we better off fighting misinformation through algorithms and AI or should we take the grass roots approach and look to people?
Guy Clapperton interviews Helena Schwenk of Exasol on how the "D-native" generation doesn't necessarily think it's as fluent as all that in data - and the impact this will have on society and business.
If you like what you're hearing why not leave a review wherever you found this edition - and if you wanted to read it rather than listen, check the transcript at https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/nearfuturist/Young_people_and_data_Near_Futurist_transcript.pdf
Lockdown has prompted unhealthy behaviours in a lot of us and we're putting on weight. One unlooked-for effect of all this is diabetes, and Cyndi Williams of Quin has an app to help. She tells Guy Clapperton about this and how misunderstood diabetes is in this 21 minute podcast.
Hearing issues? Here's a transcript:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/nearfuturist/Cyndi_Williams_of_Quin_on_the_Near_Futurist_podcast.pdf
If you like what you hear do please leave a review wherever you downloaded it. Thank you!
We all use elevators but did you know that the maintenance charge can be invoked even when they haven't moved? Augustin Celier of Uptime believes it's time for a new model.
Dr. Merritt Moore is a bit of a renaissance woman in that she is a professional ballet dancer with a doctorate in physics and a qualified astronaut.
She has a lot to say about the divide between arts and scientists in this episode in which she speaks to Guy Clapperton
Live sport is on the way back and it's going to be soon but we all want stadiums to be safe. Mike Elliot, CEO of Over-C, explains how the answer may lie in the Internet of Things.
Find out more about presenter Guy Clapperton at clappertonmediaassociates.com - oh go on, he spent $3 on that football crowd sound effect just for you...
Vicky Brock of cyber-safety specialist Vistalworks could see her international government clients becoming unable to buy from her after Brexit - so she started looking around and ended up with a virtual residency in Estonia. She talks Guy Clapperton through the process and how it's helped her business and clients.
If you like this podcast why not leave a review wherever you get your podcasts from?
Vaccine hesitancy is a major problem among certain minorities and the answer lies not exclusively in old-fashioned campaigns but in the digital world where the misinformation begins. Vinay Nair of Lightful talks ton ear futurist Guy Clapperton.
We've been promised these for ages and now at last they're going to arrive - Patrick Hessel of Airmobil explains how he's bringing the flying car to the market, when it will be available and (you'd better sit down for this bit) how much it will cost.
For more info about the presenter Guy Clapperton check clappertonmediiaassociates.com
What if you could actually fool the person trying to hack into your system that they were somewhere they wanted to be, when they're not? What if you could understand that sentence at first glance? Carolyn Crandall of Attivo Networks looks at what can be achieved against hackers that are already in the system.
If you enjoy this podcast why not leave a review where you found it? Thank you!
Data collection is going to do everything from monitor your refrigerator to cleaning the river Ganges. Michael Sack, chief executive of Teracode, explains the difference the Internet of Things can make.
Home working is not so much mainstream as compulsory but it may not be as secure as a lot of people hope. Mike Wood of Versa Networks discusses the issues with Near Futurist Guy Clapperton.
If you like what you hear, why not review it wherever you get your podcasts from?
It's 2021 so sometime this year, surely, we'll be able to return to our offices safely. Hold on though - Kristine Dahl Steidel, VP of VMware, has research that says people don't actually want to go back.
She discusses findings and motivations with #nearfuturist Guy Clapperton and considers the shape of the workforce from now on.
2020 is done, dusted and can close the door on its way out, it won't be missed. But as we look forward to vaccines and a gradual return to normality it's worth taking stock of where your data is stored, who has it and what they're using it for. Chris Strand of Intsights talks Near Futurist Guy Clapperton through some of the issues.
And a happy New Year to our listeners - we saw huge growth in 2020, welcome aboard and let's see where 2021 takes us!
Anders Kohn of Aula speaks to Guy Clapperton about how students need more interactivity in their lectures, particularly in the online world. It's not about a generation gap, however - he discusses learnings from Facebook, Slack and how the changes had been coming anyway.
This fortnightly podcast will now take a break until the New Year as the next one would otherwise be in the week before Christmas and nobody wants that! Have a great time, weird year that it's been, and I hope everyone comes back rested and refreshed.
We've been working from home for months and there is more of it to come. Just to cheer us up even more Chris Morales, head of security analytics for Vectra, says a load of our commonly-used apps may be insecure.
He offers tips on what to do about this and they're not difficult.
If you like what you hear in this episode, why not leave a review on your favoured podcast platform?
Coronavirus has changed many things, one of which is that business and public sector have had to think "digital first". Returning guest Galina Antova, co-founder of Claroty, discusses how organisations coped depending on whether they were already thinking in those terms or suddenly had it forced on them.
Antova is actually the first guest to come back for more on this podcast - which is as good a way as any to mark the fact that it's just turned two years old! Thank you for tuning in.
Where are we with sustainable energy and how can we improve? James Kirk, CTO of ENSEK, talks figures, sustainability and data with near futurist Guy Clapperton.
Thank you for listening.
Author Kate Baucherel discusses her new book, Blockchain Hurricane, along with banking, durian fruit and science fiction writing with Near Futurist presenter Guy Clapperton.
If you like what you hear on this podcast why not leave a review wherever you pick it up from? And if you already have, thank you for taking the time!
Drones are here already and there are going to be a lot more of them, very quickly. In this episode I speak to Amit Ganjoo, founder and CEO of drone management company ANRA Technology about the practicalities of having loads of vehicles in the air.
If you like what you hear and you would like to sponsor an edition of the Near Futurist, contact me - Guy@Clapperton.co.uk, I'll look forward to hearing from you.
A short while ago automated consultations with doctors were conducted over Skype and used video, but this doesn't solve the problem. Dr. Murray Ellender of eConsult explains to Guy Clapperton why the format needs to change - and looks to adopt a new model for sustainability.
Note to non-British listeners: "GP" or "General Practitioner" is what we call a family doctor in the UK; NHS is a common abbreviation for National Health Service, the state-run health service in the UK. If anything else isn't clear to you in this podcast, it's my fault!
It helps with epilepsy and arthritis, Portugal and California have noted no upticks in crime rate since liberalisation - so is it time to look again at marijuana as a medicine? I speak to Dr. Charlie Easmon of Harley Street about where the controversies are and how we're likely to move forward.
If you like what you hear on the #nearfuturist podcast, why not leave a review on the iTunes store or wherever you get your podcasts from? (And if you already have, thank you!)
Lockdown is increasingly eased and the exhibition and event industry wants to come back. Its clients are mad keen to get on with it too - but will people want to come back and rub shoulders with...actually, just rub shoulders? James Tucker, chief operating officer of events company GovNet, tells this episode of the #nearfuturist about how events are going virtual, blended, hybrid...
If you like what you hear, why not leave a review on the iTunes store?
The shops, pubs and cinemas are back albeit in altered forms and they need our money - which we also need because so many households have less than £1500 in savings. Good luck with that if your boiler breaks down. In this episode of the #nearfuturist I speak to Kathryn Wright of Upside Saving about how apps and open banking can help.
The Near Futurist has been gaining listeners during lockdown. If you're new, you're very welcome - and if you're not new, you're also very welcome. Thank you.
In case you've been hiding, shopping is back for non-essential goods BUT not everyone wants to go. So what are the options for the shopper who wants to make a considered purchase so just a click on a website won't do? In this episode I speak to Aman Khurana, co-founder of Go Instore, about how technology can play its part.
This podcast has been hitting higher numbers than ever during the lockdown period. If you're one of the new listeners, welcome! (Existing listeners welcome too, just thanks everyone).
Carbon footprints are an issue and have gone down during lockdown, so how do we continue to reduce them as we emerge? Near futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton talks to Siemens' Faye Bowser about what her company has done, what it advises its large clients and what smaller companies can do.
Hearing aids can be stigmatised because they're associated with growing old - meanwhile the effects of hearing isolation on mental health can be profound. In this episode of the Near Futurist podcast I speak to Nick Hunn, chair of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, about moves to combine hearing aids with earbuds and turn them into something fun.
You can buy glasses as a fashion statement when their core function is to help your eyes - why should something to help your ears be any different?
Many schools in the UK were back this week but only for certain year groups. In this Near Futurist podcast Guy Clapperton talks to Quizlet's UK Country Manager Rahim Hirji about his own experience teaching his kids at home and how some technology, including his company's own, is going to help.
With everybody under lockdown and entire households simultaneously on Zoom and Netflix, to say nothing of the business sector, you could be forgiven for expecting the Internet to slow down and collapse under the weight. It hasn't. In this podcast Near Futurist Guy Clapperton chats to Angie Mistretta, CMO at AppDynamics, about what's gone right and what businesses and individuals need to do to keep going.
Nobody is kidding themselves that the retail market is going to be the same when Lockdown has stopped - names will vanish, already-squeezed margins will shrink. This is why retail consultant Meredith O'Shaughnessy thinks shops will have to focus on experience rather than shifting items - she tells near futurist Guy Clapperton more.
A slightly earlier release than normal as our usual Friday would clash with a bank holiday.
Sexting, grooming, bullying - we all know what can happen to our children online and we hate it. In this edition, Neil Fairbrother of the SafeToNet Foundation talks Guy Clapperton through some of the practical steps people can take if they are concerned about their kids' security online and outlines the changes coming up in the legislation.
Obviously everyone is isolated and technology is helping with the educational needs of the young. However, in this episode of the Near Futurist podcast, Sparx CEO Dan Sandhu tells Guy Clapperton that once people understand all of the possibilities being opened up, they won't want to go back to old fashioned learning.
He's not an #AI geek, he isn't advocating scrapping the classrooms. Instead he calls for an evidence-based approach and is determined to do something practical about it. Listen to the episode for more.
Near Futurist Guy Clapperton speaks to London Dynamics founder and ex Ikea AR expert Michael Valdsgaard about how we're going to be buying our furniture and other items in the near future - and the good news is that you don't have to go out.
Near Futurist Guy Clapperton interviews Etay Maor, chief tehnology officer of security specialist IntSights. They explore mistakes people make but Maor also identifies a number of common errors that aren't commonly reported - for example, how often do you remember to change passwords but still have all the 'reset' routines aimed at your gmail account?
Some excellent insights here if you'll pardon the pun. If you like what you hear, why not leave a review on the iTunes website?
Why do organisations treat learning tasks as if they were still at school? This isn't the best way to assimilate skills, believes Steve Dineen, head of Fuse Universal. He talks us through experiential learning, why video can just repeat the mistakes we make on audio and a great deal else in this conversation with Near Futurist Guy Clapperton.
If you like waht you hear, why not leave a review on the iTunes Store?
In the early nineties Bill Gates wrote that we'd all be working remotely from home because of the Information Superhighway, and yet tech companies at least still cluster together. In this episode, Near Futurist Guy Clapperton speaks to Ben Brabyn, chief executive and investor advisor of Canary Wharf's huge technology hub, Level 39 in One Canada Square, about why this should be - and the conversation moves on to just what sort of leaders we want and need in the technology world.
There is a perception out there that artificial intelligence is ethically neutral - but can it be? Kyle Dent of PARC thinks not and he is involved in the company's ethics committee as a result, and he wants to help the AI industry overall. He tells near futurist Guy Clapperton about it.
One of my favourite games when speaking at conferences is to get people to realise they've all but stopped using cash. Which is fine and neutral - unless you're one of the people without a bank account, or dependent on tips. Payment specialist Silvia Mensdorff-Pouilly (or just Silvia Mensdorff on some social media), general manager of ACI, feels that if cash is no longer king then contactless has to be kind - and inclusive. She discusses this with near futurist Guy Clapperton in this first episode of 2020.
As always if you like what you hear on this podcast, please leave a review somewhere - and if you're one of those who've done so, thank you!
Customer experience is key in retail - and a lot of it is about technology these days, says Jacyn Heavens, founder of Epos Now in this interview with Near Futurist Guy Clapperton. It's decades since we were assured the Internet would level the proverbial playing field and allow smaller players to compete with big business - is it finally happening?
This 22 minute show is the last Near Futurist podcast of the year. If you've been part of growing it from 200-odd diehard listeners in January to the 3500 who listened to it in November, thank you! It will return on 10 January.
People are buying from people again given the chance and customer service and customer experience - that's CX to the professionals - is leaving technology behind. That's if you can afford it. Virna Sekuj of research organisation GlobalWebIndex speaks to #nearfuturist Guy Clapperton to discuss why people are coming back to the centre at a cost, where privacy is going a, why we're becoming cashless nd a great deal more.
A 20 minute podcast, and the penultimate episode of the year!
If you like what you hear, feel free to leave a review. Thank you!
www.nearfuturist.net
Near Futurist Guy Clapperton talks to Bernd Greifeneder, founder of Dynatrace, on the nature of artificial intelligence - what do we mean by it, what should we mean and how many businesses or public sector entities actually ask for it?
Greifeneder also has reservations connected to AI's use in airports, in autonomous vehicles and elsewhere. Even as a practitioner, he has serious misgivings which he discusses openly in this latest edition.
Have you enjoyed the Near Futurist? It would be great if you could rate it or review it wherever you download from - it will help add to the thousands who already listen. Thank you!
The #nearfuturist podcast is a year old this week! But is that who it sounds like congratulating us at the beginning of this episode? Guy Clapperton talks to Matthew Aylett of Cereproc, who finally comes clean about where the name came from but more importantly talks identity, identity theft and how the voice control market is in danger of leaving people behind.
Synthesised voices are in use for many applications including late night radio presenters and airport announcers, and of course there are medical applications if someone is likely to lose the ability to speak permanently. But what are the downsides?
I hope you'll enjoy this episode - and whether you've been with me throughout my first year or just joining me for this one, welcome! If you like what you hear, why not leave a review on the iTunes Store or wherever you get your podcasts from?
Smart Cities are becoming a thing, and Simon Kenny of Hoptroff believes he knows what will make them work - super-accurate timing.
But there will also be massive data storage and who's going to pay for that - and what will they want in return? Guy Clapperton discusses the ethical as well as technical issues in this 20 minute programme.
Nation states may be attacking our water supplies and other basic utilities but there are steps we can take. Galina Antova, co-founder of Claroty, talks near futurist Guy Clapperton through the issues.
And yes, she does clarify how certain she is when accusing nation states of crimes!
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Do you own a business and base its value on your intellectual property? This may be a bad move if Ross Mason of MuleSoft is right in his conversation with Near Futurist Guy Clapperton. He sees a future in which we build value from components and from data.
He also looks into AI and ethics and is cautious about the effect it's all having on the world - politics, elections, everything, and it's being left to the tech companies to police themselves.
If you enjoy what you hear, please feel free to leave a review on the iTunes Store or wherever you download from.
The producer has a new computer and there's something odd about the sound setup - don't adjust your own system, the slight distortion is an effect at this end.
Can you be humble but confident? Ambitious but human? Alison Maitland of Lane4 thinks it's going to be essential in the next evolution of management thinking. She talks to Near Futurist Guy Clapperton about where management thinking is going and why she thinks this - and why it's not just another passing fad (which was of course one of the things I asked).
And yes thanks, I had a very nice month off - back to the usual fortnightly schedule now!
If you like this show please recommend it to friends and visit the website at nearfuturist.net
The robots are coming and they will make low-grade, tedious jobs redundant, that's a given by now. Guy Clapperton's interviewees this week, James Ewing of Digital Workforce and Oleg Rogynsky of People.ai, welcome the prospect - but they are concerned there needs to be regulations and at this stage the nearest we have come from Isaac Asimov (which is fine and people keep quoting it but as Guy points out, that's actually a work of fiction).
This episode looks at ethics, regulation and just how intelligent robotic process automation (RPA) is becoming.
If you enjoy the episode, please do leave a review somewhere - and please note I'm taking a summer break like the rest of the world, the Near Futurist podcast will return on 30 August.
It's 50 years ago this week that Neil Armstrong first stepped out of Apollo 11 and onto the moon's surface, followed by Buzz Aldrin (and don't you feel sorry for Michael Collins, who had to stay in the capsule for the duration). Cooped up, uncomfortable - and of course we're still travelling in space, to the International Space Station and back.
So who looks after the comfort of the modern astronauts, how do they get the data and how do they process it? Near Futurist Guy Clapperton had a chat with David Meza, knowledge architect at NASA, about how the process of gradual learning and improvement works.
Like the show? Why not leave a review wherever you pick it up from, or have a look at the website at nearfuturist.co.uk to subscribe or pick up more episodes?
The Near Futurist was recently listed in the Top 10 Futurist Podcasts - my thanks to Anuj and the team for its inclusion.
Have you heard the one about the toothbrush that uses artificial intelligence to tell you to brush harder? Morey Haber of BeyondTrust has and it annoys him intensely. He's seen a company sued because it claimed basic pattern recognition was AI and it just wasn't - and he's had enough.
In this episode of the Near Futurist, he explains his view to Guy Clapperton - and how marketers calling everything AI are ultimately over-valuing their companies and their assets, against everyone's interests but their own.Near
The weird thing about crypto currencies like Bitcoin is that although some people will sell them to you, you can't actually spend them. Which is an odd sort of currency when you think about it. That may be about to change though, or so thinks Austin Kimm, chief operating officer of Crypterium; he has a particular angle on the topic but talks through why there needs to be crypto currency, how it's a leveller and just who doesn't like it.
Please do leave a review or rating wherever you downloaded this item if you like it - thank you!
OK, look, it's not the Near Futurist Guy Clapperton who ends up referencing Skynet and the Terminator in this episode - it's Oliver Tavakoli, a serial executive who is currently CTO of Vectra. In this far-ranging interview he outlines the basics of artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, machine learning and deep learning - and also looks at where it's all going. We're not asking all the right questions about this - OK, we talk about eliminating boring jobs but what if one of those happens to be your livelihood?
Half an hour of thought-provoking dialogue with me, Guy Clapperton, and Oliver Tavakoli. If you enjoy it please do leave a review wherever you download from - and if you're one of the people who've rated the podcast on iTunes and contributed towards its 4.8/5 rating, thank you!
Do you own the computer, phone or tablet on which you're listening to this podcast? How about your house, your car? You may not do so for long. Tien Tzuo, ex-Salesforce.com and founder of Zuora, has written books on why the subscription economy is on the way. In this episode of the Near Futurist he takes time out to talk to Guy Clapperton about what's changing, why - and why making 90% fewer cars really isn't a disaster for the motor industry.
If you like what you hear, why not leave a review or rating on whichever podcast service you're downloading from? Thanks!
Near futurist Guy Clapperton talks to ThoughtSpot founder and CEO Sudheesh Nair. Are we wasting our time with traditional searches from the obvious contenders? We may be better advised to look elsewhere and opt for relational search that can see one piece of data relative to another. This wide-ranging discussion covers fake news, opinion passing for fact and then there's the small matter of how voice devices will affect search in the future.
If you enjoy this episode please consider leaving us a review from somewhere - it's how programmes like this grow.
Immigration is perceived as an issue by many people but so is the skills shortage in technology. Karoli Hindriks, founder of Jobbatical, an IT recruitment company in Estonia, sees the clash and has been talking to governments including her own about setting up international visas so that the right staff can go to the right places as and when they're needed.
In this episode, she discusses this and the reasons people might want to move on with Near Futurist Guy Clapperton.
Near futurist Guy Clapperton speaks to Dr. Michael Brooks, a doctor who is also a computer coder - and who is determined to persuade the medical establishment that the still-used standard of storing loads of records on paper is harmful. He starts with the harrowing story of someone who had to go through an investigative procedure twice when the original results were lost - and the second time it didn't go so well.
He also looks at human error and his ambition to get the medical industry's error rate closer to the safety expected from the aviation industry.
It started with a pitch about how people could effectively 'teleport' into Internet of Things connected devices, and how this could help make tech support easier than ever. It finished with a discussion on empathy, new and old skills needed for the new and connected world - and how customer experience is going to be even more dependent on empathetic skills than it was before.
Near Futurist Guy Clapperton talks to Andy Clark, chief technology officer of RealVNC.
There is enough electricity for electronic vehicles but have they stalled? (See what I did there?) Near Futurist Guy Clapperton talks to John Robb of Eaton about what needs to change before this technology really becomes mainstream, and shares a little about where not to put charging points. Will the government have us all using electronic vehicles by 2040? Robb may have some answers.
A 25 minute interview show with Guy Clapperton, technology journalist of 30 years' standing. If you enjoy it why not leave a review where you downloaded it?
And a warm welcome to the four figures worth who have joined our ranks of listeners over the last few weeks.
We start in New York where Alen Paul Silverrsteein is picked up by "pharmacy executives" and carried into a room where there's this guy...but that would be telling you the plot. We move through India, turning movies into 3D and discuss Pokemon, virtual reality and why augmented reality (AR) apps will be more than a fad.
Alen Paul Silverrstieen is CEO of Imagination Park and we ought to have cut more but he's such a terrific storyteller...
If you like what you hear, please do leave a review and a rating on the iTunes Store or wherever you downloaded the show. Thank you.
Speaker and accountancy expert Mark Lee speaks to near futurist Guy Clapperton about why he's an accountant and not a conjurer (no, he seriously trained and is a member of the Magic Circle), how accountants are going to need people skills rather than plain numeracy and how Blockchain is going to usher in the idea of triple ledger accounts.
You think your accountant lacks people skills? Lee predicts their demise in this podcast...
Education isn't fit for purpose when it comes to working alongside artificial intelligence - and we need to be teaching it some ethics, plus balancing it in terms of gender. Those are some of the strong views coming up in a conversation between Accenture's AI lead in the UK, Emma Kendrew, and Guy Clapperton, the Near Futurist.
Employment, racism, homophobia, we got 'em this fortnight - the next episode will be online on 15 February.
Please do leave a review on iTunes or wherever you found this episode - it's how a podcast grows.
There are thousands of rare diseases out there and one of the biggest issues is linking the symptoms to the disease and then connecting them all to a patient. Tim Guilliams is co-founder of Healx and with a skeleton staff, of technologists rather than medical personnel, he aims to find cures for 100 of them by 2025.
It's a bullish aim and the kicker is that the company is using artificial intelligence rather than medical skills to make it happen. In this episode of the Near Futurist he explains to Guy Clapperton why he believes this is realistic if ambitious, and why AI is the right way to go.
Are you enjoying the Near Futurist? Please do leave a review on the iTunes Store or wherever you pick up your podcasts - it's the way shows like this pick up more listeners and start to grow. Thanks!
Phrases like "gig economy" and "zero hours contracts" are rarely used in any positive sense but freelancing is increasingly important to the workplace, says Sarah Johnson, co-founder of consultancy The Akin. Her organization is very much a virtual set-up and in this episode of the Near Futurist she discusses how freelancers need to value themselves, how smarter and flexible working are developing and how managers need to adjust to this new world.
There are also notes on what's happening in terms of women in senior roles, and even in 2019 she finds they are a disproportionate minority.
Ageism shot down, figures quoted and a great deal else - if you haven't heard the Near Futurist podcast before this is a great place to jump in.
Oh, and since it's our first of 2019, Happy New Year if we're not too late..? And do please feel free to leave a review on the iTunes store if you like what you hear - it's how a show like this starts to grow.
In corporate computing there are often little silos of information everywhere - and Near Futurist Guy Clapperton should know, he's been writing about how they're coming to an end since 1989. Here Matt Klassen of Cherwell Software calls in from LA to discuss how to avoid ending up with your corporate systems dictating to the company rather than the other way around.
Near Futurist Guy Clapperton interviews authors Paul Ashcroft and Garrick Jones about their new book, "Alive: digital humans and their organizations", taking in a bit of automation, a lot of leadership and management offerings and a very small amount of boating technology.
This is a fortnightly podcast but due to Christmas the next episode will be on 16 December.
Reviews would be more than welcome - it's how podcasts come to people's attention!
How often do you look outside your own industry? Graham Jones does and it's a good way of making sure you don't fall behind. In this episode, Near-Futurist Guy Clapperton talks to him about how to keep up to date when your company employs thousands, whether the middle-aged are as Internet-savvy as they claim and why a 1960s boutique in Tooting is still up to date.
Are we teaching our kids the right things and to ask the right questions? When the Near-Futurist Guy Clapperton and this episode's interviewee Dave Coplin, late of Microsoft and now with The Envisioners, were growing up, you weren't allowed to use a calculator in a maths exam. Are we doing the same with different technologies now? And how do we adapt a workforce to a changing world?
Guy and Dave mull the issues over.
Near-Futurist Guy Clapperton talks to cognitive neuroscientist and business psychologist Dr. Lynda Shaw in this new podcast dedicated to looking at shorter term predictions for the future.
If machines are doing things so well, how do we compete - or should we? Dr. Shaw has a few ideas on what makes us unique as humans.
Dr. Nicola Millard of BT, in conversation with Near-Futurist Guy Clapperton, discusses chatbots and how they are taking menial tasks away, expanding working lives and the impact of artificial intelligence and human augmentation on the workplace.
Nicola Millard has been forecasting trends for BT since the 1990s.
Guy Clapperton talks to Adrian Cannon of Witstock about why the way we pay for things needs fixing, what's happening about it and what businesses and individuals need to do to be ready.