The future according to Phil McKinney, CTO, Personal Systems Division at HP

A series of predictions for the future in various fields related to the digital experience from now until the end of the twenties, as delivered at the HP Lab University press conference held at the end of June in Lisbon

Intermediate: Social Dynamics

2010: Merging the media experience A Mediascape-like experience will enable the expansion of the virtual environment as a layer above the real world as a scenario in games and interactive tourism.
2015: Virtual Collaboration: Globalization will drive the need for the ability to collaborate between people all over the world on their personal devices.
2020: Second Life-style communities: virtual environments will be widely used, and they will be personal and preferred for communication needs and building communities in lifestyle areas and even business areas.
 2025: Virtual communities will gain legal status - Virtual communities will be recognized as independent entities separate from the physical world, and with a demand for their own rights, privacy and laws.

Intermediate: personal entertainment - media and entertainment without borders

2007: Smart TVs - digital TVs that are "always connected": and offer the possibility to watch movies, music, games and interactive entertainment through new content providers (not in Israel of course).
2015: Smart homes - smart devices in the home will be able to create an interactive relationship with each other and share personality (meaning that we will be able to operate all the devices in the home from one screen).
2020: connection anywhere and from any device - the content will be dynamic and accessible through any device or array of devices when the user wants it.
2025 - entertainment on demand - personal entertainment will be driven by the user's will without caring about the time, location, context or technology - it simply comes when we want it.

Intermediate: Smart networks - a transparent and permanent link

2010 - always connected - transparent communication using hands-free devices, between users in overlapping networks.
2015 - federated networks - the Internet will become a means of communication between federated networks with transparent access and content that cross the borders between the networks.
2020 integrated networks everywhere - networks from any point to any point will be common and will provide peer to peer access to all content in cities, communities, homes and Body Area Networks (computer data transfer through the electrical current in the body).
2025 - The pervasive network - all fixed, mobile and wandering entities will be connected and interconnected at all times. The interaction will be between humans and humans, between computers and computers and between humans and computers.
Intermediate: Gadgets - personal systems
2010 - Cellular Broadband - Mobile and portable devices will provide a link anywhere between cellular and broadband networks.
2015 - New personal computing - integrated systems that will be used by people in work and lifestyle will integrate personal computing devices in all areas of life - health, finance, entertainment, business, communication and entertainment.
2020 - specific devices vs. general devices - there may be integrated communication devices on the market with many features, but most devices will be dedicated, built for a specific application and perform one or two roles in people's lives.
2025 - Cognitive devices - the people will have at their disposal a large number of devices that are aware of the network and their behavior and will be used for interface and interaction through natural language speech recognition systems without keys or mice.
What to worry about? The intrusion of these devices raises concerns about breach of privacy, the excess of communication and information will be the norm, the ability to always be connected will be an advantage, but also the user's control over the systems at his disposal.
* The writer served as a representative of The People group at this conference