Emil Swanepoel: Microsoft TechEd 2011 Closing Key Note and My Thoughts. This is how technology could be changing the world in the near future.

Microsoft TechEd 2011 Closing Key Note and My Thoughts by Emil Swanepoel ( www.emilswanepoel.com \| emil.swanepoel@live.co.za ) This is a summary of some statistics discussed at the end of the Microsoft TechEd 2011 conference and my thoughts and discoveries over the last year.
	This graph came from the GapMinder organisation who have an interactive version of this graph on their website with loads more variables. South Africa may be classed as a third world, but believe it or not it sits quite far over on the Money GDP, but very low on the life expectancy. Notice where the arrow points to below. http://www.gapminder.org
	Incredibly, Africa has fared reasonably well during the recent recession.
	This quote was quite a shock to me.
	This however blew me away. Why people want to leave this country when all the opportunities are here?
	This is for our country!
	Once again, South Africa!
	More South Africa, wahoo!
	This is showing how the internet and connectivity is growing in South Africa. Many people are worried about the internet capacity in SA, but the truth is that there is so much internet coming that we will be as wired as any first world country in the very near future. I was blessed to be sitting next to a Telkom technician who let me know that there is some massive band with coming within the next couple of years from them.
	This is a graph of the sea cables and the band width they are going to offer us. Notice the HUGE green one which will be landing in 2012.
	This is showing where the cables actually land in the various countries. Notice how wired up Gaborone is! South Africa is not the most internet wired country in Africa, however that is changing fast.
	This is showing the Internet connectivity that businesses have in South Africa, and through which medium.
	This is a very steep incline of how many users are live on the internet in South Africa.
	This is the challenge our country faces. We have loads of connectivity, but too few people can afford connecting up. Statistics have proven that countries with more internet connection result in a better standard of living and longer life expectancy.
	This slide was quite surprising, because we have all got so much to say against Eskom. While I agree with some of it, I also think that us South Africans are a bunch of complainers. Notice how South Africa is in the negative, but not half as bad as East Africa. Sometimes it takes statistics of the bigger picture to show us another perspective.
	This is showing the percentage of People in that country who are connected to some sort of social media environment like Facebook.
	This is showing what a staggering impact the mobile era of iPads and eReaders have made on the world in only 7 years.
	This shows the age demographic of how ages of people are using the internet. A company could really use this to engage with customers at the right age group.
	This statistic of South Africa shows that this country is actively using social media to its fullest. We may only have a 23% per capita who own computers and yet there are 14 million people on Mixit. Mixit is a primarily mobile environment which is predominantly used by kids.

	So which are leading the market? This is only the Q3 of 2011.
	This is how the various internet activities are being used in various industries.
So what does all this mean, according to Emil Swanepoel? Well, it is showing us that the bulk of communication and networking is taking place over the mobile network on a mobile phone. This for the near future will be the fastest way to interact with people in Africa is via a cell phone. However, the communication stats show that this will be changing. It is now up to us to find the ways that this will be used and how or who is going to be the leaders to infiltrate Africa. Those people who are prepared to dig in and plough the foundation will be fortunate enough to be able to lay brand new foundations instead of using some old system that will need a lot of work to upgrade or use in conjunction. There was also a presentation of a pilot project that has been working right here in South Africa of how a class has been using Microsoft XBOX and Kinect to create a learning environment that has brought the students and teachers into the new era where the games on XBOX are being used to teach maths, science and even language. The pilot project is the first of its kind worldwide and the results are surprising about how much the kids have learnt. In November 2011, Microsoft officially announced that it will be releasing Kinect for Windows and Office in 2012. This means that we will be interacting with our computers using actions and gestures, using our bodies to navigate through our files. This is already being used in several industries around the world. Even surgeons are using this during a surgery, where they will gesture at a screen to flip through manuals or patient files when they need it. Toyota have created a virtual show room that expands and explodes cars to show you their interiors based on your hands and body gestures. In October 2011, Nokia announce their new range of Cell phones, with Windows Phone operating systems. They showed us how you can take a character from an XBOX game and put it onto your phone! Finally, Microsoft have now also shown off their new version of Windows 8 which has a RADICAL departure from the classic look and feel we know, but everyone who has used and worked with the beta version have raved about its user interface as well as its performance. What Microsoft have said that has been over looked is that their vision for the future is to create one operating system for pc, laptop, phone, tablet and any device basically. Windows 8 could potentially be that step. Here is a video of Microsoft’s vision of the future http://www.microsoft.com/office/vision/ I personally do not think that it is that far into the future, some of the items in this video are already available. One additional point that you need to know is that you can now download Skype from Microsoft. After Microsoft bought Skype for $8.6 billion, they have finally been approved by the competition commission to use Skype in their business. Now the exciting task will begin of integrating this medium ion all the Microsoft Software. This is not just going to be another piece of software, I believe that this could bring in a new era of communication that now will include Microsoft in the same arena as the big cellular providers around the world. If you add in the new Office 365 offering where any company can by a full suite of office products on a monthly subscription without the IT department overheads, and have this available on mobile phone, tablet and pc no matter which operating system you are using, I am making the announcement right now that in the next 5 years we are going to have one of the most radical changes to how people interface with machines than we have ever seen before. Will Microsoft be leading the way, maybe, but there are others like Ubuntu who have already got services and interfaces that already do some of this stuff and do it for almost free. You also have Google who have recently released a 1GB per second internet service in California. They are also funding alternative energy source companies and projects around the world, as well as finding ways to use free air space (like the empty space between TV channels or radio stations,) to transport data. IBM have been creating processors that are able work almost like the human mind, and some new processors that are 4 times the capacity of the traditional silicon version, but with half the heat. In the UK there is a project under way that has created a computer the size of your wallet. I have said all of this to say, there is so much information flying around us, that we almost need a moment to think for ourselves. That is why I believe that sitting down with my Bible every day for a while, allows me to become peaceful and quiet. This is the best way to get the truth from the Father of all Truth, God Almighty. Without His help, none of this would be possible. Once I have spent time with Him and Jesus, then I am able to take on all this information with the right path to follow, instead of being led by my nose or what the latest trend is. These are exciting times.