Amy Webb
Amy Webb, a self-proclaimed “futurist” professor at New York University, has seen trends in and out of the SXSW Festival since 2005. In the early 2010s, Webb distributed T-shirts outside the convention center to downtown Austin with the game company SCVNGR (“Scavenger”) and Gowara during the festival. Webb recalled that in addition to the famous Foursquare, it was touting hype generated by collectable badges available via geoposition in app-based games (predecessor of 2016). Pokemon GO). At the time, Webb recalled that “everyone was crazy about badges,” and SXSW attendees spent much of the week’s festival gathering festival-specific token developers planted throughout downtown. rice field. But later on, Webb says their true contribution to the location-based social network layer embedded in the application was “boring.” The long-term impact of that trend is reflected in the success of the Foursquare City Guide, which provides location-based personalized business recommendations and currently has 50 million users.
“Looking back at avatars and digital merchandise in the way we look back at the ultra-low-rise pants and whale tails of the early 2000s.” – Amy Webb
This year, Webb believes that the same idea will lead to the hype surrounding the use of Web3. This is a new version of the Internet built over the blockchain, a public ledger records management system that allows the use of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. SXSW’s schedule is full of panels that promise to unveil the secrets to a lucrative start in this new digital era, primarily by designing avatars and digital collectibles. One workshop promises to teach participants the basics of creating digital avatars using non-fungible tokens, which are unique digital image files built on the Ethereum blockchain. Another panel description pledges that the future of fashion is in the digital world.
“I think we’re all catching up with digital collectibles and avatars,” she said. “Looking back at avatars and digital merchandise in the way we look back at the ultra-low-rise pants and whale tails of the early 2000s.”
Webb suggested that the future of Web3 is likely to be in practical applications such as infrastructure and supply chains. In grocery stores like Central Market, blockchain allows for more advanced use of barcode technology, allowing more accurate tracking of where individual produce came from, she said. In the field of urban planning, one application of Web3 called Metaverse, virtual reality built on Web3, more accurately models density trends, transportation planning, and other spillover effects in cities like Austin. Is to become.
As CEO and Founder of the Future Today Institute, Webb has overseen the annual production of the Tech Trends Report, which will celebrate its 15th anniversary at the upcoming festival. This year, its 800-page report includes a long section that distinguishes between what she believes to be part of marketing blitz and what she might actually stick to over the years to come. increase.
The concept of the third iteration of the Internet (Web3 for short) is not a new concept. The term was coined in 2014 by Zurich-based high-tech entrepreneur Gavin Wood, who founded Ethereum. The Metaverse, on the other hand, is a more recent idea. The term spread in October last year when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company’s rebranding as Meta. Webb says much of the new Internet talk at SXSW this year is a kneeling reaction to the speculation surrounding this latest major announcement from Silicon Valley. So she believes there are a lot of people planning to talk about marketing and branding at the upcoming festival.
Still, some are hoping that the new Internet will revolutionize society.
Entrepreneurs like Gary Sheng take advantage of the potential of Web3’s decentralization to steal core power from the hands of a few companies running platforms such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter, and bring it to individual web users. I think it can be redistributed. In 2019, Sheng, a former Google software engineer, co-founded Civics Unplugged, an organization founded to train, fund and provide communities for young people who want to reform democracy. Civics Unplugged trains Gen Z from ages 15 to 20 to become proficient in both developing and navigating Web3 through an initiative called Dream DAO.
He and the young adults of Civics Unplugged are most interested in Web3 as a way to increase accountability. DAO (short for “Decentralized Autonomous Organization”) is an organization with code-encoded rules controlled by all organizational members and unaffected by the central government. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are technically DAOs because they have no central governance and are theoretically controlled by the members alone. Blockchain records all transactions in public forums, thereby increasing accountability. Shen said this was revolutionary for civilian involvement. This is to reinforce the idea that each individual has power and needs to incorporate transparency into the organization.
When he started learning about Web3 a few months ago, he said he knew it was a natural next step for his organization. “Gen Z should not only adopt Web3, but be left behind, but build Web3 for the future,” Sheng said. “There are numerous applications that show that Web3 can be a source of personal sovereignty, community sovereignty, building movements, and strengthening the creation of more credible governance and voting systems.”
Shen isn’t the only one talking about this possibility. One panel of schedules declares 2022 the “year of DAO” and “redefines our way of working, makes group decisions, allocates resources, distributes wealth and is the biggest problem in the world. It may solve some of the problems. ” Others argue that they can be used to reduce administrative waste and reduce the control of intermediaries in investor pools, charities, and community projects.
But whether this is something the average person needs to learn right away, you probably don’t have to worry too much to prevent them from being far behind the curve. The integration of Web3 into society may be imminent, but few people are doing it specifically outside of Silicon Valley and the East Coast. not yet.
SXSW Web3
Welcome to your digital afterlife: Upload creator Greg Daniels in a conversation with Amy Webb
Friday, March 11th, 2:30 pm, Convention Center
Gen Z is changing: a new tool for impact
Friday, March 11th, 4:00 pm, Hilton
2022: Year of DAO
Saturday, March 12, 10:00 am, JW Marriott
NFT School: Create a newly created NFT token
Saturday, March 12, 2:30 pm, JW Marriott
Amy Webb Releases 2022 Emerging Technologies Trend Report
March 13 (Sun) 11:30 am, Convention Center
Fashion New Frontier: Metaverse
Fairmont, Monday, March 14, 4:00 pm
Move on the NFT. DAO is here
Monday, March 14th, 11:30 am, Convention Center
Think like a (Scandinavian) Futurist
Monday, March 14, 4:00 pm, Convention Center
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