Been kind of quiet here lately...as I've been really busy IRL. Two big pieces of news: First: I've officially started looking to join a company after 10 years of self employment. Lots of reasons, the biggest being I've realized that it's nearly impossible to drive any sort of advancement in the emerging tech world by yourself - you need to align with a larger team that is doing amazing things. And I would so love to do that...so, for anyone listening: I'd love to be part of your senior team, driving forward advancements in Immersive Media (AR, VR), Digital or AI. I can help you figure out what to do, where to go, who to do it with and who to sell it to - and then get it done. My professional experience includes working with global companies (mostly large, but many small / startups too) over the past 20+ years. I've help them understand, evaluate and develop business and marketing strategies in industries where digital + emerging tech is creating opportunities (and threats). An innovation focus, as it were...with deep roots in consulting, management and entrepreneurship - my goal is to help whichever company I join grow and thrive. Second: I'm going to be a published author!! Excited to have been chosen to contribute a chapter (working title: "Immersive Media and Branding: Invasive, Enriching or Annoying? How Being A Brand Will Change and Expand In The Age Of Immersion") for a soon-to-be-published book by IGI Global. Thrilled with the opportunity. And finally....been reading a lot as well. The advancements taking place in technology are truly mind boggling. A few subjects are consistently drawing my attention lately because they are, well, just so damn interesting. Spatial computing: Tom Emrich's article "Advertising Enters the Next Dimension: 7 Ways Spatial Computing is Evolving Advertising & Marketing" caught my attention while researching info for my chapter submission. He discusses all the ways that the future of advertising and marketing is going to be immersive; I'm going to be discussing something similar in my book chapter, Artificial Intelligence-fueled avatars and all. He's more about exploring the advertising angle than I will (I'm focusing on what it means to be a *brand* in a world with 360 immersiveness). Well worth a read, with great examples. Brain-Machine interface: Although a few months old, I'm intrigued by the work CTRL-Labs is doing with brain-machine interface. Electrical impulses from the brain are translated )(with training) into computing motions without needing to actually move...in the future you'll only have to think it, and it'll get typed, designed, communicated - all of it. Ambient computing and Digital twins A term I'd heard, but not really latched onto, until I listened to this podcast, "Ambient Science and Digital Twins with Katalin Bártfai-Walcott" about the ubiquitous, invisible computing that will be our future - and our "digital twin" which will represent us in that dimension. I think I'd prefer the term "Digital Concierge" - but the end result is the same: a parallel entity that is powered by AI to learn about our individual preferences and personality, and have the authority to make decisions on our behalf. Instead of us interacting 1:1 with each device as we currently do, giving each our attention when needed - on/off, play this, turn this on, etc - our Digital Twin (concierge) will co-navigate our day with us, managing our experiences without us needing to consciously do anything. The legal ramifications alone are staggering; regardless to what degree this eventually plays out, I think we can all agree that computing will move towards being ambient, meaning ubiquitous - and invisible. If any of this sounds at all interesting, listen to the podcast!