Wearing Your #LifeHacks

If you were among the many who tuned into last week's Apple Live event you were probably excited by the announcement of the Apple Watch. It's interesting to see how technology is evolving into an ever more personable, wearable platform and is transforming beyond the smartphone, tablet and PC.

The interesting part of the entire announcement was how applications would morph and shape as a result of wearing something that has a monitor 85% less the surface size of a modern smartphone. Since it's impossible to type on the device: voice activation or one touch will be a huge factor in how the device works. It's also unlikely many will use it for heavier lifts like online banking or gaming. At least not yet. Those areas will come in time, however for now it does open up a whole new threshold: applications built around quick, simple efficiencies and areas of productivity. We are now entering the formalized era of wearing personalized utility.

Life hacking is nothing new. It's been around as long as others have used storytelling to share how to enhance one's life or work in many areas. From improved self-awareness, personal efficiency, weight loss, health improvements, exercise, memorization, nutrition, multitasking, removing red wine from a white carpet, getting stains out of clothing, moving from a server to the cloud, learning to play soccer, riding a bike while wearing a skirt, etc.

The first personal life hacking digital app I used was back in 2006 with Nike+. I affixed a sensor to my shoe which kept track of the mileage I ran synchronized with my iPod. The program helped me improve my art of running so that I could be harder, better, faster, stronger. Yet the first wearable life hack I really used that I recollect wasn't digital at all. In fact it was when a German professor who taught with my late father told me to don a pair of cleats in 1979 to properly play the sport of soccer. Up until that time I wore flat canvas sneakers with no traction. Cleats or "boots" as many call them in the U.K. helped me become a better player at an early age when the footwear was still uncommon in the youth game stateside. Boots helped with mobility, kicking the ball with more power and prevented injuries by being more sturdy than a canvas sneaker. Suggestions like this have been around us forever, it's just now they will be more digital and data driven based on our own personal metrics and how we want to integrate those metrics with others in the world at large.

This scalable wearable tech landscape now opens up a whole new economy of innovation. Just like how mobile app stores have altered commerce, many businesses will come to fruition to alter the entire business landscape in this new emerging area activated from your wrist, your ankle, around your neck or wherever else wearable technology ultimately can be affixed.

While I see many health and wellness programs being adopted heavily using this technology, there are also areas that may diffuse from early adopters to the late majority and laggards as a result. Some of these include:

• Professional life hacks: Time management, Personal brand building, Brainstorming, Note taking, Programmatic updates, Synchronized scheduling
• Educational life hacks: Quick learning, Translation, Efficiency variables, Visual reminder learning
• Disruptive life hacks: Repetition course correction, New ways to learn, Financial advisories

Many of the above noted functions exist in the world of the mobile web but don't have as much personalization metrics as a device worn on the body which can take repetition, heart rate, atmospheric conditions and time tracking of an activity into consideration. Nor do many have the ability to take into account what a person's daily calendar or work/life scheduling looks like and how all these various apps will speak to one another down the line to increase efficiency and wellness in the individual using them. This is where players like Cortana* and Google Now could really shake up things even further.

Like the goldmine rush in 2007 where new players have taken hold and become part of our digital lives (Foursquare, Uber, AirBnB, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, just to name a few), there are many entrepreneurs and companies now from Seattle to San Francisco to Bogota to Tel Aviv to Moscow to London to Beijing to Lagos, Nigeria to Bangalore, India to New York City to Detroit to Vancouver sitting down and mapping out how to reach more people via this personal conduit. How exciting it will be to see what these next companies and their services look like and what utility they provide for the population at large.

Enabling The Next Internet Wave In China

The leaders of China’s Internet success stories are rapidly becoming part of China’s establishment, interacting frequently with senior government leaders. Last week, for instance, several China Internet CEOs were part of Xi Jinping’s trip to Seoul. As they have these opportunities to spend time with policymakers, what should they be arguing is necessary for the next era of China’s Internet economy to be as successful as the one they have already profited from so well?

• Enhancing workforce skills. It should be obvious to all that universities should be graduating students equipped with the technical and business skills to succeed in operating companies. It is, however, entirely obvious today that they are not. Government action to make university curricula relevant for the growth in internet related jobs is.
• Sustaining openness to international ideas and capital. China has profited greatly from an Internet industry structure that encouraged the development of China relevant business models and local champions to deliver them. Yet often inspiration and stimulation for the business model came from outside China. And today, much of the world is looking to China’s internet leaders for their own inspiration. There is very much a two-way flow of ideas and investments. This benefits everyone.
• Enhancing data protection for individuals from businesses who are using their data. Many private companies and state-owned enterprises hold vast amounts of information on their customers. While new laws have been passed regarding how they are allowed to use such data, what permissions they should obtain, and the like, consumer confidence in the system is low. It could take only a few high profile breaches of personal information (e.g. from a bank or a telco) to have Chinese citizens pull back from providing their personal data so freely online. It is essential that China’s leading Internet companies are seen to be role models in data protection.
• Encouraging national markets. Most Internet businesses are born national. Yet regulations at a city or provincial level can hold back the development of efficient national markets that would benefit consumers. Constraints on selling second hand cars across provincial boundaries is one example. Policymakers should roll back regulations that constrain markets to the provincial or city level.
• IP protection. Increasingly, China’s internet leaders are developing a substantial amount of in-house intellectual property. They want to be certain they can protect this IP in China and internationally as they globalize. Ensuring they can get swift redress when they find their IP being used by others is key. For an Internet player guilty of using someone else's IP, a small financial fine in 12 months is almost irrelevant when a business is growing at Internet speed. Courts need to decide quickly if a business model is legitimate or not.

Swift action on these levers will place China’s Internet industries in a much stronger position to succeed going forward.