Get Your Head in the Cloud

Last week, the Printing Industries of America (PIA) held its annual Converge Conference in Memphis. I was honored to be asked to develop a presentation on cloud computing, nanotechnology and radio-frequency identification technology, better know as RFID.

Other presenters addressed topics such as expanding the roles of Web portals, building a marketing plan around specific verticals and the future of cross-media content, plus much more. Go to www.printing.org/converge to get a full overview of this exciting event.

How does this relate to converging media? Well it does and it does not, simply because the term converging media is so broad and currently so poorly defined that nearly any linked media can be considered part of the convergence process.

Yet, I think those who read this blog should have what I call knowledge-based knowledge, which is to say that you should be presented with applications—converging media or not—that can develop a profit for you and your business.

For example, my topic at the Converge event links three seemingly unrelated developments into a discussion thread that may lead to profits for you and your business. The question is, how?

Think about a product that can be developed from or using cloud computing, nanotechnology and RFID and that can benefit you and your future business plans.

Cloud computing will, when fully developed, provide you with a vast array of services that at this stage seem to cost less then if you had to maintain your own servers and software to be at the crest of the every expanding technological wave on terra firma.

Link this to the use of nanotechnology, which can include nano-tube inks or printing of video-type flexible and programmable screens for packaging and other promotional material. Consider the possibility of printing an active RFID tag with nanotechnology and being able to track that tag via your cloud. Think about gathering information from that tag or tracking device and offering your client the ability to “talk” to the consumer on multiple levels, via technology the end-user desires and at the time and place of their choosing.