More on the Future - the Answer Key

Our last post was about future trends - and started with a list of terms.  I have used these terms in varying conversations and recent presentations - and very few people know what they mean.

When I define the term after its use, the common response is "we 'do' that"

That said, these terms are 'popping-up' in varying places.  Let's give a few definitions to the terms we seem to encounter the most.

Thank you to varying websites and Wikipedia for your help with the definitions.  (I would love to say I knew what all these terms meant before I encountered them.)

• Crowdsourcing - the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to an undefined, large group of people (a "crowd") through an open call (web 2.0)
• Web 2.0 - web applications that facilitate interaction
• Hybrid Events - a tradeshow, seminar, conference, unconference (a term that sometimes needs definition as well), workshop or other meeting that combines a "live" in-person event with a "virtual" online component
• Co-working - a style of work which involves a shared working environment, sometimes an office, yet independent activity
  • this is the next generation of the term hoteling which was popular in the late 1990's/early 2000's
• Micro-subscriptions (we are all participating in this one; we simply did not have a name for it) - any payment between $0.10 and $10.00 that is used to pay for specific digital content sold as a unit; it is commonly for a song, a game session, a photo or a video
• Solopreneur - the same thing as an entrepreneur, except they do it all and like it that way; this is a person that likes the freedom and flexibility to do everything their way and can adjust the pace of their work to suit their own personal need

There are more terms out there - send them to us as you encounter them; we will post them as updates.