I am very excited to be preparing for a talk at the Turing Festival in Edinburgh (last week of August).  The subject, not surprisingly, will be “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet - how the Internet will transform business, government and society."  I love that Vint Cerf used "You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” as his 5 word acceptance speech for the Webby Awards.  To me it perfectly captures where we are with the Internet today and could be the unofficial motto for Union Square Ventures.

Part of what I am doing in preparation is collecting examples of things that are already happening that provide a glimpse of what is possible.  One of my favorite recent ones is of course bitcoin, which shows that with the Internet we might wind up with a currency that is not controlled by a government or any centralized body for that matter.  I have also been a huge fan of Khan Academy, where a single teacher - Sal Khan - reaches a monthly audience of half a million people (and probably many more through off site distribution).

Another example I just became aware of is Americans Elect.  This is an effort to have a direct primary process that is not controlled by a party.  Instead, people across America will be able to nominate candidates and be able to identify alignment based on issues.  The kick: the winning candidate coming out of this process will in fact be on the Presidential election ballot in all 50 states due to a big state-by-state signature drive.  I have no idea whether this will produce an interesting candidate.  It might but it might fail spectacularly also.  That’s less the point than that this type of alternative direct process is now possible at scale in a way it never was before.

So here is my question:  What is your favorite example of something that is already happening on the Internet today, that is a clear indication of the massive transformation to come?

I am very excited to be preparing for a talk at the Turing Festival in Edinburgh (last week of August).  The subject, not surprisingly, will be “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet - how the Internet will transform business, government and society."  I love that Vint Cerf used "You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” as his 5 word acceptance speech for the Webby Awards.  To me it perfectly captures where we are with the Internet today and could be the unofficial motto for Union Square Ventures.

Part of what I am doing in preparation is collecting examples of things that are already happening that provide a glimpse of what is possible.  One of my favorite recent ones is of course bitcoin, which shows that with the Internet we might wind up with a currency that is not controlled by a government or any centralized body for that matter.  I have also been a huge fan of Khan Academy, where a single teacher - Sal Khan - reaches a monthly audience of half a million people (and probably many more through off site distribution).

Another example I just became aware of is Americans Elect.  This is an effort to have a direct primary process that is not controlled by a party.  Instead, people across America will be able to nominate candidates and be able to identify alignment based on issues.  The kick: the winning candidate coming out of this process will in fact be on the Presidential election ballot in all 50 states due to a big state-by-state signature drive.  I have no idea whether this will produce an interesting candidate.  It might but it might fail spectacularly also.  That’s less the point than that this type of alternative direct process is now possible at scale in a way it never was before.

So here is my question:  What is your favorite example of something that is already happening on the Internet today, that is a clear indication of the massive transformation to come?