MOLLY WOOD ER UGENS ELEKTRONISTA

Af Christiane Vejlø

Denne uge har København haft besøg af det amerikanske site Cnets legendariske tech journalist Molly Wood.

Molly Wood er vært på hvad der måske er den mest lyttede techpodcast i verden, nemlig Buzz out Loud og på webtv programmet The Buzz Report. Jeg har selv fulgt med i Mollys programmer i flere år, og da hun denne uge var i Danmark for at holde foredrag sørgede jeg selvfølgelig for at få et interview i bogen. Men tech snakken gik og interviewet blev til shoppingtur, øl i Tivoli og middage på Københavns gode restauranter. Molly Wood er nu Ugens Elektronista!

Der blev også tid til at lave lidt video, så skynd dig at se, hvorfor Molly ryster på hovedet af Bang og Olufsen butikken og hvad hun har af bud på store trends i 2012.

What do you like about working in tech? My favorite thing about my job is that I really see myself as an ambassador from the future! I think those of us in the tech world get an inside look at what things are going to look like in two years, five years, 10 years, even 100 years. I love the potential that technology offers for helping us overcome so many of the problems we have today, whether they’re little problems like not speaking the same language (thanks, Google Translate!) to big problems like energy and natural resources.

Which gadgets mean a lot in your life? The obvious one is my smart phone, which I cannot live a second without. It’s constantly in my hand, and I am just constantly amazed that I can be sending work and personal email, see what my friends are up to all over the globe, take and share photos of whatever I’m doing, navigate my way to a location, find out any fact about anything in the world, look up a restaurant and make a reservation in just a few seconds, and maybe even video chat with my loved ones — and much, much more than that, all in one pocket-sized device. I mean, talk about living in the future. It’s remarkable.

I also really like my iPad, although I should actually call it my son’s iPad. I never touch it, but it amazes and thrills me to see how he, at 4 years old, can take command of this device and fire up streaming video, stored TV shows, games that teach him to spell and read, art programs, and read-aloud Dr. Seuss books. Plus, it is the single best device on earth for traveling with children. Every parent should have one. Miracle.

What do you see as important digital trends that will affect our daily lives in the near future? Of course the cloud and on-demand are huge, and I think we’re only starting to realize the full impact of having always-on, always-connected devices in our pockets that can access our personal information anywhere. I think that will lead to a real shift in the way people consume media, handle their contacts and communications, and think about property. It’s both good and bad — I suspect someday soon we’ll get a taste of what it’s like to have all your digital belongings vanish, hopefully only for a short while, and it might be a big cloud wakeup call!

What is your favorite mobile app? I’m ashamed to say, it’s Facebook. But when I’m not on Facebook, I love Spotify, the music subscription service (sorry to rub it in, Denmark). It’s the cloud dream I was just describing, but with offline access, and I’m constantly editing and making new playlists, including some for my son, who has terrible taste in music.

Do you have a digital tip you want to share? Think before you post! I’ve got this idea for a startup that would find and aggregate everyone’s publicly viewable social data and assign a “data score,” kind of like a credit score in the U.S. It could tell you if the things you post online are negatively affecting your chances for getting a job, a girlfriend, a loan, things like that. I think a lot of people don’t realize how much information they’re sharing by accident, and it can get messy in a hurry. Take a few days and dig into those Facebook privacy settings, it’s worth it! Oh, and get Google Chrome. I don’t know how anyone lives anymore with separate URL and search bars, not to mention how fast it is. I believe the Chrome browser has made a more efficient human.

What will you recommend your friends that are travelling to Denmark? I would tell them not to be afraid to talk to people. I met some incredible people in Copenhagen, and I felt like almost everyone I talked to was open, friendly, interesting, and wonderful. I hope no one who visits this amazing city just goes touring around without striking up conversations with the locals. For me, at least, Copenhagen was all about the people.