Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer braved wet weather on Tuesday night to share his vision of the future with more than 700 attendees of the American Electronics Association's annual Technology for Government dinner in downtown Washington. His big revelation of the night -- we're "on the verge of a fifth [computing] revolution."
The early 1980s ushered in the age of the personal computer; then the Internet was born; then came the world of Web 2.0 (and I guess I must have missed a fourth revolution in between the entrée and dessert). Now, society is facing a new era that will be "enabled by hardware but powered by software;" one where computing components are infinitely faster, smaller and cheaper, he said.
Wireless broadband networks are practically everywhere and that innovation puts the "whole world at your fingertips, wherever you go," Ballmer said. Soon, speech, touch and language will dominate personal computing, he predicted, and technology users will want to be able to interact meaningfully with their devices.
"All information will be consumed digitally [and] everything you need will be delivered on an IP network," he told the crowd. "The ability to find and analyze information will go up an order of magnitude," he said, noting that software will morph into something that exists in the "Internet cloud."
A few years down the road, speech-givers won't be dependent on a traditional sheet of paper to guide their talk, Ballmer said. That too will go digital, he envisioned, holding up and crumpling his talking points. "We've had 500 years since Gutenberg to refine this technology," the high-tech maverick joked.
The gala attracted high-ranking officials from federal agencies as well as tech industry executives -- and some star power from Capitol Hill. Organizers said a number of lawmakers stopped by including House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell; Small Business Committee Chairwoman Nydia Velázquez; Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.; Ralph Regula, R-Ohio; Christopher Shays, R-Conn.; and others.
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