Welcome to The Cutter Edge. In each free issue, you'll find research, insight, and advice crucial to helping you navigate the spectrum of challenges technology change brings.

Same Tune, Different Lyrics?

by Robert Charette, Fellow, Cutter Consortium

A person who lived through the introduction of digital automation in the 1950s could be forgiven for having a sense of déjà vu. Once again, there is a growing feeling of unease in the public that perhaps digital automation has progressed to a point where this latest generation of "smart machines" will indeed cause massive unemployment of today's workers. Feeding this nervousness are recent pronouncements by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who has said that "20 years from now, the labor demand for lots of skill sets will be substantially lower," or by technology professors Carl Frey and Michael Osborne from Oxford University's Martin School, who claim that an estimated 47% of US jobs are at high risk and 19% at medium risk of being automated within two decades. More ...

Enterprise Support for Wearable Devices

In a recent survey on the Internet of Things, Curt Hall examined trends pertaining to the use of wearable devices such as smart watches, smart badges, smart glasses, to support employees in performing their job functions in the workplace.

The findings show that current use of wearable devices by employees to perform their job tasks is quite limited; however, future technology adoption plans among organizations for supporting employee use of wearables does appear promising. However, all indications are that it is still very early for wearables in the enterprise. More ...

*Excerpted from Trends in Wearable Devices in the Enterprise," () Data Analytics & Digital Technologies Advisor September 30, 2015.

What's Over the Technology Horizon?

Guest Editor, Lou Mazzucchelli

"What's beyond all the stuff we can see?" After all, we've got plenty of technology forecasts for the next three to five years. What kind of world can we imagine if we stipulate all that and use it as a baseline? As expected, the responses you'll find in this Cutter IT Journal issues are quite varied, both in topic and geography. The commentary included in this issue comes from India, Italy, the UK, the US, and an airplane seat. This issue's authors have collectively stimulated large areas of my brain. I hope you find one or more ideas here that capture your imagination, too. More ...