"A Kind of Digital 'Perfect Storm'" (and what about the startups that were going to change the world)

From Irving Wladawsky-Berger:

Every day brings new stories about the impact of digital technologies on every aspect of the world around us, including their transformative impact on companies in just about every industry.  Some of the articles are about the creation of innovative new technologies and applications, while others are about the creative destruction such innovations leave in their wake.  Lately, the latter kind of stories seem to predominate.

For a while now, companies have been racing to try to keep with the relentless advances of digital technologies.  But, the race keeps getting tougher every year.  We seem to be heading toward a kind of digital perfect storm, where four major IT trends are each gathering speed while interacting with and amplifying each other: mobile devices, cloud computing, social networks and big data and analytics.

These widely discussed technologies are still in the early stages of deployment to a greater or lesser degree. Mobile is furthest along while cloud adoption is taking off.  Data science applications are starting to get deployed, although we are just beginning to appreciate their profound implications.  And while consumer social networks have been thriving for years, their use in business has been slower than expected. 

The disruptive impact of this digital perfect storm is already being felt by technology companies as well as by those in industries whose transformation is already underway.  And perhaps most important, we know that even greater disruptions are in store in the not too distant future.  The resulting creative destruction makes for interesting stories about the changing fortunes of companies as well as their leaders. 

People have been writing stories about the rise and fall of the rich and powerful at least as far back as ancient Greece.  A common theme in Greek tragedy was the actions of leaders who out hubris, that is, arrogance and overconfidence, disregarded the gods and their laws, which eventually led to their downfall.  Our human nature and organizational cultures have not changed all that much in the intervening millennia....MUCH MORE

And what about the Startups That Were Going To Change the World?
From Valleywag:
What Happens to Little Startups After Everyone Forgets?

 In a week, the next breathless gathering in Silicon Valley's Liturgal Calendar begins: TechCrunch Disrupt 2013, a $3,000-per-ticket gala of business owners, investors, and their wannabe retinues. For entertainment? "Startup Battlefield," where tech hopefuls compete for money and attention. But what happens after? Often, death....MORE

These are from  Disrupt Battlefield's 2011 selections, two short years ago:

JUST STRAIGHT-UP DEAD:

Do@ was "a slick search engine that searches using apps instead of the web," and is now gone.

Sonar, an app to "find people by you who you don’t know but should know," was briefly popular, but is now dead.

ccLoop promised to collect "emails into subscribable 'loops,' reducing email clutter," but now it is dead.

Skylin.es, "a personalized photo stream based on topics and keywords," is dead.

Deja, "a flashy interface for video discovery and consumption," is dead.

SpotOn, which once offered " places to go nearby, based on your own social network information," is dead.

Karizma, "a video chatting app that connects you with people nearby," is dead.

Arrived, " a location-aware social planning app that tells you what to do now that you’ve arrived," is dead.

Gnonstop Gnomes and its parent company ChurnLabs are both dead.

SneakPeeq, "a social shopping site that counts down prices until someone buys an item," is dead.

...Many MORE 

Okay, this bunch wasn't going to change the channel much less change the world.