MAYA Design Explores the Future of a Massively Connected World in New Book

Authors investigate the ramifications of a network whose scale and complexity will dwarf that of today’s Internet

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Peter Lucas, Joe Ballay and Mickey McManus, leaders of one of America’s top pervasive computing design firms, are proud to announce the release of their book “Trillions: Thriving in the Emerging Information Ecology.” Trillions explores a future that is no longer confined to the pages of science fiction - when instead of information being “in” our computers; people, products, environments, and cultures begin to live “in” the information.

“The computer revolution is just getting started”

Written by the principals of MAYA Design, this is an insiders’ account of both the promise and the risks of a world containing trillions of computing devices. It is also a cautionary tale of the head-in-the-sand attitude with which many of today’s thought leaders are approaching these issues. Trillions is designed to help businesses and their customers prepare to not only survive, but thrive in a massively connected world.

“There are already more computing devices in the world than there are people, and in a few more years, their number will climb into the trillions,” says Mickey McManus, co-author of Trillions and President and CEO of MAYA Design. “With a trillion embedded devices, people will no longer have the attention or patience to tolerate untamed complexity. We wrote this book to explore how we can design for a future that is permeated with computation, and how we can make the future human-literate instead of forcing us all to become computer-literate.”

The ramifications of a trillion networked nodes will be felt by individuals and businesses alike. Trillions is a field guide to the future, where firms will disappear and new ones will be born overnight.

“The computer revolution is just getting started,” adds Peter Lucas, co-author of Trillions and Founding Principal at MAYA Design. “Having one PC or even having 8 or 10 devices isn’t the end of the story, it’s only the beginning. Once we reach a critical threshold of computing density and connectedness, things are going to evolve quickly into something quite different from the present.”

Published by John Wiley & Sons, “Trillions: Thriving in the Emerging Information Ecology” is available today in bookstores across the country.

About the Authors

PETER LUCAS is founding principal at MAYA Design, which he cofounded in 1989. He is also adjunct associate professor of Human Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University. He holds a PhD from Cornell University, where he studied educational and cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics. He served on the Committee on Networked Systems of Embedded Computers of the National Research Council.

JOE BALLAY is former head of the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University and a founding principal of MAYA Design. An interdisciplinarian, he holds an MFA in design from Carnegie Mellon University, a BFA in industrial design from the University of Illinois, and a BS in industrial management from Carnegie Institute of Technology. He has taught design at universities throughout the world.

MICKEY McMANUS is president and CEO of MAYA Design. He holds a BFA in industrial design from the University of Illinois, with extended studies in communication design and mathematics. His work has been published in Bloomberg Businessweek, Fortune, Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. He is a frequent speaker on the topic of design, pervasive computing, and business innovation.

For more information about “Trillions: Thriving in the Emerging Information Ecology,” please visit http://trillions.maya.com or contact Judy Huang at 202-772-1450.

TRILLIONS
Thriving in the Emerging Information Ecology
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Publication date: October 1, 2012
$34.95; Hardcover; 272 pages; ISBN: 978-1-118-17607-8
Available on www.wiley.com – http://trillions.maya.com
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118176073.html