In the past decade, the iPhone and the ensuing smartphone revolution have altered our world more thoroughly than any previous computer generation. They have reached more than half the world’s population and have changed the way we communicate, travel, work, entertain ourselves and even sleep. To close the iPhone 360 event series, on October 18th veteran technology writers Steven Levy and John Markoff will host two panels on the impact of the iPhone.
The smartphone revolution has brought new economic freedoms— gig economy workers can now easily sell their labor to the Ubers and the Lyfts of the world without constraint. It has catalyzed a trillion dollar app economy with more than 3 billion users. At the same time, the iPhone has made it possible for a new class of monopolists such as Facebook and Google to reach the entire world’s population at virtually no cost. Levy will lead a conversation with Benedict Evans, author on how “mobile is eating the world” and Partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and Bertrand Schmitt, Co-founder and CEO of App Annie, about how the iPhone has remade the business world.
Smartphones have truly leveled the education playing field on a global scale — a young schoolchild in the most remote village of Africa can have equal access to knowledge to that of a freshman at Stanford or Harvard. Simultaneously they have enabled a global panopticon on a scale that George Orwell never dreamed of. The iPhone can literally monitor every step you take. Markoff will moderate a discussion with Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Jean-Louis Gassée, a former Apple executive and venture capitalist, and Judy Wajcman, a sociology professor at the London School of Economics, focused on the way the iPhone has transformed our culture.
This event will be streamed live on our Facebook page: facebook.com/computerhistory.
The iPhone 360 explores the story of iPhone, from its prehistory, inception, and launch, to its evolution and impact. Coinciding with the 10th anniversary year of the iPhone launch in 2007, iPhone 360 includes integrated initiatives across the Computer History Museum to create new collections of artifacts and oral histories, scholarly research and insights, dynamic events, and educational content and curriculum.
This event is produced by the Exponential Center @CHM. The Exponential Center captures the legacy—and advances the future—of entrepreneurship and innovation in Silicon Valley and around the world. The center explores the people, companies, and communities that are transforming the human experience through technology innovation, economic value creation, and social impact.
Computer History Museum
1401 N. Shoreline Boulevard
Mountain View,
CA,
94043
