The best parts of my job are the opportunities I get to meet smart, interesting people who think big.  Last week I spent a couple of fascinating hours in the company of Ken Silva, CTO of VeriSign.  I was asking him his thoughts on the impact of the growth of what YG calls the Anywhere Network. Here’s one insight I enjoyed.

“In a very short period of time, we will realize that the way we see maps now is just cartoonish. Maps are going to be real-time, image-based… showing me virtually any place I want to be. Looking at a real overhead view of where I’m at, or going — that’s going to change the data that I get. That’s the next level. The things we’re used to getting will become richer and richer. We may look back soon and think about how barbaric it was to be typing on a keyboard.”

Even I, as brave a predictor of the future as I try to be, don’t have the nerve to suggest the obsoletion of the keyboard. But Ken’s right about maps. Coupling a ubiquitous, broadband network with the net’s own intelligence about where you and other things are in its mesh means changes not just to static maps, but anything that has to do with ‘whereness’.

Stay tuned for the full text of my interview with Ken - I’ll let you know when it’s up on the CEO Corner of our site.