In the 20 years after WWII Japan was the source of cheap goods for the U.S. and the world.  In the 1950s, “Made in Japan” meant cheap stuff that was showing up in a lot of product categories.  Then in the late 1960s and through the 1970s quality technology brands emerged; Sony, Panasonic and then Toyota and Datsun [now Nissan].  These brands changed American and global buying habits and often led the way down new paths of consumption such as VCRs, mobile music players and fuel efficient cars.

By the 1980s the major Japanese brands dominated major markets and product categories …

This blog is now almost four years old.  Many of you have been loyal readers since 2006 and I deeply appreciate your loyalty and continued support.  There have been many more who have become readers through the years and of course I also appreciate your readership.

Evolutionshift has and will be the place where I take a “future look at today” regardless of topic.  There are many developments, stories and breakthroughs that are worthy of comment here as they reflect where we are and where we are going.  There are few subjects I have not touched upon here and that will …

I know I am most definitely dating myself by using that iconic Warner Wolf phrase from the 1970s.  Any baby boomer from the first half of the boom that ever watched sports on TV can remember that phrase.  Well, this is a column about going to the video tape.  Internet 2.0 is video.

On January 1 I wrote a column here called “The Transformation Decade”. It prompted comments and numerous emails and took off on Twitter and the blogosphere.  That prompted me to make it a video.  Let’s go to the video tape!.

As a futurist, particularly since …

In the early 1970s, when I was first really getting into jazz, I heard one of those glib statements that stuck with me.  “The history of the jazz trumpet can be written in four words:  Louis Armstrong Miles Davis”  Now this obviously is not true as there have been dozens of great jazz trumpeters, but in a way it distilled the history of something down to two iconic figures.

The history of broadcast television in the U.S. can and will be distilled down to the same:  Ed Sullivan Oprah Winfrey.

The Ed Sullivan show was on from 1948 – 1971, was almost …