Metro fare signs confuse the riders who need help most

Most people riding Metro use SmarTrip, and that's great. But the ones that are more likely to need extra help with a fare table are the infrequent customers that use a paper farecard.

It makes no sense to list SmarTrip prices on the fare table and then ask people to add $1. Riders shouldn't need to do math to figure out how much to put on their farecards. We want to make purchasing a farecard as easy as possible, while not necessarily offering them the best deal possible.

The simplest solution would be to list the paper farecard prices on the tables, and then have notes that SmarTrip riders get a discount. Even if these riders don't notice, they'll just end up with extra money on their cards, which they can use later.

An even better approach would be to eliminate the $1 surcharge, and instead always charge peak fares for people using paper farecards. The fare machines would simply list the peak fare for each destination, with a note that SmarTrip customers get discounts during off-peak, discounted transfers to and from trips on buses, protected fare balances (with registration) and a guarantee that they won't be trapped in the system if their balance goes too low.

All paper farecard customers would have to do is look up their destination, and make sure their farecard had the corresponding amount. No math, no timetables, no figuring out whether it's currently peak or off-peak.

WMATA spokesperson Dan Stessel said the agency is aware of the confusion and complaints about these signs, and is "considering" making changes to the posted fare tables and signs.

As with many previous innovations, Apple wasn't the first to market. There were many digital music players before the iPod, tablet PCs have been around decades before the iPad was launched, and other companies produced smart phones before Apple launched the iPhone. What Apple seems to be getting right is the timing (the point in time when certain innovations are ready to take off) and the marketing power to create a real buzz and demand for the next must-have gadget. I feel that it will be the same with the iWatch.

There is a real buzz around wearable intelligent devices in the tech world because they generate so much new data that can be analysed. Devices like Nike's Fuelband and the Fitbrit Ultra are already available and provide users with fantastic insights, data and analysis. But my prediction is that Apple will get the lion's share of a potentially massive market. And I don't think the iWatch (or whatever Apple will call it) is far away from being launched, especially as Samsung and Sony have already announced they are working on a smart watch. Pebble is another smart watch that is already available and offers compatibility with iPhone and Android - you can customise the watch with apps to control your music, go running or cycling, measure your golfing performance, and you get alerts for incoming calls or emails.

The reason I believe the iWatch (or the smart watch idea in general) will change the world of big data analytics is because it will allow all of us to collect and analyse data on both a personal and global level. Take health as an example. These intelligent wrist watches will permit monitoring of an individual's heart rate, calorie intake, activity levels, quality of sleep and more. Now imagine collecting that data on a much bigger scale. Potentially, governments, medical agencies, etc. will be able to use such collective data to gain a better insight into a nation's physical output, eating habits, risk indicators, and worrying trends. The buzz word surrounding this type of data analysis is 'big data' and I predict that it will have a huge impact in the business world. A recent global survey by The Advanced Performance Institute found that seven percent of companies have already started to use this type of mass analysis or 'big data'.

Now, as a second wave of the internet age -- underpinned by mobile internet and the hunger for ubiquitous, high-capacity networks -- slowly sweeps the globe with promises to boost productivity and create new growth sectors, Dr Bradlow has warned Australia is at risk of missing out if it underinvests in broadband infrastructure or fails to start thinking today about how to make use of the blossoming world of connected devices.

"We will become a marginalised, agrarian economy that has some mining, nice beaches and agriculture. But that's not the same as being a developed, hi-tech digital economy," he said.

The second coming of the internet age has been spurred by the confluence of ubiquitous internet access, the explosive adoption of mobility and smartphones, and the nascent growth of machine-to-machine (M2M). It's this third area, also known as "the internet of things", that Dr Bradlow believes has the potential to drive productivity improvements and vastly improve business efficiency and spawn growth sectors in coming decades.

"It's combinations of technology that really create change and the combination that fascinates me at the moment is sensor technology," Dr Bradlow said. "It's the ability to put a sensor in just about anything and have that sensor communicate to a wide area network, often via your mobile phone."

Such is the growth of M2M that the world's leading internet equipment-maker, Cisco, has forecast that Australia will have 142 million connected devices by 2016, about six for every Australian.

Dr Bradlow warns that, to tap into the potential that these smart things can yield, Australia must start planning now. He points to the example of busy urban centres where councils and infrastructure planners are building roads to lessen traffic congestion in overpopulated cities.

Instead of building more "dumb" infrastructure today, Dr Bradlow said, councils should look to implement technological solutions that made use of internet-connected devices that could talk to each other and analyse traffic flows to ease congestion points.