Momentum. Technology's impact, data's professions, rural's surge.

Every year, experts convened by the World Economic Forum and Scientific American make predictions about the emerging technologies expected to have major social, economic, and environmental impacts worldwide.

While some of these technologies have been catapulted into public consciousness and are fully integrated into our lives, others have been slower to gain momentum.

Nearly 60,000 data scientists and related professionals are employed in the United States, and another 30,000 people are in the related “Computer and Information Research Scientists” category defined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those are smaller categories than, say, software development, but data science roles are expected to grow at least as fast. More to the point, comfort working with and analyzing data is fast becoming a prerequisite for most any professional role.

…only 56 percent of families earning less than $40,000 a year have a broadband subscription, compared to 86 percent of families earning more than $70,000. In a paper in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, author George W. Zuo finds that this limited access to home broadband has a significant effect on the employment and earnings of poorer Americans.