Happy New Year (what happened last year) and what’s to come?
Rather than wish anyone who happens to stumble upon this post a happy new year, we would much rather take the time to reflect upon the past year and the adventures that are left to come - not only within our own organisation, but more importantly, within the digital world we find ourselves so readily immersed.
The first article that really drew our attention to the year that has past came from Mashable and discussed the changes in media:
Rupert Murdoch is buying up the whole of the printed industry, the music sector going to court in an effort to prove some point, the film industry is seeing losses in the box office due to leaked flicks and the television screenwriters have gone on strike. In the midst of it all, we’ve seen the influence of new media.
Why is new media so attractive? Aside form the cheaper way in which media can be created, stored and distributed, the most attractive aspect of new media to someone like a writer on strike is the ability to maintain controlling ownership of their own content. That means a higher percentage of profit for them. The bane of new media for the traditional media sector is the potential for piracy in its many forms.
If anything can symbolise this change in media more dramatically, it must be the British Queen on YouTube at Christmas. However, the three little letters that have stood-out the most through much of 2007 were RSS, which Read Write Web did an excellent job of recapping for us:
This past year was a big one for RSS. RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, was the backbone of all early developments in the new era of the internet. It made blogs readable, podcasts subscribable, wikis trackable and search persistent.
The Big Events in RSS for 2007
Before we take a look at the popular predictions that have been made for 2008 and the internet world, Drama 2.0 took the time to present Mashable with a detailed list of things that are fairly certain not to take place:
Prediction #1: The Majority of Web 2.0 Startups Won’t Develop Scalable, Long-Term Business Models.
Prediction #2: Most of the Hottest Web 2.0 Startups Won’t Get Acquired for Big Bucks.
Prediction #3: The U.S. Economy Won’t Help Startups.
Prediction #4: There Won’t Be Much Innovation.
Prediction #5: There Won’t Be Many New Notable Faces.
Prediction #6: Silicon Valley Won’t Take Over Hollywood.
Prediction #7: Entrepreneurs and Investors Won’t Be Discouraged by Any of the Above.
Richard MacManus, the Editor of Read Write Web puts Semantic Apps (Web 3.0) at the top of it’s list of 2008 internet technology predictions:
1. Semantic Apps will become popular in 2008, due to their ability to get better content results and make better data connections.
2. In tandem with #1, Google will experiment more with Semantic Apps in ‘08.
3. Web Services platforms will be a fierce battleground in ‘08, with Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Mozilla and others competing to provide ‘Web OS’ and online storage to consumers.
4. Zoho and (or) ThinkFree will be acquired by big companies wanting to leapfrog into the Web Office space.
5. The online advertising market will consolidate, after the spate of acquisitions in 2007. CPM will continue to dominate for media brands and CPC for niche sites.
However, Mashable pin-pointed their predictions directly towards NBC and Google with the following comments:
NBC gets some sort of handle on their video strategy
Whatever went down between Apple and NBC, it seems to have knocked NBC for a loop, and now they have no sense to what they ’re doing. Instead of focusing on just one video delivery method.Google and their mobile plans
What does Google have up their sleeve? They’re developing their mobile OS, Android, and they’re bidding in the 700 MHz auction with the stipulation that a portion of it remains open access. It’s not too difficult to make the educated guess that the long rumored, ad-supported Google phone system is in the not to distant future.
In our opinion, it was Profy who highlighted one of the more interesting predictions for 2008 as they discussed OpenSource:
Over the last few years we’ve seen the rise in popularity of Open Source software solutions. As this concept has crept across the Internet, it has left the confines of geekdom and begun to gather mainstream traction. People and businesses everywhere are finally recognizing Open Source software’s potential for cost savings and ease of use.
Open Source software means that the programmers of the software have made the software source code “open” to other programmers to contribute, change or improve upon. The software is then distributed to the end user(s) for free.
In truth, and as O’Reilly touches upon, it is OpenSource Hardware that is going to revolutionise business models as we presently know them, in much the same way that the concept of widgets as an online advertising model is going to put a symbolic end to traditional advertising:
As a trusted colleague suggested recently, putting the words “open,” “source,” and “hardware” next to one another in a sentence is a sure way to cure insomnia among business people. But, before those non-alpha geeks among you click away, you might want to know what the alpha geeks know: that open source hardware is looking like it will be a big part of the future of manufacturing and beyond. As we’ve covered here, here, here, and plenty of other places, we’re seeing more and more early but strengthening signals that open source is about a lot more than software. Open source changed the business of software irrevocably, in ways ranging from how we produce and license software to how we maintain and distribute it. It’s starting to happen with hardware, too.
So with that said, what are our own personal predictions for 2008…?
Firstly, it’s going to be one hell of an exciting year, and secondly, we are extremely grateful for everyone’s support…
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Reader's Comments
ni-limits.com
January 6th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
O’Reilly just posted another article regarding OpenSource Hardware…
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