Our Predictions for 2010

Chris and Gihan make 10 predictions about what's coming up in the next 12 months in Internet technology and use.


MP3 File

Here are our 10 predictions:

1. (Chris) Internet Politics - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: We'll witness an increasingly political dimension to The Internet as governments grapple with regulation and censorship of the Net. Additionally, we'll see governments and political parties and activists using the Internet for service delivery, campaigning and activism.
2. (Gihan) There'll be an increase in electronic meetings - e.g. teleseminars, webinars, conference calls, on-line conferences - and this will correspond to a significant drop in face-to-face meetings.
3. (Chris) Less Privacy / Greater Openness: While sites like Facebook and Google are improving the privacy controls they provide to their users, people seem to be increasingly comfortable with sharing information about themselves including embarrassing, even dangerous information.
4. (Gihan) Because we more Internet-connected phones, we'll see a significant increase in localisation and context-specific content - e.g. a restaurant sending you SMS ads when you walk by.
5. (Chris) We'll have more mobile applications.
6. (Gihan) The growth of Google-based phones will exceed growth of iPhones.
7. (Chris) After an annus horribilus in 2009, we'll see the start of a recovery for on-line news media.
8. (Gihan) Smart businesses will figure out Twitter and Facebook.
9. (Chris) The Pervasive Internet: There'll be an increasing number of clever gadgets being launched that "passively" access the Internet as part of their operation.
10. (Gihan) Content syndication - both automatic and manual - will really take off.