2007 Predictions
Howdy folks. I hope you have had a happy and safe holidays. Now it’s back to ye olde grind, so to speak.
I’m a little bit late to the game on the ‘07 predictions, but I’ll throw my $.02 in anyway
1) General Assessment: 2007 will be just like the latter part of 2006, only more so. Feel free to stop reading here if you’re pressed for time.
3) Trend Mongering: Nothing will want be referred to as “2.0″, (even this line item). Presence-enabled apps will be the Next Big Thing heralded in 2007, but don’t expect too much this year.
4) Technology Cynicism: “Enterprisey” will become an increasingly popular derogatory term among business and IT folk alike. At the same time, the technologies and best practices that really make solutions scalable and trustworthy will continue to go mainstream (e.g. ACID databases, rigorous change management, planning for concurrency, intelligent network monitoring, etc.).
5) Data Syndication: RSS/Atom will continue to creep into the BigCo IT mainstream. There may not be pervasive hands-on adoption in the next 363 days, but once management gets a taste of data syndication, it will likely show up in 2008 budgets.
6) Browser Wars: Mozilla’s XUL will become an increasingly popular app development platform, as XMPP4Moz and Firebug are very promising signs of things to come. Time to dust off those old ActiveX/Flash arguments from a few years ago.
7) Apple: The Mac will continue to grow in market share. Apple will probably do something cool and useful related to telephony besides an iPod/cellphone device. I’m expecting Mr. Jobs to explain to the world how antiquated telephones are, in a blindingly-obvious-in-hindsight sort of way. Oh, and one more thing, Leopard’s iChat looks like it will have an Answering Machine built in. My house has one of those too. For now.
8) Programming Languages: IronPython will continue to increase its influence on the Microsoft side of the house, championing the cause of dynamicism to the masses. TurboGears, Django, Rails, etc. will all continue to cross-pollenate good ideas and kick off the occasional flame war.
9) Databases: MySQL’s perception of dominance in the Open Source database world will continue to erode, as it faces the competition of SQLite from below and PostgreSQL from above.
10) DRM: Digital Rights Management has already started to generate a lot of bad press for Microsoft and Vista. I firmly believe that the folks from Redmond will listen to their customers and adjust their DRM and activation gameplans accordingly, so that content producers and consumers both get a fair shake.
In closing, DRM will probably be the biggest technology topic of 2007, as ordinary folks quickly start to realize that fast-talking, red Corvette-driving, Aqua Velva-drenched Hollywood types should keep their zircon-encrusted pinky rings off of computer hardware specifications, instead focusing their creative attention on much more important work: Snakes on a Plane 2.