I feel as if we need to create a new scale for technology years that is akin to dog years. In other words, for every normal human year, there are three technology years – at least it seems that way with all the progress we are making in tech these days. When I look back at what blossomed in 2009, and also what began to emerge, it is hard to believe how much has happened in such a short time. So without further ado, here is my list of most important happenings in 2009…
The emergence of microblogging (Twitter, Facebook, and others) – The concept of connecting to streams of information provided by others came into its own.
The iPhone basically trumped the phone market with the concept of a mobile computing device that can download $1.00 applications at will. Android will follow, and Apple will try to stay ahead. In the end, everyone will carry smartphones.
Augmented Reality emerged. From nothing, to a slate of applications, AR is now more than just a concept. It will grow to be one of the common ways for delivering location-based information
Social Technologies go corporate. Maybe the largest blossoming of a technology was the realization by organizations that social tech is more than just the tool of teenagers.
Online Reputation Management emerged as new field that must be learned by executives and organizations. From now on, our online relevancy will be key to prospering in the marketplace
Crowdsourcing becomes a commonly used tool. At least a hundred websites have come to the market that harness the internet herd in order to do everything from creative to R&D.
Applications continue to move into the cloud. It looks like 2009 will be the year that cloud based computing began to be viewed as a logical step for IT departments to take.
On the business models changing front, over 100 newspapers went out of business, Blockbuster is suffering, the post office is losing billions, people are dropping land lines quickly, pay phones are gone, and magazines are suffering.
On the human front, we are inundated with unfiltered information and people contacting us 18 hours a day. Kids are addicted to text messaging and seem to think they need an iPhone at single digit ages now.
On the productivity front, we steadily gain the ability to do more work and at higher quality every year.
I guess I could go on and on with this list because I am barely scratching the surface of what happened in tech last year. It also shows no sign of slowing down for 2010. That leads me to make this one observation for the future. As we are worrying about the shrinking middle class in the US, we better start thinking about the technology have and have-nots. This does not even concern who can afford tech because even the poorest people seem to have iPhone’s these days. This concerns who can leverage all the new technologies coming out. Those that cannot are losing value in the marketplace quickly, and those that can use the tools are gaining in power and influence. That goes from the lowest rungs of the ladders to the C-Suite. It is time to wake up and smell the velocity…
Scott Klososky
Scott@klososky.com
January 2nd, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Your Iphone statements are hilarious and fully agree! Nowadays most people have already 20 subscriptions for phone, cable, internet, gym in their life’s and it’s weird to see how everybody can afford all this. But who knows where this will go in the next decade