Hopes and Predictions for 2009

Ranginui Door, Te Papa Museum, Wellington

My hopes and predictions for 2009 are few and simple.

I predict that the solid-state memory chip will be the biggest most influential factor in developments in 2009. It will pave the way for the revolution yet to come with the introduction of the graphene chip in the years before 2012. What broadband did for Internet use, the graphene chip will do for the proliferation of hand-held devices, but that is a year or so off yet.

Connectivity will be better that ever before simply because of the extra memory space permitting the whole caboodle, platform/operating system, to be downloaded with the software. Mash-ups will be the way to go, and used more than ever before and for similar reasons.

The ebook will further develop, expanded by the possibilities unleashed by the extra memory space permitted by the new and developing massive memory chips that are now available.

Social networking will continue to become more popular and the increasing popularity of the hand-held device to access the Internet will permit the use of social networking to burgeon. I suspect that the cellular networks and associated services will require major upgrading to cope with the huge increases in the use of the hand-held device.

Hopes for 2009:

Malcolm Gladwell’s 'Outliers' points the finger clearly at the worth and origin of the real expert. My hopes are that society will embrace the recent studies and understandings that have come to light about the worth of expertise – true expertise, not so-called expertise that’s adopted on a whim.

The skills and knowledge that come with true expertise will once again be recognised as an essential attribute for societal progress. The usefulness of content, that has been shaken almost off its foundation in the past decade, will once again be recognised in education.

There will be less sabre rattling about what is learnt from printed books and the like. Digitising text from existing printed books will continue and there will be (more) digital books written that will remain digital - those will not be available in bound printed form.

The digital novel will write the introduction of a new era.

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This post was published (NZ time) before Tony Karrer's Big Question for 2009