Big 2.0 shakeouts
- Whether or not a "S&L part deux" recession occurs, Web 2.0 startups will be forced to become responsible. That means they'll need to focus on profitability or close shop. More of them will address industry verticals to help gain traction.
"Social Productivity" stampede begins: Utility and social applications converge
- Google is the most visible company who could connect the dots to unify utility with social applications. Rumor is they'll do this under the umbrella of "Google Sites" which is meant to:
Look at what Google has staked so far:
Attention! (Next year's buzz.)
- While this year buzz was Social Networking next year should be "Attention Streaming." Given how many social applications and connections we have, it will be important to easily keep track of activity, content, and people (signal vs noise). This will be particularly in demand for companies embracing Enterprise 2.0. There are a couple of approaches to this. "Groupthink," which is a top-down approach where attention focus is determined by activity of the masses. "User Activity" is a bottoms-up approach to taming the data firehose. Right now it seems these are addressed as one route or the other and no one has combined both. There's already some interesting standards and traction beginning.
IT big guys buy some 2.0 souvenirs
- Though for the most part it will be more wait-and-see from the Big Guys, my bet is there will be at least one minor acquisition, potentially one of the many me-too Office-style applications or maybe an enterprise wiki.
Content management will specialize
- Content continues to change and so does the role of Content Management Systems. As more content lives outside those systems and inside social productivity applications, I imagine that the way we'll need to control content will change, too. CMS will hone in on the types of content that makes sense in this paradigm, some will zero-in on heavy file-centric, structured industries. It will be interesting to see how this part of the market evolves.
Media properties will begin to focus on Enterprise 2.0 software
- Given the above predictions, media folks will take advantage of all the interest around Enterprise 2.0 and begin to dedicate some brand new media properties to it. For now, Web 2.0 (consumer) and Enterprise 2.0 (business) have been mashed together and covered in the same industry rags like Techcrunch, Read/Write Web and GigaOM. My sense is that there's now enough independent gravity between Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 to justify targeted readership, editorial and (yes) advertising dollars.