Michael Stephens (picture) is on my very short list of must-read bloggers.
I am in good company. By the latest Bloglines count, Michael had 4.311 subscribers to his RSS feed. For a newspaper, that is a trickle. For a blog, it is a torrent.
I liked his predictions for the year to come: Ten Trends and Technologies for 2009 – and repeat his headings – with my italics – here:
- The ubiquity of the Cloud. To understand the cloud, you must live there.
- The changing Role of IT. Or deep digitalization, which means no more IT departments. IT becomes mundane, social, present.
- The promise of Micro-Interaction. Interaction as habit. IT as habitus (Bourdieu).
- The care & nurturing of the Tribe. Relate to the life-world (Habermas)
- I hope that we encourage the Heart. Yeats, who knew about such things, wrote about the rag-and-bone shop of the heart.
- The triumph of the Portable device. People with glasses see the world through them. Cell phones and tablets are glasses for the web.
- The importance of Personalization. This flexibility goes with the technology.
- The impact of Localization. This flexibility goes with the technology.
- The evolution of the Digital Lifestyle. Some producers are beginning to understand their new markets.
- The shift toward Open Thinking. Which means a willingness to learn.
And lots of good stuff inside …
