Web 2.0; stress about debt, urbanisation and executives striving to act responsibly – not the most ideal bedfellows but apparently the issues that will dominate our lives in 2009.
Such is the outlook of Ross Dawson, a published author, business consultant and futurologist, whose crystal-ball gazing provides some clues about what we can expect.
Perversely, he says, the slowing economy will accelerate the pace of change, so much so that the next 12 months will bring more change than any other year this decade.
Having watched the pioneers do it in 2008, he expects more companies to use technology in 2009 creatively, to the extent that mobile widgets and online gaming will become ubiquitous.
But as social change tends to speed up in a downturn, Dawson believes our attitudes about what is acceptable behaviour by companies, as well as governments, will evolve rapidly.
As a result, technology will shape society, which will strive for greater control, but society will also shape technology, particularly in how it allows us to express “forcible opinions”.
Companies, he contends, will join this trend of being social – so networks, blogs and other Web 2.0 tools, like micro-blogging sites, will thrive, potentially transforming how we work.
According to Dawson’s ‘multi-tentacled hydra’ - or trend map, outfits of all sizes will strike a delicate balance of outsourcing more, while ensuring CSR – corporate social responsibility.
Although both business issues conjure up images of the multi-market corporation, the former will be championed by websites linking job-sellers with job-seekers across the world.
This trend of “mere mortals” using outsourcing, Dawson said, is currently led by Australian and American sellers, whether they are looking for designers, developers, or travel agents.
Journalists, he added, will prosper in 2009 – given that they have the most relevant skills in an information age – “but for many their future won’t be in traditional journalist roles.”
Explaining, he said that major media companies, presumably inert, print-led ones, could fold in the next 12 months, as ‘advertising’ and ‘audience’ become synonymous with the internet.
Yet the Web, usually a force for good, may be used to perpetuate some of 2009’s likely “red herrings,” like the “climate change crisis,” “fall of the US,” and “device convergence.”
More of concern, it seems, is what the futurologist identified as “Global Risks” - like a major internet failure, food shortages, income equality and, he mused, “people taking trend maps too seriously.”
Jan 5, 2009
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