Just because Matt asked so nicely and because, well, I haven’t done it before, I’ve decided to (slightly belatedly) post my predictions for 2007:

1. This will be the year of connected desktop apps

   Not that web apps won’t continue to be produced like mad…I mean…really…they are so simple to produce, aren’t they? But those beasts of apps (one reader once said, “Code in C++? Fuck that!”) on your desktop will start not only being ‘connected’ to the web, but interacting with it, too.

2. Co-opetition will be the word du jour

   Yep. Co-operating with your competition. You read it right. Shrouds of secrecy will start to drop and more deals will be made amongst mortal enemies to actually deliver bang-up user experiences. You’ll all realize that win-win-win is a good way to live and, like it implies, it behooves everyone.

3. Interoperability will cease baffling all of the startups around us

   Thanks to APIs, Microformats and OpenID, we will start to see more building blocks come together, rather than stand-alone anti-social apps. I’ve had a post about Lego^TM sitting in my drafts folder for too long, which I will finish writing one of these days so you will know EXACTLY how it this is done.

4. Those with little humility will have to eat it

   What is with the lack of self-reflection in this world? I’m not only talking about the tech world. It happens everywhere. We are not gods, people. We are human. And we screw up. And we don’t know everything. Let’s stop trying to be the tough guy and protecting our sand castles and just work together towards a better world. We all have ego, but it’s knowing how to let it go that makes us great. (Oh…the prediction part of this is that, like Keith Teare’s fabulous De-Portalisation post, we’ll have our niche audiences and mutual respect communities forming while the braggarts/big dogs continue to fight one another to the death…Keith didn’t say it, but I see the parallel. I like living in the foothills).

5. We will enter a period of chaos

   Which, if you are prepared for it will be an amazing time for all of us. Creativity, deja vu’s, chance meetings, serendipity and all sorts of beautiful stuff can happen. It will also unleash unrest, depression, fear and defensiveness for many. People will do some desperate things to try to restore order. If you are there to witness it, record it.

6. The assholes will continue to stay in power

   ‘Cause there is a great deal of unraveling to do and it will remain that way for a while. However, it will start to unwind at a faster rate this year and they will make some desperate decisions to hold onto it. Don’t worry about it for the long run - those decisions will haunt them for the rest of their lives…or at least until they learn to let go.

7. Back to technology: Mac ownership will grow in leaps and bounds.

   I would hazard a guess that the numbers will triple in 2007. Apple Store lineups will get unbearable. More Mac viruses will appear. Cult of Mac will hate this and make up derogatory name for people who switched only because of the Intel.

8. People’s disatisfaction with their cell providers/telcos will grow to new heights

   Pissed off and tired of being hindered by the companies they pay thousands of dollars a year to, consumers will begin to inform other consumers and become even more pissed off. More and more news stories will come out that paint the telephone industry and their mergers as “Bad for People”, opening up the opportunity for alternatives like VoIP, etc. to grow their influence. Not in 2007, but in years to come, telcos will begrudgingly start to unlock the awesome power of our cell phones…but it will be too late because the public won’t be fooled any longer.

9. Speaking of bandwidth…

   North Americans will realize that 2megs up and down is nothing and not worth the hundreds of dollars spent compared to the massive connective power in other countries. Telcos will also be spanked for this, but they will ignore it for this year.

10. “Community Marketing” will be buzzworded to death

    Yes, it’s already looking like that, but it will get even worse. So bad, in fact, that it will be the second phrase out of everyone’s mouths…yet…they won’t be able to explain to you what the hell that even means. When you say, “What is community?” to people, they will be, like, “Well, you know, people…in the community…behind a…um…product or…um…movement,” and you know they just don’t understand and are just using the word to make a buck and to exploit the whole ’social networking’/Web 2.0 thing that they didn’t understand in the first place. Some of us, though, will continue to not want to define anything at all and just work in our little niches and give a damn and we may even make enough money to survive 2007.

So, there you go. Chaos (yay), interoperability (yay), unrest (yay), co-opetition (yay) and exploitative jerks (boo). Sounds like a pretty good year to me…