An interesting piece by Steve Gillmor, especially as we entering the 2004 prediction season. Here are some of his predictions (Web 2.0 content related details in my parlance):
RSS information routers will emerge in 2004 with the following characteristics:
? Persistent storage of XHTML full-text/graphics/audio/video of RSS feeds
? XPATH search across local and Net stores
? Self-forming and reordering subscriptions lists based on the aggregated priorities of user-chosen domain experts
? Use of IM notification for post notification to aggregate affinity groups and active conversations
? Integration of Hydra-like collaborative tools for multi-author conference transcripts
? Videoconferencing routing and broadcast/recording tools
? Integration of speech recognition and real-time indexing to allow quoting of linear audio and video streams
? Mesh networked peer-to-peer synchronization engine for item propagation across shared spaces on multiple clients, including phones; iPods; and eventually Longhorn PDAs (circa 2006).
Armed with these tools, new industries will emerge in rapid succession:
? Metadata-driven directories that dynamically create RSS feeds based on affinity
? Virtual conferences
? IM/RSS presence networks for rich collaboration and e-mail replacement
? Content-generation tools based on small, routable XHTML objects
? A DRM network with enough creative and hardware support to blunt the Microsoft/RIAA DRM threat to peer-to-peer port hijacking.