Five Things To Watch For In 2010
Heading into 2010, there are five things to watch which will dominate the field of technology. There are some significant issues which have developed in the last few years, and 2010 will see these come to a head, if not a resolution.
The Cloud
As we head into 2010, the cloud will continue to dominate the scene of technology. This will be hastened by the development of mobile devices. Its real traction will depend on the accessibility of wireless and broadband services. At the end of 2009, urbanites are enjoying the availability of low cost broadband services, while rural area still struggle with getting access to affordable high speed internet. Secondly, the cost and terms of data plans hold back the development of additional technologies and services.
Net Neutrality
Internet providers continue to test models of making money, and 2010 will see the rise of not-so-good models, and government stepping in and drawing some clear lines of authority over service providers and how services are provided.
Access to Broadband
As various European countries toy with plans to combat piracy by using 3 strikes type laws, the United States will look towards drawing bright lines of whether access to the internet is a luxury or necessity. Falling with the latter, the US will need to make significant investment in infrastructure to ensure rural areas get access to reliable low cost internet.
Privacy
A perennial issue, privacy will continue to top issues of 2010. As users become more aware of how their information is used and shared and the value of their information, they’ll become increasingly fickle about companies which abuse their good will.
E-books
2009 saw the rise of the e-book, while 2010 will see that field broaden initially with the cream rising to the top. The market will face many of the issues which music has been facing of the years, ownership, distribution, resale rights and DRM. We will see some companies moving to more proprietary formats and locked down systems, forcing users through their channels to access or add data to their readers. However, those companies which embrace open accessible formats will gain broader acceptance by users, though may fall afoul of publishers. The seeds of these issues have been sewn in 2009 and 2010 will see them blossom.
2010 promises to be an exciting (and interesting) year in technology. We will see whether grass roots efforts can beat out the strength and money of the telecom companies, and whether privacy, openness and accessibility really are important to users.
Okay, Quinn pushed the truth about creating the test, but using the test bank is cheating.
Test banks are not study guides or sample questions, they're used to generate unique electronic tests for each test taker. So the exam may only be 50 questions, but the bank has 500 questions. So person A is sitting next to person B, both running the test electronically. Each could have a unique test because the system is pulling their questions from the bank, rather than following the same structure for each student.
Of course this is cheating. It is available to instructors. This is why Ebay prevents selling of instructor manuals, they're intended for instructors. Quinn's laziness in not creating his own questions does not detract from the fact that they used material not intended for students. You can't expect an instructor to explicitly state every way that you're not supposed to cheat.
concept albums
What about concept albums? Ones that were meant to be listened to in their entirety such as Quadrophenia. The per track purchasing that occurs eliminates the concept of album in a sense, it's all about the singles. Granted, it's been about the singles for quite some time, but the record companies didn't have a great way to distribute them after the death of the 45 and before the birth of itunes.
stop linking
It would be a fascinating experiment to remove a single paper from all search engines and see what happens to their numbers. It might shut critics like Mr.Carroll up.
I vote for his paper.
copyright
Even without the sound, its a copyright violation because the video is copyrighted. It seems like the take down notice would have to be an all or nothing situation.