Happy New Year ! How will 2010 shape up ?
So will 2010 be a good year for the technology industry or will the forecast slow recovery dampen prospects? Depends who and what you read.
The year kicked off with some of the trail blazers of the computer games sector getting some well-earned recognition in the New Year's Honours list. In the Tech Press Baseline looks at technology trends that will define the IT landscape in the year ahead, and John Parkinson at CIO Insight argues for a focus on ROH - 'return on history'. Computing reports that the US is considering incentives to attract immigrant IT entrepreneurs - 'this would potentially swell the ranks of Silicon Valley where even now, half the tech company founders are immigrants'. v3 picks up on the Conservative Party's promise of a new competition with a £1m prize for an online crowdsourcing platform, and Mashable takes a look at what CES2010 may have in store as Ben Parr of Mashable previews some of the devices and trends we might be seeing at this week’s upcoming Show.
On the wider economic front, according to Lloyds TSB (The Scotsman) Scotland looks like emerging from the recession in Q1 due to a "substantial pick-up in export activity and a revival among production businesses"; however growth is likely to be "slow and tentative". Iain McWhirter writing in the Herald argues "We need lots of small businesses developing the technologies created by our world-class universities," and urges businesses to march on the banks to provide reasonable priced lending facilities, and Jeremy Peat, head of the David Hume Institute, urges us to "Treat 2010 as a bright new dawn not a bleak mid winter" (The Herald) also espousing the opportunities for exports.