The 2009 Horizon report was somewhat disappointing.  As a relative new comer to the field of elearning and online collaboprative technologies I was expecting to be dazzled with the array of new technologies which were being presented as “on the horizon”.  Instead I heard about new mobile technology which has been available for some time now, at least in the developed countries were I train.  These countries include India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and even New Zealand so I am not setting the bar excessively high.  Cloud computing is positioned as a technology which will emerge in the next 1-2 years abd yet as a self confessed “techno-moron” I have been using a version of cloud computing to store my photo library for at least 2 years!

Geo locative technology is interesting and while I agree with the report that there is still some dramatic scope for expansion it has been available for some time (as is acknowledged in the report) not just in avdanced technical applications but in things as simple as digital SLR cameras.

Semantic aware applications and smart objects are interesting and will obviously have incredible scope when they become readily available but from such a widely anticipated report one would expect a better strike rate than 2 from 6.

Reference:New Media Consortium (NMC), 2009, The Horizon Report, URL: [http://wp.nmc.org/horizon2009/chapters/executive-summary/]