NYC techies predict trends for 2007
Home connectivity is the big one.
Last night was the year-end edition of the NY Tech Meetup, the monthly event organized by Meetup founder Scott Heiferman. It's a popular local event for the (re)emerging Silicon Alley set, usually drawing a crowd of over 500.
One of this month's features was a set of 10-second predictions by audience members regarding what they think the biggest tech trends of 2007 will be. There were some far-flung ones about grassroots political movement, radios, and whatnot, but there was one noticeable trend: the "connected home," with fluidity between broadband audio and video, television, speakers, and other components of the home media center. We've already seen plenty of it in '06, but I'd have to say I'm in agreement that it'll see a much more mainstream reception in '07. Although I'm not sure how well those grainy YouTube videos will translate to our HDTVs.
The second most frequent prediction last night? That New York City will produce its first-ever billion-dollar Internet company. It's a possibility, but I wouldn't say the crowd of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and enthusiasts was exactly "objective."
UPDATE: I forgot one. Another attendee predicted that in 2007, the term "2.0" will be used by techies "like building developers treat the 13th floor." He was answered with resounding applause.