Strategic Foresight - Insights in Business and Technology

I recently wrote about upcoming Web 2.0 apps in Australia and it was received well. As a result of that i have now updated this list in collaboration with Richard Macmanus from Web 2.0 workgroup . More here , here and here .

Rumours are hot about News Corp planning to buy Digg . It’s a rumour right now, how much truth is there, is anybody's guess. This can be real news and might have been leaked to the press as a part of the strategy as suggested by Internet Analyst, Henry Blodget, Settle on basic deal terms and a provisional price, leak details so the market has a couple of days to chew on the idea, see how the stock reacts, and neutralize the market’s biggest concern (lawsuits) by announcing a distribution pact with the main guy who might sue you, fix the price, rubber-stamp the press release, and go. The coming days will tell us how much truth is there. If News Corp cannot buy this then these might be probable buyers for Digg. Microsoft - Microsoft will be the obvious choice because Microsoft is lagging in this Web 2.0 phenomenon. There hasn't been any decent/buzzing service offered by Microsoft in this space. If this comes on board, it will provide them with a kick-start, which they are hopin

Every day we read/hear about the new web 2.0 applications that start up with interesting concepts used. The recent acquisition of YouTube by Google has raised hope for new startups to realize their dream of making it big time. Aussies are not behind in this trend. There are quite a few interesting applications that have come out of hibernation. To-do list - Remember the Milk It allows users to manage tasks online as any to-do list will do. It is integrated with Google Maps, and Skype (IM) and is available on Mobiles as well. This is a very popular application around the globe with more than 100,000 users from 155 countries. It was launched in October 2005. Digg clone for funniest email - FWDitOn This is inspired by digg . It allows users to read hilarious emails, do a rating and share it with others. It is an interesting concept and has caught the attention of a few Venture Capitalists from overseas. This site was covered recently on TechCrunch . Community for parents -

IBM has acquired Datapower , one of the non (web 2.0) companies in the overly hyped environment. And it seems it hasn't got any coverage in the main media yet, but might get in the coming days. Currently, everyone seems to be focused on Web 2.0, but it looks like this acquisition might have long-term effects on software (S/W) applications. The question is what exactly Datapower do and how IBM's acquisition is significant? Today, S/W applications are built on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Legacy applications are enhanced to have SOA-based infrastructure. What it means to the layman, is that there is a service available on some website like (Google, or Amazon) and you can send a request for that service, and it replies to you back with the desired answer. SOA based applications mainly have data sent over the wire as XML, it can be SOAP (XML/HTTP) or XML/JMS. In a broader sense, it's a message (containing XML data on some transport protocol) that is sent across the wi