title: What's hot and what's not anticipating trends in technology.
abstract: Technology tends to progress over time in a step fashion. Changes in productivity associated with technology, when followed over time, often plot out as an S curve. Long quiescent periods are interrupted by rapid rises in technology advance and productivity. Anticipating this is important since it often enables us to plan for new technology. The lag in response to change often leads to bad planning or bad decisions. For example, I recently brought a new 166 Mhz laptop just a month before the new 233s came out, with a corresponding drop in the price of the 166 models ... so it clear I am not omniscient on the subject. In this column we will discuss important trends and identify what is hot and what is not in order to help you anticipate change in technology. I'll explore eight areas in depth. I will also touch on what you need to do to take advantage of the new technology if you have invested in older legacy technology.
authors.affiliation: West Virginia Network for Educational Computing, Morgantown 26505, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Swartz
mesh_terms: D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000639:trends; D003201:Computers; D003205:Computing Methodologies; D006801:Humans; D013685:Telecommunications / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D019112:Teleradiology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000639:trends*; D014741:Video Recording