6 ideas with some 2011 bounce

With technology trends, the important work often begins only after the public has lost interest.

Take transparency, for example. The topic generated a lot of excitement this year as federal agencies began opening their data coffers and posting information online. But the initial buzz has given way to apathy and even disappointment. What are we supposed to do with all that data? And where is the rest of it?

Those are fair questions, which is why open data remains a vital issue. The future of transparency could very well hinge on what happens — or doesn’t — in 2011.

We found similar patterns with other hot-button issues, such as cloud computing, insourcing and crowdsourcing. For better or worse, the true relevance of those topics will become clear only after another year or more has passed and agencies have had an opportunity to deal with the kind of nitty-gritty concerns that rarely interest the general public.

Here are the trends we cover:

1. Can grand design be driven to extinction?

2. Countering the consumerization of IT

3. Government data sharing gets past the warm-up

4. Agency data dwells in private home -- for now

5. The reinvention of insourcing

6. New ideas for idea competitions

Let us know what you think.

— John Monroe
Editor