Author Description

The New Media Consortium's Horizon Project is an ongoing research project that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact in education and other industries around the world over a five-year time period. The chief products of the project are the "Horizon Reports", an annual series of publications that describe promising emerging technologies and highlight their relevance. This special edition, the "Horizon Report: 2009 Economic Development Edition", explores the landscape of emerging technologies as it pertains to small to medium-sized businesses. Like the "Horizon Report" itself, this special edition follows a specific format to describe six technologies or practices that will impact businesses within three adoption horizons over the next five years. Each topic opens with an overview describing the technology at hand, followed by a discussion of its relevant applications for small to medium businesses. Examples of how the technology is currently employed, or how it could be applied to commerce, illustrate its potential. Finally, an annotated list of materials for further reading is provided for those who would like to explore a topic in greater depth. The technologies featured in this report are: (1) Cloud Computing; (2) Mobiles; (3) Augmented Reality; (4) Location-Based Services; (5) Semantic-Aware Applications; and (6) Smart Objects. Online resources are included. [This publication was sponsored by the Economic and Workforce Development (EWD) Program's Multimedia and Entertainment Initiative, a division of the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office.].