We are now rapidly getting closer to the end of the year. This is then time to make the usual predictions for 2010 and to launch a new meme to all the CMS gurus about the Top Trends for the CMS/WCM industry.

After the #fixwcm session at the last JBoye09, let’s try to merge this effort with the discussion launched by Scott Liewehr on Twitter (please follow the #futurewcm hashtag) and if you can go to the related Gilbane session for a live discussion… Perhaps some kind of best-of consolidated results (still crystal-ball however) will be presented.

David Nuescheler already started a few days ago at JBoye09 with this presentation (slides available here).

The Gartner also listed:

1. From System to Solution
2. From Visitors to Users
3. From Technical to Business
4. From Tactical to Strategic
5. From Global to Local
6. From Point Solution to "Environmentally Aware"

As far as I am concerned, my predictions for 2010 are the followings:

1. XCMS - eXtended CMS
   CMS/WCM will have to find ways to deliver content to the “eXtended Web” which will include mobiles, RIA or even now game consoles (e.g: Ping.fm now delivered on the Xbox) or new generation of Tablet PCs. The Web is omnipresent and not only available through the classical browsers interfaces only.
   
2. LATCH time
   Any CMS will have to better support LATCH. This is inline with the needs to better support geo-localized data which is rapidly becoming a commodity as part of the new generation of mobile devices. This is also the entry point in order to start better leveraging the “Web Squared”.
3. Rise of cloud-based sub-content services
   Think SOA/WOA on the Cloud; All CMS will better connect to and interact with value added content services available on the cloud (e.g: OpenCalais, Facebook Connect; Zemanta API;…) despite some security concerns.
4. The Semantic Web is NOT for 2010 but Semantic Lifting will become hot
   The world is composed of unstructured data. That’s for sure. The situation is getting even worse with the fast rise of social media. Asking the end-users to manually fulfill some metadata was a complete failure. The promised world of Linked Data is then certainly not for 2010. However Semantic Lifting technology (art of automatically finding structures and relations in unstructured content items) and ontology-free semantic indexing will certainly be in the product backlog of all CMS vendors.
5. From cold passive content to hot actionable content triggers
   Information, Sites, Content-enabled Applications,… are all around. I will then agree with BJ Fogg: CMS will have to get more inspiration from Facebook & co and focus on “putting hot triggers in the path of their users”. Ease of use, fun to use, no learning time and instantly actionable content items are the successful content platforms for tomorrow.
6. Standardized CM infrastructure, Content Composites Applications and Content Solutions are the three layers of next generation of CMS
   The Content Infrastructure and Middleware offerings is rapidly becoming a standardized commodity. CMS will have to focus on the development of value added content composites correctly assembles into content solutions targeted to a specific audience.
7. Social E.20<->KM/CM reconciliation
   Shift between new generation of E2.0 vendors and traditional KM/CMS vendors will vanish: War is over. Social is all around.
8. Personal Web Filing Cabinet is the next Content Shadow IT
   Everything started with USB keys. But with the fast rise of iPhone, netbooks and other affordable Wifi/DSL connections, it looks like IT departments could not follow the requests from employees. Everybody is now using tools such as Evernote; DropBox; iDisk… without any content policy. Traditional WCM/CMS failed to deliver integrated enterprise-grade solutions to deal with PKM. Time for the CMS industry to catch-up?
9. Tablet Readers and digital eZine will rapidly become a new content consumption best practice
   Paying Digital Newspapers are back. And the industry will heavily push every customer to acquire a new Tablet Reader(or give it for free if we compare this market to what happened to the mobile phone industry). This probably mean that any knowledge workers will probably soon get one… and will probably not see why he could not consume his internal or web-based content (RSS feeds, status updates, internal PDF,….) with his new toy. Think about it as your personalized and intelligent Information Dashboards for your Tablet Readers mixing internal content, paying newspapers and free web based posts.
10. NO CMS market consolidation but even more content solutions providers
    I do not think there will be any market consolidation in 2010. Web is Business today so this means that we will certainly see even much more actors popping up next year. This emphasizes the importance for customers to rapidly adopt content interoperability standards (e.g: CMIS/JCR) to avoid any vendor lock-in scenario in the future.

And you, what are your WCM/CMS predictions for 2010?