Happy holidays and New Year to you all. While I look forward to 2018, I'm sad that the New Media Consortium, after so many years of great work, has ended. Best known for producing its “Horizon Reports” on the future of technology at K-12 schools, universities, and museums, I remember every year about this time anxiously anticipating the release of the latest technology trends that the report releases. Unfortunately, alas, the NMC has abruptly shut down this month after officials discovered the organization was out of money. It's an embarrassing end to an illustrious organization. How "because of apparent errors and omissions by its former Controller and Chief Financial Officer, the organization finds itself insolvent" is beyond me. I'm too surprised to be even angry at this point, though I think we should be upset at this development. Not even time for us to say good-bye, or a proper sendoff.
Started in 1994, the NMC has served hundreds of college and university organizations, organizing conferences and events, and published reports in its goal of encouraging exploration and use of new media and technologies for learning and creative expression, particularly in 2002 when it began publishing its must-read Horizon Reports. With that said, I hope these technology trends for academic libraries will not be the last time that we'll see the report coming out with findings.
1. Big Data Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less
2. Digital Scholarship Technologies Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less
3. Library Services Platforms Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years
4. Online Identity Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years
5. Artificial Intelligence Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years
6. The Internet of Things Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years
