The months December through February usually see an uptick in press about predictions. It’s only natural – another year has passed, and a new one is upon us. And although we’re well into February, the predictions are still coming. Here’s what we’re reading this week:

The Top 20 Technology Driven Trends for 2012 (CIO Update)

Over at CIO Update, writer Daniel Burrus offers his list of the top 20 tech trends for the coming year and why CIOs should pay attention. Among them: the growth of big data; cloud computing; on-demand services, such as software as a service (SaaS) and hardware as a service (HaaS); virtualization; consumerization of IT (naturally); and “gamification.”

Read it and take notes.

In the case of companies that use gamification for employees, writes Gruman, it’s often to distract them from “the drudgery of their actual work.”

Gamification: The buzzword that can ruin your apps and business (InfoWorld) 

Speaking of “gamification,” my favorite blogger of the moment Galen Gruman takes a closer look at the trend and picks it apart in his usual manner.

The concept isn’t new, he asserts. It’s an old sales and marketing technique that simply has been repackaged. Entice (or “bribe,” as he describes it) customers with prizes and accolades to get them in the door when nothing else will. In the case of companies that use gamification for employees, he writes, it’s often to distract them from “the drudgery of their actual work.”

Gruman concedes that gamification has its merits – he cites one well-known company as an example. “Microsoft uses gamification to encourage non-QA staff to do bug testing and to get employees to contribute better language translations in its software localization efforts. People are rewarded for doing this extra work through ego-oriented motivations from managers (attaboy emails, temporary use of more convenient parking spaces, and in-house certificates) and by Read more…

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The recent software and tech news is all about making the best of what you have. Bloomberg reports that in Venezuela, they’re tweeting their way around traffic snarls to get to work on time; Chief Learning Officer reports on the unlikely good that’s come out of the recession; and CIO.com offers three tips to get the most out of Microsoft Office. Read on…

Training is likely the number one way to get more out of Office, or any software for that matter.

Tweeting in Traffic is OK… in Venezuela

Whoever says Twitter is an ego-driven time-waster should spend a day in a Caracas traffic jam. In a recent Bloomberg News article, reporter Daniel Cancel writes about the Twitter revolution in Venezuela. Because the country’s gasoline is so cheap, there are twice as many cars than the roads can handle — which, naturally, means ample traffic jams. Enter the BlackBerry, Twitter and @Trafico, which Venezuelans are using to navigate their way through the gridlock.

Venezuelans, Cancel notes in his article, are way ahead of the rest of the world in terms of using Twitter as a traffic tool. And, for anyone concerned about Tweeting while driving, average speeds in Caracas are 7 to 9 miles per hour. Read the story here.

The Beauty of Recession: Increased Adaptability

November’s Chief Learning Officer offers up the finest in Glass-Half-Full news with “Recession’s Silver Lining? Increased Adaptability,” which reports that American workers have become more flexible in the past few years. Some highlights from the piece: Read more…

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In a May article eWeek envisioned a mobile workforce in the near future, where employees were issued images rather than hard drives, and could get most, if not all, of their work done on the go, using a laptop or a smart phone.

With the recent high-profile smart phone and netbook releases, plus the growing interest in cloud computing and Google Apps, are we any closer?

Is Microsoft Office an undeniable fact of life?

Apple, Google and other companies who hold a stake would like you think we are, but the analysts are weighing in with a big, fat “no.” For now, that is.

Exhibit A, cloud computing is still a lofty idea: Judging by the way cloud computing has been covered in the press, you would think Office was ready for a spot in the Computer History Museum. But the cloud isn’t gathering quite that fast.

In a recent study, Forrester Research Inc. found that 80 percent of respondents were still supporting MS Office, while a scant 3 percent were supporting Google Apps. Read more…

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