1. Privacy and sharing will be clearer, more understandable and easily adjustable as social nets meet user demands for Social Privacy Spaces that enable robust, direct and real/all-time control over the reach of information shared. (Simultaneously, a decline in privacy concerns among the broad population will accompany the mainstreaming of the Medium, experiences and life in general).

2. Businesses and organizations looking to stay relevant in social media will begin to seek new, inventive, and creative ways to reward those who interact, share compelling content and generally contribute positively to branded social media engagements.

I explored both these topics in depth in “Social Media’s Second Act: Toward Sustainable Brand Engagement”, an article I wrote for the Design Management Review, read it in full here: http://www.quangoinc.com/tbriggs

Truly hardcore globe trotters facing long-term cross-cultural immersion will still study and master the intricacies of a target language to better navigate always-challenging language barriers. But once mobile devices incorporate real-time listen-and-translate audio capabilities (that, granted, will be far from a replacement for a functional understanding of culture and language), the necessity of learning language for short-term immersions will decrease. As a result, the world will–at least superficially–feel a little smaller.