I am now officially bored with web 2.0 and so on. The hype over the past year has been ridiculous. But the whole area of social computing, including social media and social networking will continue to grow.

However, it is likely that the economic crisis will precipitate a focus on some real value (for a change) in the area of social computing and social media.

The real challenge is going to be demonstration of ROI from social computing in a down market.

From a business perspective this ROI will need to be real bottom line costs out or increased direct revenue. This is going to be a big challenge for some social media companies. It also means that the consumer end of the market might not be the place to look for growth. Instead there will be more competition for the enterprise market.

I suspect that in the area of social computing the enterprise market is where the established companies that have a compelling enterprise social computing platform, integration capability and deep pockets will have an advantage.

But all the best innovation seems to come out of difficult times. So we can expect to see new ideas developed in ways we don’t yet understand, new business models and new ways of approaching old problems.

[Cartoon source: Geek & Poke]