The Webbmedia Group has released its annual report on tech trends. Among their predictions for 2014, these ones might be more likely to have implications for community news and engagement:

• Microlocation. "New technologies will soon broadcast our precise locations in real time -- not just that we're in a particular building, but that we're standing in the toothpaste aisle at our local drugstore." While this is mainly being applied for marketing, advertising, and security, this technology could be used for hyperlocal news delivery.
• Platforms as publishers. Amazon's Kindle platform led to Kindle Direct publishing. Similarly, Forbes launched and is now licensing a contributor platform, Falcon. Webbmedia notes this offers opportunity to scale advertising across the platform. Perhaps similar platforms might be leveraged by hyperlocal news publishers to take advantage of regional advertising buys by major brands.
• Smarter government. The Healthcare.gov website fiasco was a teachable moment in web development for the federal government, and more private-sector players are now turning attention to consumer-facing government sites. This trend may trickle down to the state and local government level as well, offering better access to state/local information and services, which could be leveraged for community engagement and fodder for community news.
• Smart cities. This refers to connected local infrastructure that provides real-time data as well as monitoring and control for traffic, planning, and more. IBM's Smarter Cities initiativeis one example. Smart cities technology can provide a stream of data that could be used to create helpful local data visualizations or support data-driven reporting.
• Wearables. From Fitbit to Google Glass, connected sensors, cameras, computers and more that you can wear on a daily basis are becoming very popular. Wearables were a big trend at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. Internet-connected wearables could become an intriguing source of data about communities, and a channel for community news and engagement.