5. Book publishers and Google are locked in a fierce legal battle to determine what will constitute "fair use" on the Internet. At stake is the scope and manner of future book-content innovation.

6. As services such as iTunes and YouTube take off, the traditional record and television companies are losing their decades-old grip on the identification and promotion of new entertainment talent.

7. Unlike checks, credit cards and ATMs, it looks as if both Internet and mobile phone payment systems will be led not by banks but by new entries, with potentially profound effects on the evolution of the financial services industry.

8. For reasons of cost and reliability, both retailers and manufacturers continue to hold back on massive RFID deployments, with major implications for supply chain advancements.

9. As concerns about global warming increase, various schemes for monitoring and charging for peak-hour driving and other forms of energy use are being either planned or implemented.