The next five to seven years will bring increased personalization, innovation, and flexibility in the media landscape, according to the  FutureMedia Outlook 2012, a downloadable annual report by Georgia Institute of Technology on the future of media and its impact on people, business and society over the next five to seven years.

Six megatrends will have a pervasive impact:

• Smart Data: In an increasingly noisy world, we’ll have to sift, filter and be smarter about what matters.
• People Platforms: Beyond “true personalization,” they will be socially driven platforms made of algorithms from personal and associated data that people design and tailor themselves.
• Content Integrity: Pervasive mobile devices, sprawling networks, clouds ,and multi-layered platforms have made it more difficult to detect and address our digital vulnerabilities, drawing us to trusted content sources.
• Nimble Media: Media is evolving from a set of fixed commodities into an energetic, pervasive medium that allows people to navigate across platforms and through different content narratives.
• 6th Sense: Extraordinary innovations in mixed reality will change the way we see, hear, taste, touch, smell and make sense of the world — giving us a new and powerful 6th sense.
• Collaboration: We will harness the power of many in an increasingly conversational and participatory world.

The report includes demonstration clips and video interviews with leading Georgia Tech researchers offering real-world examples of how the Institute is  innovating in these areas.