We’re calling this meeting of the technology-of-the-year skeptics to order, and our first item of new business is what to call 2012. We need to fill in the blank on “2012: Year of _____” in order to allow for lots of heavy marketing throughout the remaining 49 weeks of the year.

Now, some of you attendees have made a good case for not declaring the technology of the year until the year is over. You say that only by reflecting on what was hot in, say, 2011, can we really make the judgment. But this is a January tradition, and the marketers depend on it. So can we just proceed?

We have a motion on the floor for 2012 being the Year of Videoconferencing. Well, not a formal motion, but Fierce Enterprise Communications as much as made that nomination when it declared that the videoconferencing segment would be “sizzling” this year.

The chair expresses particular skepticism at this point, not because the chair has anything against videoconferencing – it’s a fine technology and all – but because so many previous years have been the year of videoconferencing, and never really lived up to the hype. Shouldn’t it be some other technology’s year?

However, Fierce does make its case by declaring that businesses do want to continue to keep their travel costs down, and that we are at least moving in the direction of interoperability, thanks in part to the Open Visual Communications Consortium. Also, cloud-based videoconferencing is becoming a more viable option, with more interest in mobile videoconferencing, along with lower-cost platforms that bring a telepresence-like experience without a prohibitive cost.

Our guess is that videoconferencing certainly won’t fizzle, but the likelihood of it sizzling is still an open question. So we’re going to ask you, our loyal readers, for your thoughts on two points: First, are you that much more likely to emphasize videoconferencing than you were last year? And second, if not videoconferencing, what would you predict would be the technology of the year for 2012?

Once we sift through the responses to draw some conclusions, we’ll get back to you. Until then, meeting adjourned.