Flop2.0 Predictions 2008. The dollar has plummeted, the bubble's are popping, the recession's kicking in, yet we have NOTHING to fear!

• What is a bubble? It's an overinflated market where big money distorts the playing field, greedy investors muscle their way into the market copying every potential innovation until the market is over saturated and no-one can possibly stand out, long since forgotten are the original innovators that pioneered the first killer application that paved the way for the others to emulate. SOUND FAMILIAR?
• What is a recession? It's where an overinflated (VC backed) group of companies start dropping like flys. It starts off slowly and gains pace exponentially then slowly levels off again like a sinusoidal wave. SOUND FAMILIAR?

So I'm looking forward to this one! Lets face it, one thing there won't be is a reduction of eyeballs on the internet. The internet is going to continue to grow exponentially - just like it did through the first bust in the dotcom orgy.

But why is such a decline to be celebrated? Despite the excitement associated with these greed based booms there is little good to ever come out of them. Innovation is NOT facilitated by greed, it is a natural phenomenon that occurs when the conditions are right on the ground. In fact bubbles actually hinder innovation as the true innovators are plagiarized till the point that they drop, no way of competing with the millions that are invested into wannabe emulators (competition 'they' call it) of their original ideas, they quietly drop out of sight often disillusioned and disheartened by the ice cold realities of so-called 'business' and lost from the collective genius that is the force behind all bifurcations.

Those hoping for a miracle, that they would have been one of those lucky few who do make it into the limelight with 15 seconds of fame and an article on the front page of Techcrunch, covering their announcement that so-and-so have invested so many millions in an x-round of angel funding, fear not. It was a scam to begin with, the innovators and entrepreneurs rarely ever get real dough, instead are forced to slave away for 5 years or more growing the business and if are lucky, get to stand behind a long que of others who have proir claim to their labor, efforts and success.

The nerds were once an untrendy bunch of losers, outcasts according to the 'in crowd'. Yet now it is the nerds that are all the fashion. Yes it's fashionable to be a nerd. Who would ever have thought that? But as with all fashions their comes the emulators and then you get everyone and his uncle who wanna be a billionaire nerd like Gates (well maybe not like Bill per say). But these are not real nerds they are simply cling-ons who are only in it only for the money and glory. They couldn't care less about innovation, let-alone the hours and hours of unpaid dedication that goes into to creating true genius.

"Wheres the business angel?" That's what they keep asking for, "how are you going to monitise it? You call that an invention, you haven't even got a 'buy it now' button!". These are the cries from the skeptics to this latest boom, and right they are but for the wrong reasons. See it's not about making a business, it's about making a hobby that becomes a success organically. So while the skeptics and analyzers lecture you about what your doing wrong and tell you all how to do it right, let it be understood that today it's no longer fashionable to be a nerd, we've been there and done that. The next big fashion is going to be 'the hobbyist' developer.

SO WHO ARE THE HOBBYISTS?