Gartner's Hype Cycle report lists technologies and trends that are moving through Bunyanesque stages (e.g., "Trough of Disillusionment," "Slope of Enlightenment").

The idea is that we get all excited about new things, talk them up, find out that nothing works as easily as expected, and finally the good stuff shakes out and makes a difference in the enterprise.

Now at or near Paris Hilton-levels of hype: Green IT, cloud computing, social computing platforms, video telepresence, and microblogging.

Web 2.0 is expected to reach mainstream status within two years, with an impact rated "transformational." Cloud computing, public virtual worlds, and SOA are expected to be transformational in two to five years.

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