Its Augury Season Again! That time of the year where everyone takes time out to predict what the coming year will bring.

Rather than couch our amusement at the yearly practice in irony, we’ll just say it – prediction is great filler for a slow news month. And – umm – we dig it

GlibHippo’s first prediction for 2011 – an addition to our collective vocabulary – Gamification.

Yes, it has been kicking around for 4-5 years (virtually no google results in 2004, a few in 05 and growing since then), long enough to already be declared dead by the 10 people who use it. But 2011 will be the year gamification breaks out of the blogs and makes the big time.

Wired will have it. So will the NY Times. We will get a gamification analyst experts from Forrester or the like.

And in the final defining entrance into the mainstream, in the US, Neda Ulaby will do a story on it for All Things Considered.

Gamification, is an intriguing idea. On its face, it seems puerile. But in application, it could mean a fundamental shift in the way we think about software design, how we shop, how we interact and how we work. Some very cool things (and dumb things) will come out of attempts to gamify. And we are not talking about Foursquare.

But let us end our first 2011 prediction with our first 2012 prediction.  All the attention gamification is going to receive will lead to one of the fastest shark jumpings ever. By 2012 -  a great idea will be reduced to a meaningless buzz word.

Related articles

• Gamification: it’s still going on… (guardian.co.uk)
• VCs level up with “gamification” investments (venturebeat.com)