“Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road.” - Dag Hammarskjöld (Swedish Diplomat and 2nd Secretary-General of the UN)

Assuming that one is given to arguing with Nobel Laureates, one could argue with the esteemed Hammarskjold on whether entirely ignoring your next step is wise. The notion that the key to success can be found on the horizon, however, is a sound one. With that in mind, let's take a look at where we are. Darn close to 2008 and all is.... mostly well. It's tough to say how well, because it's tough to know where things will be when we're headed full steam into 2009.

It's safe to say that the previous year has brought some large changes. We learned that a device company can really shake things up as the iPhone sent everyone in the communications world back to the drawing board. We watched as groups like Google continued to shake up the telecom world with its seemingly endless cashflow and ambition. We saw service providers begin to evaluate, more than ever before, whether being “just a bitpipe” is tolerable, or whether they will continue to fight as the barbarians charge the gates. It was a year of change, shift, and reevaluation. In the midst of all of this, OSS remains the sort of differentiator that will determine the ultimate score after the dust has settled and the cheers have subsided.

This month, in our last issue of the year, we take a look at some trends in the OSS world that are changing the way things work now, and will continue to change the way things work for the foreseeable future. We take a