One example is the annual tech prediction by analyst Mark Anderson, which I wrote about last week. Another is IBM’s recurring “Five in Five” series, wherein Big Blue looks at the unfolding technology landscape and predicts what innovations are still just this side of “gee whiz” today, but will be commonplace within five years.

Think back to what we were doing in 2006, and how far things have come in that short period of time in terms of consumer and enterprise technology. The iPhone existed only as an Apple prototype. Facebook had just opened itself up to the population at large, beyond just college and university students. Twitter was just getting started. And a tablet was a not-terribly-popular PC design.

As you’ll see, some of these five predictions aren’t exactly mind-blowing, especially if you pay attention to general technology trends. Over the past decade, you’ve probably already heard predictions saying that computer passwords will go away and be replaced by biometrics of some kind, whether in the form of fingerprints or voice authorization or some part of your eyeball. Also: Junk mail I actually want? That one I’ll believe when I see it. However, I really like the “think to call” idea, which sounds like a super speed-dial.

Anyhow, here are IBM’s predictions for stuff we’ll see by 2016, and a video explaining them in a little more detail:

You will make your own energy: Anything that moves has the potential to create energy. Your running shoes, your bicycle and even the water flowing through your pipes can create energy. Advances in renewable energy technology will allow individuals and scientists to collect this energy and use it to help power our homes, offices and cities.

You will not need a password: Your biological makeup is the key to your individual identity, and soon, it will become the key to safeguarding it. Each person’s unique biometric data such as facial definitions, retinol scans and voice files will be composited through software to build your DNA-unique online password. You will be able to log into your mobile phone or have access to an ATM machine by simply speaking your name or looking into a camera.

Mind reading is no longer science fiction: Scientists are researching how to link your brain to your devices, such as a computer or a smartphone, so you just need to think about calling someone and it happens. Scientists have designed headsets with advanced sensors to read electrical brain activity that can recognize facial expressions, excitement and concentration levels, and thoughts of a person without them physically doing anything.

The digital divide will cease to exist: In five years, the gap between information haves and have-nots will narrow considerably due to advances in mobile technology. Growing communities will be able to use mobile technology to provide access to essential information and better serve people with new solutions such as mobile commerce and remote healthcare.

Junk mail will become priority mail: Think about how often we’re flooded with advertisements we consider to be irrelevant or unwanted — it doesn’t have to be that way anymore. In five years, unsolicited advertisements may feel so personalized and relevant it may seem spam is dead. Systems will be able to filter and find only the data that’s important and relevant to you and will bring you the information without you having to ask for it.

Microsoft made the announcement at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, the philanthropic organization run by former President Bill Clinton. The meeting is getting underway today in New York.

The problem Microsoft is trying to solve is sometimes called “digital exclusion.” Think about how much you rely on day-to-day access to the Internet at home to do your job, and then imagine your life without it, or with only spotty access. There are lots of families with school-age children who are at a disadvantage because they don’t have access at home, or because their families can’t afford computers or the monthly fee for broadband.

Lacking that access has a lot of long-term economic repercussions, none of them good. Without access, kids don’t perform as well in school, because they don’t have the Internet to help them with homework. And while there are usually other socioeconomic forces to consider in these cases, having not done well in school, these children have a greater tendency to not finish high school; therefore they don’t go on to college, and later on have a harder time finding meaningful work.

There have been lots of attempts to count all these unconnected households. The FCC estimates that there are 100 million people in the U.S. without access to broadband. Some lack access because of where they live, while others simply can’t afford it. Within that number, there is thought to be some 9.5 million school-age kids who are effectively “digitally excluded.”

The irony, of course — at least to anyone who remembers how Bill Clinton’s Justice Department so vigorously pursued Microsoft through the courts during the 1990s — is how friendly Clinton and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates seem to have become in public. The photo is from Gates’s appearance with Clinton at last year’s CGI meeting.

From its inception, MocoSpace was designed for use not on smartphones but on traditional “feature” phones, which account for 80 percent of its traffic. The social network encourages users to find new friends online, and people can search and filter by gender, location and age among other criteria. It incorporates music, photos, videos, chat and games into the mobile and Web platforms.

MocoSpace has only a tiny slice of the social-networking pie. Facebook has 400 million active users as of February, while MocoSpace just hit 13 million registered users this week. The organization was not able to specify beyond “in the millions” how many of them are active users, defined as having logged into their accounts within the past 30 days.

When they designed the MocoSpace application in 2005, cofounders Justin Siegel, 38, and Jamie Hall, 37, didn’t know what audience they would have: 81 percent of users are under 30 years old, and 70 percent are African-American or Hispanic, according to the site. Now, Mr. Siegel said he thinks mobile products like MocoSpace help bridge a digital divide.

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Yesterday–in a very precious San Francisco tea cafe of BoomTown’s choosing–Rey Ramsey was unfailingly and politically polite, despite my rat-a-tat questions and the shoving of a Flip video camera in his face on his first visit to California after nabbing his new job as president and CEO of TechNet.

Ramsey better get used to it, though, as he takes over the bipartisan political network of tech types, which is heavy with Silicon Valley power brokers who are often at odds.

They include an executive council with co-chairs John Chambers, CEO of Cisco (CSCO), and mega-venture capitalist John Doerr, as well as Intel (INTC) CEO Paul Otellini and Google (GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt.

Member companies include Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo (YHOO), Apple (AAPL), Dell (DELL), craigslist, eBay (EBAY) and more.

While they are often wrangling competitively, it will be Ramsey’s job to get them on the same page on a wide range of issues they do agree on, such as visas, the need for more broadband, support for innovation and especially, blocking net neutrality regulation.

With the Obama administration more engaged in digital issues, it might be a good time for TechNet, which was founded in 1997 (I wrote the story about that in The Wall Street Journal, which dates me!). Unusually, it has not had as high a profile over the years as it should have.

But Ramsey, who has deep political ties to the new administration, also has a lot more tech savvy than past TechNet leaders. He co-founded One Economy, a laudable group that tries to bring tech to less privileged parts of society.

How to bridge the digital divide in a way that is more than words is another important issue Ramsey will have on his plate.

Here is the video of my interview with him talking about this and more (in which Ramsey mistakenly seems to say Apple was not a member of TechNet, but was referring to being on its Executive Council):