On the SitePoint PHP blog Timothy Boronczyk has a new post trying to predict the future of PHP and where the language might be heading:

As developers, we find ourselves living in exciting times. With increasing attention paid to online activities, we’re working with larger data sets (even “big data”); scalability and connectivity are more important than ever before; the very nature of privacy is being re-examined. But quietly, in the shadow of all of this, sits perhaps a more pragmatic question. How will PHP change and grow to enable us to build the future, whatever it may hold?

Among the things he proposes are ideas about future versions with double-digit minor release numbers, less frameworks and more meta-frameworks, the introduction of lots of new extensions and the adaptation and positive outlook for a thriving, constantly improving web-centric language.