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September 26, 2006
The future of the Internet
(Posted by francois to: Strategy | interesting links | internet | technology enablement )The Pew Internet & American life Project just released a new report on the Internet Evolution - The Future of the Internet II (download full pdf here)..
Major predictions by 2020 include:
- A low-cost global network will be thriving and creating new opportunities in a “flattening” world.
- Humans will remain in charge of technology, even as more activity is automated and “smart agents” proliferate. However, a significant 42% of survey respondents were pessimistic about humans’ ability to control the technology in the future. This significant majority agreed that dangers and dependencies will grow beyond our ability to stay in charge of technology. This was one of the major surprises in the survey.
- Virtual reality will be compelling enough to enhance worker productivity and also spawn new addiction problems.
- Tech “refuseniks” will emerge as a cultural group characterized by their choice to live off the network. Some will do this as a benign way to limit information overload, while others will commit acts of violence and terror against technology-inspired change.
- People will wittingly and unwittingly disclose more about themselves, gaining some benefits in the process even as they lose some privacy.
- English will be a universal language of global communications, but other languages will not be displaced. Indeed, many felt other languages such as Mandarin, would grow in prominence.
Some of those predictions seem like they are already upon us and not 14 years out into the future.
It is especially great to see that 56% of the people who were surveyed believed in this scenario: "By 2020, this free flow of information will completely blur current national boundaries as they are replaced by city-states, corporation-based cultural groupings and/or other geographically diverse and reconfigured human organizations
tied together by global networks."
Unfortunately, many still believe that "governments and corporations will not necessarily embrace policies that will allow the network to spread to under-served populations; that serious social inequalities will persist." And according to the report "The experts and analysts also split evenly on a central question of whether the world will be a better place in 2020 due to the greater transparency of people and institutions afforded by the internet: 46% agreed that the benefits of greater transparency of organizations and individuals would outweigh the privacy costs and 49% disagreed.The experts and analysts also split evenly on a central question of whether the world will be a better place in 2020 due to the greater transparency of people and institutions afforded by the internet: 46% agreed that the benefits of greater transparency of organizations and individuals would outweigh the privacy costs and 49% disagreed."
[Tags: pew future of internet predictions privacy]
Posted by francois at September 26, 2006 8:39 AM | Bookmark This
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Comments
What great news!!! i'm looking forward to having such net access too!!! :)I don't know what I'd do without net?! I'd die without it!!!! I have a pretty little laptop and constantly carry it with me!!! Even when I visited the Emirates I thought that I couldn't sleep well without sending mails to the friends!!! As a matter of fact, every time when I go somewhere, I give a word to the friends to send at least one message every day!!! That time also, every evening after long walks and great impressions with the town, I was sending mails, sitting in the Dubai hotel and boasting with the things happening with me there!!! And all thanks to "my little friend"!!! :)
Posted by: massyandra at September 28, 2006 8:51 AM
Interesting predictions. The future is sometimes different than what we imagine and often times better.
Posted by: Pedro Laboy at October 1, 2006 11:50 PM
