January 10, 2005

The Future of the Internet

Predictions Database is the database supporting the Pew report "The Future of the Internet".

Interesting reading. Here is a summary of the findings:

"Summary of Findings at a Glance

A broad-ranging survey of technology leaders, scholars, industry officials, and interested members of the public finds that most experts expect attacks on the network infrastructure in the coming decade. Some argue that serious assaults on the internet infrastructure will become a regular part of life.

The internet will be more deeply integrated in our physical environments and high-speed connections will proliferate – with mixed results.

In the emerging era of the blog, experts believe the internet will bring yet more dramatic change to the news and publishing worlds. They predict the least amount of change to religion.

Experts are both in awe and in frustration about the state of the internet. They celebrate search technology, peer-to-peer networks, and blogs; they bemoan institutions that have been slow to change.

These survey results and written commentary from experts add to a growing database of predictions and analysis from trendsetters about the impact of the internet.

Source: Fox, Susannah, Janna Quitney Anderson, and Lee Rainie. The Future of the Internet. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project, January 9, 2005."The Future of the Internet"


Congratulations to Elon University and the Pew Internet and American Life Project for putting this together.

The Elon site also contains a searchable database of predictions made in the early 1990s For example:

" From now on, the struggle will not be over mechanical control of the means of information, but over spin-control of the zeitgeist. - Bruce Sterling, 1994". and " Our challenge is to find ways of using the Internet and World Wide Web as a mechanism for learning for understanding, and as a mechanism for "seeing things," not just as a highway system for haphazard. – Kimberly Rose, 1995"

Posted by ernie at January 10, 2005 06:27 PM | TrackBack
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