2020

This post originally appeared on another blogsite which is no longer around. I really liked it and have been waiting to repost it here for a long time now.

The Pew Center recently did a study in which it asked a lot of industry leaders what shape and direction they thought the Internet would have and take by the year 2020. And I don't think much has changed in these peoples' thinking since the question was asked before...

The most interesting thing is that 58% think there will be some sort of Luddite insurgency, possibly with violence. They're not sure if it will be focused at the technology itself or the effects of it, but the majority agrees, "...there will be more Unabombers."

The majority also agreed that the Internet would be low-cost and widespread, with more people being more effective online than off-. They seem to be basically split as to whether or not this is a good thing; some say more people will be living in virtual worlds, which will greatly affect the economy and real-world society. They also argued the difference between privacy and "transparency," noting that the powerful will remain less transparent and that privacy can be secured. And I believe this to be true; as one of the people involved said, we have laws against people using a telescope to look into our windows and eventually, this same sort of legality will apply to people poking through our online activities and files.

The article on the report is intriguing and eye-opening and I hope it sparks more discussion amongst online users.

I personally think that the Internet will be widely-used by the year 2020, primarily accessed by mobile/portable devices, have stringent copyright and privacy laws in place, and largely work invisibly. It will be impossible to tell your TV from your radio from your Internet; they will all be the same.

It's happening even now: cellphone-users refer to IMing as "texting," without even knowing that it's just IM technology over a cellphone. TiVo allows you to program your TV to not only switch to the channel when your program is on, but to record it if you want to watch something else. Pretty soon, your universal remote will not only control all of your electronic appliances, but hook up to your computer through USB and download software updates, synch with your online calendar, and more. Every cable and satellite subscriber will receive a free e-mail address accessible via remote. It's happening right now and people either don't realize it or are simply not accepting it.