Future of Internet – A survey of Experts
Pew Internet and American Life report have released a report on the future internet in which it has surveyed 742 experts in the fields of computing, politics and business canvassing their opinions on seven broad scenarios about the future internet, based on developments in the technology in recent years.
A few findings from this report are as follows:
�� 59% of these experts agreed with a prediction that more government and business surveillance will occur as computing devices proliferate and become embedded in appliances, cars, phones, and even clothes.
�� 57% of them agreed that virtual classes will become more widespread in formal education and that students might at least occasionally be grouped with others who share their interests and skills, rather than by age.
�� 56% of them agreed that as telecommuting and home-schooling expand, the boundary between work and leisure will diminish and family dynamics will change because of that.
�� 50% of them believe that anonymous, free, music file-sharing on peer-to-peer networks will still be easy to perform a decade from now.
At the same time, there were notable disagreements among experts about whether internet use would foment a rise in religious and political extremist groups, whether internet use would usher in more participation in civic organizations, whether the widespread adoption of technology in the health system would ameliorate the most knotty problems in the system such as rising costs and medical errors, and whether internet use would help people expand their social networks.
Finally, the experts were relatively unconvinced about two suggested impacts of the internet related to democratic politics and processes:
�� Just 32% of these experts agreed that people would use the internet to support their political biases and filter out information that disagrees with their views. Half the respondents disagreed with or disputed that prediction.
�� Only 32% agreed with a prediction that online voting would be secure and widespread by 2014. Half of the respondents disagreed or disputed that idea.Pew Internet and American Life report have released a report on the future internet in which it has surveyed 742 experts in the fields of computing, politics and business canvassing their opinions on seven broad scenarios about the future internet, based on developments in the technology in recent years.
The entire report is 62 pages and 683 kb in size and can be downloaded here
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