The Future of the Internet. Part Deux
On Monday, the Pew Internet and American Life Project, in conjunction with Elon University, will release a report called "The Future of the Internet II." (The first such report, released in January 2005, addressed likely technological developments related to the Internet within the next decade.) In it, almost 750 technology experts and futurists were asked to agree or disagree with eight statements describing situations that might exist in 2020 that are affected by, or could have ramifications for, the Internet.
I had lunch and spoke Wednesday with Lee Rainie of the Pew Center and Janna Anderson of Elon University's School of Communications, the lead author of the report. You'll find a story in Monday's N&R, and online you'll be given the text of the same statements studied by the report and have the chance to register your own agreement or disagreement with each prediction (and to explain your thinking). We'll also have a link to the full report online, so that you can review not only the survey results but also -- and this might be the most interesting part -- some participants' individual responses to questions.
The report is under embargo so I can't share any details, but I will say this: I read one part and immediately thought, "Soylent Green ... is people!" But I'm weird like that.
Look for the package on Monday.
Comments (4)
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Is this the same Internet2 I worked on in the late 90s with the university folks near Philly, or is this a journalistic take on what "the Internet" has become?
Posted on September 21, 2006 2:30 PM
This is neither, I think, Sue. It's a nonrandom Web-based e-mail survey of experts, who are asked to agree or disagree that each of eight situations will be true by 2020 and to elaborate on their responses.
Posted on September 21, 2006 3:22 PM
Elon/Pew site here.
Posted on September 21, 2006 10:33 PM
Yeah, I'll have that link in my fastfax. It's where www.imaginingtheinternet.org redirects to.
Posted on September 22, 2006 8:50 AM