2020: Internet future

Pew Internet & American Life Project has just published a survey of internet leaders, activists, and analysts shows that a majority agree with predictions that by 2020:

People will wittingly and unwittingly disclose more about themselves, gaining some benefits in the process even as they lose some privacy.

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.

Transparency builds a better world, even at the expense of privacy: As sensing, storage and communication technologies get cheaper and better, individuals' public and private lives will become increasingly “transparent” globally. Everything will be more visible to everyone, with good and bad results. Looking at the big picture - at all of the lives affected on the planet in every way possible - this will make the world a better place by the year 2020. The benefits will outweigh the costs.46% agreed... 49% disagreed... 5% didn't answer

Full results of the survey, including engaging quotes from hundreds of respondents and brief biographies on many of these people, can be found on the Web at http://www.imaginingtheinternet.org by using the "Predictions Surveys" link.

Text Source Pew Internet & American Life Project Press Page


Links:

Elon University "Imagining the Internet" database

First report on the Future of the Internet

BBC: Internet's future in 2020 debated

Pictures of the Future by Siemens