Future of the Internet

Time to check up on what the Pew Internet and American Life Project has been doing.

On familiarity with Internet terms.

The average American internet user is not sure what podcasting is, what an RSS feed does, or what the term “phishing” means,

On Internet Penetration in April 2006

Fully 73% of respondents (about 147 million adults) are internet users, up from 66% (about 133 million adults) in our January 2005 survey. And the share of Americans who have broadband connections at home has now reached 42% (about 84 million), up from 29% (about 59 million) in January 2005.


On the Evolution of the Internet

A wide-ranging survey of technology leaders, scholars, industry officials, and analysts finds that most internet experts expect attacks on the network infrastructure in the coming decade as the internet becomes more embedded in everyday and commercial life. They believe the dawning of the blog era will bring radical change to the news and publishing industry and they think the internet will have the least impact on religious institutions.


Checking up at the Pew's new predictions of the Future of the Internet, Part II

Fascinating with a few surprises.

•  A significant number 42% of survey respondents were pessimistic about our ability to stay in control of technology in the future.

* Tech "refusniks" will become a cultural group with some likely resorting to violence.

* 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.