Based on Internet2 research, this article in PC magazine speculates the next 10 years of the Internet. Some interesting thoughts on different aspects ranging from healthcare to video-conferencing. I liked the following about mobile-net:
Asked to speculate on how the Internet might advance in the next decade, Van Houweling says, “I think we don’t yet understand the implications of the mobile Net. There is so much activity and risk attached to people when they’re moving around that if you could really make the Net part of that world, it could have an enormous impact. If every vehicle had direct access to the Net and the roads they travel on facilitated inter-vehicle communication, driving could become immensely more safe and vehicles much more reliable.”
There’s no doubt that the Internet might be subjected to criticism on a variety of fronts, it is unlikely that going online will ever suffer from the same type of scorn that other communication applications have received over the years. The impact of the Internet – whether measured by the numbers of users or by the social change it is causing – cannot be overestimated.
Internet has been seen as technical curiosity by many social observers – in particular, Mainstream media despite of the Internet’s growing influence. We contend that this neglect occurs in large measure because people not only don’t appreciate the true scope of the Internet, but also still don’t understand the merits associated with it.