The Future of the Internet

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has a new study out on the future of the Internet, briefly profiled in today’s New York Times. The study is an interesting read, as are some of the “expert” opinions offered. Not too surprisingly, most agreed that broadband adoption will grow and speeds will improve. 66% thought there will be a “devastating attack” on network infrastructure or the country’s power grid sometime in the next 10 years. 50% thought peer-to-peer file-sharing will still be as easy to perform a decade from now.

Unfortunately, only 32% thought that online voting would be secure and widespread by 2014 – personally, I can think of few things more likely to spark a revival of civic participation than the ability to securely and virtually vote in all elections, from the national- to the town-level. On the other hand, most experts thought that people will not be using the Internet to support their political biases and filter out information that disagrees with their views – a risk I already find in my own participation on the ‘net.