What is the future of the internet?  Will everyone find a way to make money from the internet? Will the internet pass away as a fad as some once predicted?

The internet has come a long way since its inception.  Originally, the internet was created as a way to send and receive information across a network of phone lines and cables that would be impossible to render useless by opposing forces in a military strike.

In February 1958 the United States created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA or DARPA) in an effort to develop advanced technologies which could keep the USA in the lead from a technology standard.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet. ARPA created the Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO) to further the research of the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) program, which had networked country-wide radar systems together for the first time. The IPTO’s purpose was to find ways to address the US Military’s concern about survivability of their communications networks, and as a first step interconnect their computers at the Pentagon, Cheyenne Mountain, and SAC HQ.

Since then, the internet has become more than a way for the military to communicate or a simple means from transferring data from one computer to another via worldwide network.  The internet now according to http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm has reached over 1.8 billion users and has grown close to 400% since the year 2000.

At one point some people, even those in the computer industry thought the internet was low priority as far as development for commercial purposes.  Even Microsoft’s Bill Gates was quoted as saying:

“Sometimes we do get taken by surprise. For example, when the Internet came along, we had it has a fifth or sixth priority.”

CNET News. Source http://news.cnet.com/2100-1023-212942.html

At this point few if any can argue the internet is a passing fad.  In many cases entire companies would suffer tremendous financial losses if they were to lose the use of the internet for even a few hours.  But it’s not just the companies of the world who would miss the internet, but so would the over 300 million users of Facebook.

The following data can be found on Facebook about Facebook’s users: (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics)

• More than 400 million active users
• 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• Average user has 130 friends
• People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook

There is a trend toward the evolution of social interaction moving towards the use of websites and applications like Facebook.  Other online applications now used for social and networking interaction include but are not limited to services such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and MySpace.

With the movement of human interaction trending toward computer applications like those mentioned above, will the ability to communicate face to face be lost or become an annoyance.  The answers to these questions are coming.  The concern is what will the answers be, and how will affect the human race as a whole?

An interesting research study by Pew Internet (http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Future-of-the-Internet-IV.aspx) has asked some interesting questions about how the internet could change civilization by the year 2020.  These questions were asked of leading internet experts as well as to a sample of the general public. Some of the questions asked are shared and predictions are given below.  The questions are paraphrased and the numbers given are the percentages of both the experts and general population combined:

1. Will the use of the Google improve intelligence, or make us stupid?
   1. 76% indicated the use of the internet and Google will improve intelligence.
   2. 21% indicated the user of the internet and Google will not help to make us smarter.
   3. 2% did not respond.

1. Will the internet lead to higher and better learning, or be a detriment to learning in the future:
   1. 65% indicated the internet will enhance and improve reading, writing and the rendering of knowledge.
   2. 32% indicated the internet will have reduced or endangered reading, writing and the rendering of knowledge.
   3. 3% did not respond.

1. Is the next wave of innovation in technology, gadgets, and applications pretty clear now or will there be surprising new developments in technology between now and 2020?
   1. 17% indicated the gadgets of the future are pretty evident today and will not savvy innovators by surprise.
   2. 80% indicated there will be new gadgets and new technology that will surprise innovators, “or come out of the blue”.
   3. 2% did not respond

1. Will the Internet still be dominated by the end-to-end principle?
   1. 61% surveyed indicated the internet will mostly remain a technology based on the end-to-end principle that was envisioned by the Internet’s founders.  Most disagreements over the way information flows will be resolved in favor of minimal restrictions over the information available and the way in which people will access the information.
   2. 33% indicated the content of the internet will be controlled in a way that will restrict in a way the content people will have access to.
   3. 6% did not respond.

1. Will it be possible by the year 2020 to remain anonymous when accessing information online?
   1. 41% indicated access to the internet and information on the internet will be much more difficult to access anonymously as technologies like retinal scans, fingerprinting and DNA sampling could curtail anonymous activity online.
   2. 55% indicated the internet by the year 2020 could still be accessed anonymously as even with the technology now available for tracking, in most cases, can be avoided.
   3. 3% did not respond.

As society enters a NEW “Brave New World”, one can only imagine the way internet will be used to either make us smarter and more efficient or more lazy and lackadaisical.  Some of the technologies and even appliances available over the next 20 years will include faster access to the internet.  BBC Online (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5370688.stm) features an article with some of the following predictions:

1. “Mobile internet will be dominant,” he explained. “By 2020, most mobile networks will provide one-gigabit-per-second-minimum speed, anywhere, anytime.
2. “Dominant access tools will be mobile, with powerful infrastructure characteristics. All applications will come from the net.”

According to an article featured by CNET News, http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10312296-94.html:

“Meraki, a known mesh network provider, released Tuesday its first Wireless Census for North America and the results, though dramatic, seem nothing of a surprise. Basically, there has been a huge increase in the number of wireless-capable devices, among which Apple’s handheld devices had the biggest jump.”

The article further indicates that the use of hand held devices to access the internet is up 41% from June 2, 2008 to June 1, 2009.

What about appliances?  How might they interact with the internet?

According to http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7340414.html there is a United States Patent 7340414 for:

“A refrigerator capable of transmitting and receiving information over a network and having an automatic food ordering function and a method for operating the same, wherein the residual amounts of food articles stored in containers of the refrigerator are measured through sensors installed in the containers and then displayed on a screen of a display unit, thereby enabling a user to easily recognize the residual amounts of the food articles stored in the refrigerator without opening the door of the refrigerator. The measured residual amounts of the food articles are compared with minimum proper amounts of the food articles preset by the user, respectively. In the case where the measured residual amount of a specific one of the food articles is smaller than the minimum proper amount of the specific food article, the specific food article is automatically ordered and delivered.”

So what is the future of the internet?  At this point it’s hard to say exactly what the future of the internet is.  What is known is that the internet enables most individuals of the world the ability to access information in a way that has never been possible before.  This information will be easier to access, faster to access, and available for more people to access as years pass.  This ability to access information quickly and anonymously may lead to huge leaps and bounds in technology, learning and social interaction or increased terrorism and the loss of privacy.