The Future of the Internet community...

Todays task is to contemplate what a realistic future on the culture of the internet over the next 10 years would be....

I don't think much will change in the next 10 years. Although censorship will try to get stronger and laws will eventually be made when the government get up to date. I think there are always going to be people doing things on the net they shouldn't be doing. I think in the future there will be more sights like You Tube, where people can add there own content to the web will be available. I also believe in the future more people will be involved in actions like the EFF, creative commons, and free software, but of course this will all come down to education on these sources.

I hope that these laws do not become too totalitarian, I do believe we need laws to make sure that people accessing certain sights can be legally prosecuted for it. But at the same time it shouldn't hinder people that are on the net in accordance with the law shouldn't be hindered in what they can do on the net. People should be free to add content to the web as long as it is not interfering with anyone else's freedom.

Education is an important issue for the future, there are a lot of developing nations that will have more and more ability to become on line free software will aid this with cheaper computers. Hopefully this will help with all levels of education in these countries and the people of these countries the ability to interact with the rest of us. Although at the same time, the younger generations are losing their ability to read and write properly, they use computers so often that when they write they do not write words correctly and use the correct grammar. In the future I am hoping that schools also focus on reading and writing skills as much as computer skills.

In the next ten years you can only imagine what developments will be made in the forms of mobile devices, I mean how far have they come in the previous 10 years. I can not think of what would happen in the world of social forums, I cannot see sites like second life becoming a major source for social forums, I think people want to see what their friends are up too and see photos of holidays and things like that, they don't want their friends to create an avatar that is nothing like them.

The next ten years is pretty hard to think about, when I think about the developments in systems that have happened in the last 5 years. I can only hope the internet is still a place of democracy where people can upload and download content without being handed fines every time they log in. I also hope there are more sites for people to create their own content . I also hope more people embrace the creative commons, in order to encourage creativity of the future users of the net.