Up for Grabs: The Future of the Internet (Volume 1)

435 Pages·2008·1.567 MB·English

by  Lee Rainie, Janna Quitney Anderson, Susannah Fox

U G
P FOR RABS

U G
P FOR RABS
The Future of the Internet I
LEE RAINIE,
JANNA QUITNEY ANDERSON,
AND
SUSANNAH FOX
AMHERST, NEW YORK
Copyright 2008 Lee Rainie, Janna Quitney Anderson, and Susannah Fox
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior per-
mission of the publisher.
Requests for permission should be directed to:
[email protected], or mailed to:
Cambria Press
20 Northpointe Parkway, Suite 188
Amherst, NY 14228
Date of Initial Release: January 9, 2005.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rainie, Harrison.
Up for grabs : the future of the Internet I / Lee Rainie, Janna Quitney
Anderson, and Susannah Fox.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60497-517-8 (alk. paper)
1. Internet—Social aspects. 2. Internet—Forecasting. 3. Internet—
History. I. Anderson, Janna Quitney. II. Fox, Susannah. III. Title. IV. Title:
Future of the Internet I.
HM851.R36 2008
302.23’1—dc22
2008005644
FOR ITHIEL DE SOLA POOL
Pool, a leading communications researcher of the 20th century, died in
the mid-1980s, but he was a significant influence when vital decisions
were being made regarding freedom on the Internet in the decades to
follow. He inspired many Internet stakeholders with his book, Techno-
logies of Freedom. In it, he projected that interconnected computing
devices would be joined to form an open-ended, all-encompassing
structure. He described it as “the largest machine that man has ever
constructed—the global telecommunications network; the full map of
it no one knows; it changes every day,” and he projected that it would
be questioned by regulators fearing the challenge to the economic and
political status quo. He warned that a positive future would be delayed if
regulators chose to interfere. His 1983 book, Forecasting the Telephone,
was an inspiration for the initiation of the “Imagining the Internet”
project and surveys.

T C
ABLE OF ONTENTS
List of Tables ix
Foreword xi
Acknowledgments xvii
Summary of Findings xix
Part 1: Introduction 1
Part 2: Institutions 5
Part 3: Social Networks 35
Part 4: Network Infrastructure 53
Part 5: Digital Products 69
Part 6: Civic Engagement 83
Part 7: Embedded Networks 103
Part 8: Formal Education 119
Part 9: Democratic Processes 137
Part 10: Families 149
Part 11: Extreme Communities 163
Part 12: Politics 173
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part 13: Health System Change 187
Part 14: Personal Entertainment 203
Part 15: Creativity 217
Part 16: Internet Connections 231
Part 17: Looking Back; Looking Forward 241
Part 18: Refl ections 295
Methodology 299
Appendix I: Future Scenarios Inspired by
Early 1990s “Awe Stage” Projections 305
Appendix II: Biographies 351
Appendix III: Survey Results and Methodology 377
Contributor Index 391
Subject Index 395
L T
IST OF ABLES
Table 1. Overall survey completion rate. 301
Table 2. Overall survey completion rate. 389