Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

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    Introduction

    With the proliferation of cheap and portable storage of digital data and advances in the speed and availability of communications networks for moving bits around, data have become important in nearly every corner of society. Anything that can be digitized can be shared and data that can be shared can often be transformed — sometimes […]

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    Above-and-Beyond Responses: Part 2

    A range of input by some respondents covered ground not related to the themes highlighted above. Put this in perspective—many things are worse and could have a more devastating effect, including natural disasters and the impacts of rapid online financial transactions Ben Shneiderman, professor of computer science at the University of Maryland, wrote, “Cyberattacks will […]

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    Elaborations: More Expert Responses

    Following are additional provocative and thoughtful answers from other respondents, organized in the same format as those in the summary. First, the insights of those who responded “no” to the question about whether a popular and trusted privacy infrastructure would be in place by 2025. After that, there are opinions of those who answered “yes.” […]

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    Elaborations: More Expert Responses

    Respondents in this canvassing note that the online environment is going through considerable change as it evolves technologically and politically. Some point out there is a constant swing between distributed activity that is built on citizen enthusiasm about the unhindered sharing of ideas and the type of central control characterized by restrictions on the exchange […]

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    Elaborations: More Expert Responses

    Each increment of growth in bandwidth has enabled new communication, new participation in communities, more effective outreach to broader social networks, more access to information, and more algorithmic interventions to sort and filter data. Most of the experts in this canvassing see all those trends being amplified in the decade to come as gigabit connectivity […]

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    The Less-Hopeful Theses

    9) Dangerous divides between haves and have-nots may expand, resulting in resentment and possible violence. Many expert respondents used the terms “gap,” “haves and have-nots,” and “divides” while describing concerns about the impact of the Internet by 2025. Some said Internet access is a basic need that should be considered to be a human right. […]

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    The More-Hopeful Theses

    This report reflects the responses to the sixth Future of the Internet survey, a canvassing of experts about their attitudes on the likely future impacts of evolving communications networks. Experts’ remarks in the previous five surveys generally expressed enthusiasm about the potential benefits of technological evolution. In this, the 2014 survey, their optimistic responses are […]

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    The Future of Corporate Responsibility

    Tech experts offer split verdict: Some expect the open Internet and consumer backlash will minimize cooperation with authoritarian governments; others believe the urge for profits and global reach will compel corporations to allow their tools to be used against critics of the status quo

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    Main Findings: Corporate responsibility: Which road will be taken?

    Respondents’ thoughts The wide range of variability in the tone of the answers to this question can be represented by the following two opposing statements, made by anonymous respondents who filed their answers at the same time on the same day: “The development of the Internet as a complex adaptive system will continue to evolve, […]