Monthly Archives: August 2011

Future of the Internet

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Having recently read The Future of the Internet by Jonathan Zittrain, a Futurist Update link to a post by Lisa Donchak caught my eye this morning. She has identified 3 trends (the three Rs) concerning the future of the internet and social media.

1. Real Names

Part of the allure of the internet has been the ability to browse sites anonymously. However, as Donchak comments: “the internet is shifting towards a model based more on individual accountability. Facebook has algorithms that attempt to detect whether or not you’ve put in a real name. Google+ is asking users to input their real names, too.” Confirmation of identity is likely to be a next step in the evolution of the internet, because without it secure transactions, accountability and reputation metrics will not work.

Links: Trust, transparency, authenticity, data security, reputation, provenance.

2. Regulation

In the future the internet is likely to be much more regulated than it is today and this will impact the behaviour of both individuals and organizations. Interestingly, Donchak cites an EU discussion of a “Right to be Forgotten” (i.e. do not track me) law, whereby websites would be forced to respect user privacy and delete user data after a specified period. One real possibility not discussed in the post, but which features strongly in Zittrain’s book, is the idea that the internet could be locked down so that it is no longer generative or that national governments could replace the internet with a series of highly regulated and censored national intranets.

Links: Privacy, censorship, trust, data security, secrecy, control,

3. Reputation
Not surprisingly, internet users are increasingly thinking about the reputation of organisations before they put their personal data into those organisations’ websites.
Facebook, for example, has got into numerous scrapes because it is no totally transparent (to people with no time to find out) about what it does with its data. Google+ is pulling people away from Facebook, not because it offers a superior product, but simply because it isn’t Facebook.

Links: Trust, privacy, spam,

How to disconnect from your online life

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Feeling out of control? No time to think nowadays? Fed up with people you don’t know asking to be your friends? Try these five simple steps.

1. Switch your mobile – or computer – off after 6.30pm or 7.30pm each night. It’s interesting to me that we try to set boundaries around screen use for our kids, yet we do not restrict our own usage.

2. Have two phones rather than one. Keep one for business calls and use the other for family and friends. At weekends – or when you go on holiday – switch the work phone off or leave it in a drawer at home.

3. Once you have done 1 or 2, go to places where calmness and serenity can find you. In my experience scale seems to be important. You need to feel physically small to relax or reflect. Perhaps this is why so many people like empty beaches, mountains and cathedrals. In such situations our minds seem to expand to fill the available space. Seeing a distant horizon also appears to help in that our thinking is projected forward.

4. Create the time and space to think. When, for instance, was the last time that you told someone in the office that you were going off “to do a bit of thinking.”

5. If all else fails visit the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, a website that enters all your online accounts and deletes all of your data. Privacy restored.