Back in 2008 (which seems like a lifetime ago now), a survey by top Internet leaders, activists and analysts was conducted that announced 2020 as the year for big changes in the online world. We think the power and speed of Interent technologies has been underestimated here and challenge that some of these predictions have already been met, or will be well before 2020.
One prediction was that:
The mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the internet for most people in the world in 2020.
This has happened for a lot of Internet savvy people and gadget geeks already. Does anyone really remember what it was like before you had the Internet at your fingertips? I don’t and I’m not sure I would want to. If Apple and Android have their way, this prediction would happen tomorrow, or well before 2020 at least.
Voice recognition and touch user-interfaces with the internet will be more prevalent and accepted by 2020.
If Apple’s ‘Siri’ and the evolution of tablets are anything to go by, this has started to happen already and is moving forward leaps and bounds. Technologies could quite easily surpass this by 2020, let alone meet it.
Another prediction for the year 2020:
Those working to enforce intellectual property law and copyright protection will remain in a continuing arms race, with the crackers who will find ways to copy and share content without payment.
Lets refer to the big Pinterest debacle here with companies complaining that users were able to pin products to their own ‘pinboards’ without their permission. This event led to a huge crack down in copyright and saw Pinterest include a section of code within their ‘Help’ section that companies could insert into their web pages to avoid anyone ‘pinning’ their material.
The divisions between personal time and work time and between physical and virtual reality will be further erased for everyone who is connected, and the results will be mixed in their impact on basic social relations.
A wordy way of saying the Internet, and with this social media, will take over our lives. I don’t know about you, but I think this has happened for a good chunk of society already. Through myself writing this blog and you reading it, we’ve trumped this prediction already. Ask yourself, have you been on Twitter today?
The transparency of people and organizations will increase, but that will not necessarily yield more personal integrity, social tolerance, or forgiveness.
More than ever we can find out so much about people and organisations than we ever could before. Social media is the main reason behind this for individuals and large corporations. But even a simple Google search could reveal so much. News and gossip spreads so much faster with the Internet and it’s social culture, it’s difficult for anyone to hide.
2020? Try 2012.
(Prediction source: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2008/The-Future-of-the-Internet-III.aspx)