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 CNN.com
recently gave laudatory coverage to a Web site that is a joint venture
of Elon University's School of Communications and the Pew Internet
and American Life Project. The site invites people to submit their
predictions about the future of the Internet.
The "Imagining the Internet" predictions database has been developed
over the past two years by Janna Quitney Anderson, an assistant
professor and director of internet projects. Her work has been funded
and guided by School of Communications Advisory Board member Lee
Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
The Web site includes 4,000 predictions about the future of the
Internet that were made by leaders in the industry between 1990
and 1995. The predictions were gathered by a team that included
Elon faculty and staff and dozens of Media History students.
Visitors to
the site can search the database and learn more about the early
visions of those who created Internet technologies. The site also
invites people to look forward and submit their own, personal visions
about the future of the Internet.
In the article
on CNN.com, reporter Christine Boese describes her experience and
provides links so people can contribute their predictions about
the future of the Internet to the site. "I had more fun than
I had any right to the other day. I looked into my crystal ball
and imagined the future of the Internet," she wrote. "The
site is open for browsing and searching, so you can hop in and read
some of the famous, humorous and edgy predictions from pundits,
journalists and ordinary people about what the Internet could become.
As years go by, this should become an absolute treasure trove, but
it already is an amazing read."
Hundreds of
people from around the world responded to Boese's publicity for
the site by going to the "Imagining the Internet" database
and adding their predictions for the future.
The site is
still in the process of being built. In addition to the early 1990s
predictions and the contemporary contributions from the general
public, the site will include a 2004 Internet Experts Survey - an
element that will complete the database late this year.
Click here
to read the CNN.com story on the site:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/11/10/internet.future/
Click here
to access the Imagining the Internet site:
http://www.elon.edu/predictions
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