Imagining the Internet

A vision for the future

This is one of nearly a thousand foresight statements shared by people from around the world. To return to the Voices of the People home page, click here. To do a refined search of the Voices of the People statements, click here. To submit your ideas to this online archive, look to the upper right corner of this page, click on "Share Your Prediction" and fill in the pop-up form.

Name: Nathan Otto

From: Colorado

Bio: Technology entrepreneur

Area of Expertise: Entrepreneur/Business Leader

Topic: Community/Culture

Headline: Overlapping Communities

Nutshell: The power of an individual to relate to others, particularly in business, will be extended through growth of "trusted network" and "degrees of separation" tools to a very great extent.

Vision: As computers have expanded the brain power and information-organizing ability of individuals, so the internet will continue to expand relationship capabilities.

Participative, multi-modal networks which capture degrees of separation, closeness of relationship, trust and reputation will play a much bigger role in marketing, social life, and political and philanthropic organizations than at present.

Gaps between people whose relationship networks are amplified with technology and those whose aren't will grow, and the gap will become a larger social issue. Lawsuits will be filed over access to networks and online-damaged reputations.

Date Submitted: 11/11/2004