Electronic communication technology will change, is changing, indeed, has changed (although some of us haven’t noticed it) the nature of work, and indeed the need for work, in all advanced countries … it may be difficult for most of us to realize that “work” is over, and that very few humans are needed any more … Our old ideas and institutions will be smashed and paved over by the white-hot oozing asphalt of the Information Superhighway.
True digital cash as an enabling mechanism for electronic commerce depends upon the marriage of economics and cryptography … I refer to this new sub-discipline as cryptonomics. The Internet is a new world and a new world demands a new currency – a new standard of value. As an enabling mechanism for social change, digital cash has vast implications for macro-economics in the area of a government’s money monopoly and taxing authority, just to name a few. In light of the growing attacks on individual privacy both in the United States and abroad, there has never been a more important time to emphasize the concepts behind the vigilant protection of total financial and monetary privacy. It is money, the lifeblood of any economy, that ultimately symbolizes what commercial structure, and hence what political structure, humans operate within.
If real-time and time-of-day energy pricing causes the shifting of industrial or business activities and processes to off-peak hours, will this eventually cause the leveling off of demand such that the utilities will then have no incentive for offering lower-cost energy for off-peak-hour usage? How will the higher cost of energy during peak times of the day affect those persons and organizations that are just beginning to telecommute?
The deployment of an open non-proprietary residential premises network “black box” may well be the most important advancement for both the energy services and NII information services since it will enable new and innovative supporting hardware, software, system, and services that will drive not only the energy supply and consumption applications arena but will also spur on the deployment of NII and Internet access. The model must support a heterogenous collection of telecommunications media and services, advanced energy and information applications and access strategies, and a variety of consumer premises solutions.
[The energy industry’s] options cover a full spectrum that includes the utilities providing the “last mile” access to customers for both generic Internet access required for empowering the users as well as supporting the necessary utility applications. In one scenario the energy utilities provide high-speed NII access to both residences and industry over utility-owned infrastructure in order to obtain the level of reliability they need as well as providing the infrastructure necessary to support real-time energy supply and consumption management.
Educators in many parts of the world are locked in debate about alternatives for reforming education systems our societies have outgrown. One promising direction for educational reform involves using the Internet with K-12 students to create global learning communities and develop more effective pedagogical practices. The use of educational telecommunications in the classroom clearly holds potential as both a communication tool and as a research tool for collaborative projects or activities.
People will buy the Internet if they know what they are buying and whom to buy from. Understanding how to position the Internet service industry is perhaps one of the greatest challenges the field of technology venture marketing has ever faced … The commercial Internet has developed so rapidly over the past several years that no strong “industry model” has had a chance to assert itself.
As more and more “traditional” industries and businesses start to use the Internet as a business tool, the demand for Internet service providers in many forms will increase dramatically. However, few of these new customers can or should be expected to show the tolerance normally afforded fledgling industries in high-technology areas. This is especially true as the Internet promoters themselves have built up an expectation that the industry is more mature than other new technologies owing to its relative age and maturity.
As … more schools begin to consider establishing connections, it becomes essential that we evaluate the impact such a connection has on the educational program, and especially its impact on teachers. If teachers are to successfully explore this world and incorporate its benefits into their classrooms, then they – and those who influence teacher professional development and classroom reform activities – need to have a firm grasp of what is meant by “being connected to the Internet.” At the very minimum, teachers need to learn and understand how an Internet connection can become a part of their classrooms; they will need support in identifying and locating sources of information that contain resources of interest to them and relevant to their academic discipline; and they will need to learn how to acquire this information and incorporate it into their teaching.
As demand for Internet access and services in schools increases, the need for qualified mentors will continue to escalate. Learning models which encourage self-directed learning in a collaborative environment mirror the cooperative spirit of inquiry which has historically fueled the growth of the Internet at the same time that they further the goals of the educational reform movement. Successful professional development activities will engage enthusiastic teachers who will form a cascading cadre of mentors to their colleagues.