Use of the Net leaves electronic footprints. As more people use the Net more often, it will become easier and easier to track them through this data. This will intensify disputes regarding protection of privacy.
Enjoy playing around online. I certainly do. Just realize the new medium isn’t ready for serious business yet. “We have a system that’s going to double in size this year and is getting ready to do it again,” Postel says. “We know that this can’t go on forever, but currently, we’re in this almost straight-up growth curve. We’re on the edge of having problems there.”
SNMP lives up to its name as a simple protocol, but … as people use it for more applications, it will need to become less simple.
There will be an increasing number of boundaries that link and separate private and public spaces. This will create a need for rules and special conventions to warn users when they cross a boundary. It will strain privacy protections and create new issues regarding sysop responsibility for the contents of messages that cross these boundaries. It will also lead to more disputes.
Science classes will be able to view current maps from the National Weather Service. Art students will peruse exhibits at the Louvre museum in Paris from their desks in Montgomery County, and government students can access current White House documents and send e-mail to the president.
There will be more commercial transactions, as opposed to information barter, on the Net. This will lead to a new set of questions regarding electronic contract formation. It will also lead to more disputes.
We need a strategy for handling growth. The direction we choose depends upon what we think the shape of the future Internet will be. But choosing a direction for inter-AD routing may in fact partially determine the shape of the Internet.
As the Net grows, there will be an increasing percentage of participants who have no prior experience with computer communications or Net culture, don’t know who they are talking to or where they are, and don’t have complete control over what they are doing. This will lead to more disputes.
We could run out of IP addresses.
Lawyers will use it because it is important to others and contains information they need for their professional tasks.