Elon University

Visionaries Multimedia

How will the accelerating impact of networked ICTs change our lives and our world? Researchers from Elon University conduct interviews with participants at major international gatherings, asking them to share their expectations for the future. The links below will lead you to audio and/or video interview collections, including many quotable predictions shared by people from all walks of life, many of them at the top of their field.

ISOC 20th Anniversary LogoInternet Society’s 20th Anniversary INET
Imagining the Internet is completing full documentary multimedia coverage of the Internet Society’s 20th Anniversary Global INET conference in Geneva, Switzerland, April 22-24, 2012. The theme of the conference is “Imagining the Future Internet.” Included will be the details of 20 different conference session segments. Among the highlights expected are the naming of the inaugural class of the Internet Hall of Fame, results of a vote on the “Defining Moments of the Internet” panel sessions on key issues to the future of the Internet and keynote talks by Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales, Google Vice President Vint Cerf, ARPANET pioneer scientist Leonard Kleinrock, Mozilla leader Mitchell Baker, Internet Society CEO Lynn St. Amour, the ITU’s Hamadoun Touré and more. Click here for coverage.

Egypt IGF 2009 Logo Global Internet Governance Forums
Imagining the Internet has recorded documentary coverage at every global Internet Governance Forum since the initial meeting in 2006. The meetings were mandated by processes generated out of the World Summit on the Information Society and they are facilitated by a United Nations secretariat that is based in Geneva, Switzerland.

IGF 2011 in Nairobi, Kenya

IGF 2010 in Vilnius, Lithuania

IGF 2009 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

IGF 2008 in Hyderabad, India

IGF 2007 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 

IGF 2006 in Athens, Greece 

IGF USA LogoInternet Governance Forum-USA
Complete journalistic coverage of the meetings of the US national Internet Governance Forum that brings together civil society, government, business and technology leaders in the United States. Plenary sessions and workshops have been documented by a teams of ethnographic researchers from Elon University. Click here to see video clips, still photos, articles and links to other coverage.

Future Web LogoFutureWeb and WWW2010
Coverage of 22 separate events at FutureWeb, a conference created by Imagining the Internet to bring people together at the WWW2010 global gathering to discuss the challenges and opportunities looming in the future. More than 1,000 people met in Raleigh, NC, USA in April 2010 for these events.

OECD, Seoul, Korea, 2008 
Thirty-one video interviews were conducted by Imagining the Internet at the meeting of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development on the Future of the Internet Economy in Seoul, Korea, June 16-18, 2008. Click here to go to the page with video links.

Metaverse Roadmap LogoMetaverse Roadmap Summit 2006  
This interdisciplinary gathering of about 40 futurists, technology architects, academics, journalists and entrepreneurs met at Stanford Research Institute International to discuss synthetic worlds, the geospatial web, net neutrality and much more. They speak of the key issues and emerging advances they see in our future. Among those interviewed are Esther Dyson, Jamais Cascio, John Smart, Randy Farmer, Raph Koster, Robert Scoble, Mike Liebhold, David Smith, Sibley Verbeck, and Daniel James.
Click here for more.

Interviewer at IGF 2005 PhotoAccelerating Change 2005
Two short films and 22 interviews recorded at an international conference on accelerating change, held at Stanford University in September 2005. Interview participants classified themselves as research scientists, entrepreneurs or business leaders, authors or journalists, and technology developers or administrators. They speak of their hopes and fears for the future. Among those interviewed are Vernor Vinge, George Gilder, Douglas Engelbart, Patrick Lincoln, Thomas Malone, and Alex Lightman. A hot topic of discussion at the event was the possibility for a technological “singularity.” Click here for more.