Virtual Society

- Make a small systems diagram to support your story using the driving forces. Connect the driving forces to each other in a systems diagram that explains how your story emerges.

Drivers for Change

I think the internet will go through some noteworthy changes in the coming years. Very important for the changes to the internet, will be the technology behind it, in particular higher speed/capacity, greater mobility and improved security measures. Furthermore, from an economic and social perspective I think that higher access to the internet and computer literacy will have an important impact to the development of the medium. Finally, political aspects like a gradual joint formulation of standards and regulations will also significantly affect the internet.

As a result increasingly more applications and services via the web will be offered and internet traffic and business will grow enormously over the next couple of years.

- Please prepare a short story (half a A4) that describes a possible future for the Internet in the next 10 years and bring it to class to present.

The World in 2014 – “The Virtual Society”

With respect to business in 2014 I believe that the internet and its applications will change the business environment, at least the companies dealing largely with information such as consultancies and law practices, into one that contains mostly virtual companies and offices. With this I mean that increasingly more people will actually work from their homes and that the new work floor will be in ‘cyberspace’. Of course videoconferencing and working with groupware via the internet already do exist, but in practice those are not used a lot. In my opinion the technological advancements will make such applications, and many more others to come, widely available and thus the traditional offices obsolete.

Education and research as we now know it is mainly performed in schools and universities geographically spread out all over the world. I guess that in ten years time the internet will be the main host of education and research. Content and applications for learning will become highly user-friendly and qualitative, while research will be carried out mostly by communities of experts and specialists via the web. In general e-learning and global research will thus take place at virtual schools and universities.

Information creation and sharing is one of the main functions of governments. Governments are the perfect candidates for offering their services through the digital channel, the internet. I think that in ten years time most of the governmental offices have disappeared and have been replaced by virtual government via the web. The larger access and greater capacity will make the services and applications much better available for citizens, while contact and collaboration among governments and institutions will become much quicker and easier.

As final area of information usage I argue that households will develop into virtual households in ten years time. Interaction with the outside world via the web will become increasingly more prominent as several devices in the homes will offer digital services to make life less complicated. Discussed earlier was working from home, but furthermore the contact with friends and family, the local community (shops, cafes, etc.) and the rest of the planet more and more will take place on the internet.