Scenario 4: bottom-up Internet
We are the Borg. Resistance is futile!
In this scenario of the future of bottom-up Internet the current nerds will decide the future. Scenario by Robert, timeline by Andrew.
2006/2007 The big startup
After a couple of serious fraud cases due to spyware and phissing governments will join forces to work towards global rules for information processing and storage. In addition they're starting to fund several open source projects to move away quicker from commercial software. This incentive and with government funding to start a research and development project, private organizations see this as a great timing opportunity to join forces and do research together.
2008/2009 Research and innovation
The big statup attracts experts worldwide to be really innovative and rapidly starting to develop secure on-line applications. To be able to deliver them to clients certain basics and current annoyances have to be get rid off. This can be seen as a really big push for the bottom-up community.
2009 Continue but bigger and better
For this several new standards are being created at high speed and because of the joint forces they are actually being supported.Pleased with the fast results they are getting the governments put everything at work to continue this cooperation. They start creating several big research centers worldwide where anyone who qualifies can do research without having to worry about resources. What helps in this area is the development of new storage techniques which litterally brings the amount that has to be paid for a gigabyte down to a few cents.
2011 Technology push
New technology coming from the bottom-up society starts competing with commercial technology on a whole new level. It is really hard to keep up-to-date and informed about all the technologies coming out unless it’s your full-time job. Since the technology itself is more focused on than the actual use of it user friendliness and the commercial value isn’t really being considered. Only a limited amount of features is actually being used and technology gets an image of being only a gadget.
2012 Optimization complete
By know the new competitive environment becomes clear and more and more comparitive researches are done for the best alternatives. What results these researches will provide remains to be seen...