| Chapter 1: | A Global, Low-Cost Network Thrives |
Corporate and Government Restrictions Forecast
Many of the elaborations recorded by those who disagreed with the 2020 operating-environment scenario express concerns about the possibility that the Internet will be forced into a tiered-access structure, such as that now offered by cellular communications providers and cable and satellite television operators. Mark Gaved of The Open University in the U.K. sees it this way. “The majority of people will be able to access a seamless, always-on, high-speed network which operates by verifying their ID,” he predicted. “However, there will be a low-income, marginalized population in these countries who will only have access to limited services and have to buy into the network at higher rates, in the same way people with poor credit ratings cannot get monthly mobile phone contracts but pay higher, pay-as-you-go charges.”
Christopher Johnson, CEO for if People, wrote, “Current dominant market forces will further alienate themselves from ‘open and accessible’ by creating more proprietary and limited ways of acting online, continuing their ability to feed on the technology fears and ignorance of some people.”
Some of those who disagreed with the scenario also saw government interference limiting online freedoms and access. Mark Gaved wrote that there will be “government-limited access in less democratic states.” And Scott Moore, online community manager for the Helen and Charles Schwab Foundation, wrote, “New networks will be built with more controllable gateways allowing governments and corporations greater control over access to the flow of information. Governments will use the excuse of greater security and exert control over their citizens. Corporations will claim protection from intellectual property theft and ‘hacking’ to prevent the poor or disenfranchised from freely exchanging information.”
—Mikkel Holm Sørensen, software and intelligence manager, Actics Ltd.