Forces of Change: Ten Trends that Will Impact the Internet Over the Next Five Years

Abstract

Regardless of how organizations measure Internet growth and usage, it is certain that the forces of change that affect the Internet will continue to evolve. in evaluating the economics of competing technologies and determining how organizations can get a return on their technology investments, this article reviews ten technology and consumption trends on the Internet. They are (1) multiple bandwidth delivery, (2) linguistic and cultural diversity, (3) privacy, (4) laws, (5) restricting access, (6) taxation of Internet commerce, (7) information age law enforcement requirements, (8) surviving on a crowded Web, (9) new sources of competition, and (10) information warfare and economic terrorism.