The Internet has changed the world empowering individuals and organizations
allowing us to work together as we move forward. Today people are asking,
what will the Internet look like in 10 years?
You're an employee of International Widgets, selling digital software and media
all over the world, mostly online.
As technological, political, and economic motivations compete to shape the future of the Internet,
your company and personal life also come to a turning point.
Let's see what happens in one of your possible futures.
Here you are, ten years from now.
You work for International Widgets Worldwide News
providing users with apps for receiving news on their mobile devices and the content to go with it.
But the Internet we know and love is about to change.
We are showing you what we call the Common Pool scenario
Just as today, no one knows for sure where the Internet is heading, but everyone has their own vision for it.
Industry experts are busy building serious models for serious business.
Meanwhile amateurs are playing amidst the chaos, finding critical issues and finding innovative ways
of solving them.
Eventually the world turns to these users, creaing open source, collaborative and freely available fixes.
Adopting these solutions births a new Internet,
one founded on the principles that drove the original 'nets success.
collaboration
competition
and evolution
but a new Internet means you need a new business model
after putting their faith in other users people aren't willing to hand over their hard earned money
to corporate content providers. That's when you get an idea.
Let the users report the news.
Since your audience receives its content on mobile devices, like SmartGadget notepad,
you figure that's the place to start for a new platform.
You partner with Viper, a global teleconferencing platform that's already successfully using real-time,
high-definition video to connect users through their notepads.
Together, you create a global news system,
allowing users to report to other users about whatever interests them the most.
You survive because you realize that users don't want media created by experts.
They want something that will help us sort through all that great amateur content.
That's why you let your users tell you what they like.
Then you give them a constant flow of video streams,
from big news to small news, and everything in between.
The success of your platform draws out the copycats. You have to stay on your toes
because competition is now coming from parts of the world that couldn't even access the Internet before.
Despite the imitators,
International Widgets manages to keep ahead by remaining in touch with what users want.
That's why you open up the platform's code.
The first user-created extension to catch on lets people add annotations and comments
to the video stream in real time.
The second let's you attach a Viper-based chat room to any feed,
letting users and reporters talk, as the news is happening
These innovations don't just make your platform better, they attract new users with new ideas.
With contents and functionality driven by users, International Widgets helps everyone
get what they want, when and how they want it.
Across the globe, people are tapped into the new world of news.
You never know how long your company's success will last, but you take comfort in the fact
that the Internet is a place that's always allowed to evolve.
We need you to help shape tomorrow's Internet.
We're working to keep the Internet free and open. For you and with you.
Act now to protect the Internet's future. Find out what you can do, at:
www.InternetSociety.org
