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Patrick’s Prognostications (Dec. 13, 2004)
by Marc Cohen
John Patrick made his 12th appearance at DACS at our December meeting. Each year John has presented his image of the ever expanding view of the future of the Internet, and once again the saga continued. John’s vision of the upcoming generation can be summed up in few words and matches his personality and work ethic—fast, always on, everywhere, natural, easy, intelligent, and trusted.
FAST From its development as a defense research project to develop an uninterruptible communication system during the cold war, to a university research data sharing device, and on to the current broadband Internet as we know it. Accessed through phone lines and with broadband through DSL lines, cable, satellite, and in the near future through the power grid, the quest for speed continues.
ALWAYS ON With broadband access, most users have become accustomed to having networks and systems available on line 24/7.
EVERYWHERE Now, desktops, laptops, palms/PDAs, bluetooth devices and cell phones—all can be wirelessly connected to public networks, your home, your car and almost every object. Millions of businesses, billions of people, trillions of devices, everything and everyone connected, secure and private.
NATURAL The use and availability of the Internet is rapidly becoming as natural to use as the telephone. Instant messaging is no longer for the kids, and is now becoming a major business tool.
EASY Expanding Open standards, Linux, business and public involvement are changing the game.
INTELLIGENT Content is what it’s all about. News,weather, sports, applications, movies, music, all the world’s libraries, bloggers, and more, await your fingertips.
TRUSTED Security is constantly improving—constantly. Spam control, digital and biometric identification, secure business transactions and privacy are all converging in this endgame.
John, always true-to-form, brought to life his visions about the power and potential of the Internet and how it will advance to meet the expectations of the demanding world. He also described opportunities that are just beginning to emerge, and some of the potential limitations that may stand in their way…Limitations that are more political than technical… Unlimited free worldwide long-distance phone calls are changing the thinking of the telecoms, redefining usage of copywrite material for personnel use. As always, the Q&A following John’s presentation leaves all eagerly awaiting his next appearance…..
Visit John Patrick on-line at www.johnpatrick.com.
Marc Cohen is a member of the board and production editor of dacs.doc. He considers himself a perpetual novice, soon to join the digital revolution You can reach Marc at [email][email protected][/email].
