Future of the Internet This page contains a collection of topics related to the Internet's Future

Predicting the Future of the Internet is difficult since it is evolving so rapidly. There are however a number of online resources that will keep you well informed as developments occur:

• Statistics and Demographics - NUA Internet Surveys contains the largest compilation of Internet trends and statistics. NUA Internet Surveys contains the summaries of all the reports/press announcements from many "research shops" such as Gartner Group, IDC, DataQuest, The Burton Group, Forrester Research Group .  Another great resource is:  Cyberatlas: The Web Marketer's Guide to Online Facts
• Internet Standards are typically created by Active IETF Working Groups -  The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has a series of working groups.  These working groups develop the new standards which are released as Requests for Comments  (RFC's).   RFC's are eventually submitted to the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) for approval.  These organizations are all part of the Internet Society (ISOC).  The RFC's define the protocols that "run" the Internet.  Anyone is free to join these technical working groups and help debate/define the Internet's standards. 
• Trade Shows such as  Interop, Comdex, and many other trade shows give companies a chance to showcase their latest technologies.
• Industry Magazines such as Information Week, InfoWorld,
• testbeds - Internet 2, Abilene, VBNS, Many others,
•  - Internetnews.com -
• Yahoo's List of Technology News Sources
• Information Week Online One of the Industry's leading trade Publications

Rise of the stupid Network - by David Isenberg, formerly at the Opportunity Discovery Department, AT&T Labs. This article is designed to challenge your paradigm of what a communications network should be. Update- David has left AT&T (1/98) and started isen.com - If you really care about Internet vs. Telephone, you should really explore isen.com.

The Cookreport, which tracks the internet's infrastructure.

Voice on the Net (von.com) The online reference for Internet-based telephony. Created by pulver.com. These two sites (von.com and pulver.com) are must visit sites. You should also sign up for the Pulver report which is available for free via email. The Pulver report will keep you automatically informed of Internet telephony developments.

Some sites give you the capability to define a profile for yourself , and be automatically notified when a related change occurs. This helps relieve the burden of a user having to repeatedly visit a site.

1. my.yahoo.com
2. Newspage
3. Stroud's list of Online News Clients
4. Yahoo's list of Personal News resources

Search agents:

1. BotSpot - this site  covers developments in the search agent field. Includes a comprehensive list of all bots, or just join their free newsletter.
2. Copernic.
3. Intelliseek - creator of Bullseye which can search over 450 databases.
4. TheWebTools.com - Home of Mata Hari.
5. Yahoo's list of Intelligent agents.
6. Shopping agents can comparison shop for you a dozens of vendor sites.  Try these for example: killerapp, MySimon.

- QOS refers to the Internet industry's efforts to enable high levels of quality service, even when multiple backbones are involved in carrying the data. Once the Internet can guarantee high levels of QOS, The Internet will be better able to support mission critical and real-time applications.   Reference: Delivering QoS on the Internet and in Corporate Networks

..Link to Cook Report - which discusses the Automobile Industries efforts to build a VPN over the Internet (could also go on the extranet section)

Quality of Service - books and many online links
  

Watch and Listen to this presentation by John Chambers, CEO of Cisco. He talks about the need for business to Inter-connect with external customers, suppliers, etc.

Read the Cluetrain Manifesto

Links to discuss advancements in higher speed access - BackBone, WDM,

ways of overcoming the"last mile": xdsl, power lines, cable, direct PC, MMDS and other wireless flavors