Can the Internet stay open?

The Internet may be plagued by increasing hack attacks and government restrictions, but information will continue to flow freely online 10 years from now, according to a new survey by Pew. The survey, released last Friday, of 895 people affiliated with the technology sector, made predictions about how open the Internet would be over the next 10 years. 

The findings are a good barometer for any company that relies on the Internet. The survey found that most people believe the Internet will remain open with a minimum number of restrictions. However, one skeptic was Susan Crawford, a former White House technology adviser in the Obama administration. "The locked-down future is more realistic as things stand now. We've got a very cautious government, an international movement toward greater control, and a pliant public," she wrote. "I wish this wasn't the case."

Google's chief economist Hal Varian expressed caution, too. "It seems to me inevitable that nation states will attempt to exert more control over the Internet," he wrote. "However, I think that these will be relatively small changes, so that the Internet will remain relatively free."

In a recent speech, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Obama administration would make Internet freedom and openness a diplomatic priority. It comes at a time when there is a firestorm of criticism against China for imposing an internal firewall that blocks users in China from accessing some websites.

For more on the future of the net:
- see this NationalJournal.com article

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