Pew Research Center

FOR RELEASE JUNE 26, 2007

Public Policy and The Future of the Internet

What forces will shape the internet in the next decade?

BY Lee Rainie

FOR MEDIA OR OTHER INQUIRIES:

Communications Department
202.419.4372
www.pewresearch.org

RECOMMENDED CITATION

Pew Research Center, June 2007, "Public Policy and The Future of the Internet"

About Pew Research Center

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It does not take policy positions. The Center conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, computational social science research and other data-driven research. It studies politics and policy; news habits and media; the internet and technology; religion; race and ethnicity; international affairs; social, demographic and economic trends; science; research methodology and data science; and immigration and migration. Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder.

© Pew Research Center 2026

Table of contents

  • About Pew Research Center

Public Policy and The Future of the Internet

What forces will shape the internet in the next decade?

I gave a speech yesterday to the Reference and User Library Association, a branch of the American Library Association. It focused on three critical uncertainties that will determine to some degree how the internet evolves:

  1. the adoption of the internet and its architecture
  2. the way intellectual property is treated
  3. the kind of policies and norms we development about identity, online privacy, anonymity and surveillance.

The speech can be downloaded here.