[Infowarrior] - PIR: The Impact of the Internet on Institutions in the Future

[Richard Forno]

The Impact of the Internet on Institutions in the Future
by Janna Anderson, Lee Rainie

Mar 31, 2010

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Impact-of-the-Internet-on-Institutions-in-the-Future.aspx
By an overwhelming margin, technology experts and stakeholders  
participating in a survey fielded by the Pew Research Center’s  
Internet & American Life Project and Elon University’s Imagining the  
Internet Center believe that innovative forms of online cooperation  
could result in more efficient and responsive for-profit firms, non- 
profit organizations, and government agencies by the year 2020.

A highly engaged set of respondents that included 895 technology  
stakeholders and critics participated in the online, opt-in survey. In  
this canvassing of a diverse number of experts, 72% agreed with the  
statement:

“By 2020, innovative forms of online cooperation will result in  
significantly more efficient and responsive governments, business, non- 
profits, and other mainstream institutions.”

Some 26% agreed with the opposite statement, which posited:

“By 2020, governments, businesses, non-profits and other mainstream  
institutions will primarily retain familiar 20th century models for  
conduct of relationships with citizens and consumers online and  
offline.”

While their overall assessment anticipates that humans’ use of the  
internet will prompt institutional change, many elaborated with  
written explanations that expressed significant concerns over  
organization’s resistance to change. They cited fears that  
bureaucracies of all stripes – especially government agencies – can  
resist outside encouragement to evolve. Some wrote that the level of  
change will affect different kinds of institutions at different times.  
The consensus among them was that businesses will transform themselves  
much more quickly than public and non-profit agencies. Read more...

About the Survey
The survey results are based on a non-random online sample of 895  
internet experts and other internet users, recruited via email  
invitation, Twitter or Facebook from the Pew Research Center’s  
Internet & American Life Project and Elon University.  Since the data  
are based on a non-random sample, a margin of error cannot be  
computed, and the results are not projectable to any population other  
than the experts in this sample.