Issues
The Internet currently has some 600 millions users, or about 10% of the world's
population. Although usage is still growing rapidly, both socio-economic and
technical issues would appear to be slowing the overall growth rate. Some of the major user issues appear to be:
- The high incidence of viruses and worms arising from perceived security
weaknesses, giving rise to tens of billions of dollars of expenditure globally
in an attempt to prevent damage
- A rapidly developing lack of trust in the system, caused by fraudulent use
of addresses and non-existent companies and the ease with which criminal
activity can go unchecked
- A clogging of email systems with "spam", or junk email, most often
emanating from fraudulent hosts and email addresses
- Issues as regards use that does not meet normal societal standards of
behaviour
- Perceived "slowness" from a users point of view in accessing sites
- Limited availability in many parts of the world
- Affordability issues, particularly in developing countries
- Availability issues, particularly those pertaining to the ability to
communicate via the Internet in native languages.
These and other significant issues are threatening the usefulness of the
Internet. Preliminary analysis suggests that some significant improvements are
both needed and possible, but not necessarily easily dealt within the current
structure. Some of the reasons given include:
- Perceived inertia in the technical management and development overseen by
the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), giving rise to lack of faith among
major players
- Perceived weaknesses in the management and governance structure
- Perceptions that the Internet has become a tool of US Government policy.
There is a lack of easy to read material analysing the current state of the
Internet. There is also a lack of comprehensive user and business analysis.
The Internet Analysis Report - 2004 addresses these needs.
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