Elon professor
searches to understand Internet
By Brian Mezerski
One professor
at Elon University uses her spare time to research and explore the digital
world.
Jana
Anderston, the director of Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center, has
been studying the past and, more importantly, the future of the Internet for
more than 10 years. The Center itself
has been providing historical analysis and predictive trends from technology
experts.
It started
with research into early 1990s predictions about the Internet – predictions that,
Anderson soon found, were spot on and accurate.
Most recently, the Center is providing information to help people
understand the effects of the evolving digital world.
“There are
different power structures that are being disrupted by the digital age,”
Anderson said.
Anderson
said the developing technology completely flips how certain processes, such as
personal privacy, are managed. And
predictions dating back 15 years or more addressed online privacy concerns. In addition to those prognostications, the
Center’s online database shares about 4,000 predictions, according to Anderson.
But
Anderson said she does not participate in one major aspect of the Center’s
goals.
“I don’t
make predictions,” Anderson said.
Instead,
she writes the reports and oversees the research. What she’s noticed are more experts’ concerns
about powerful forces and organizations trying to regulate the Internet in ways
that it should not be regulated.
“The
Internet may not ever be as good as it is right now,” Anderson said, “if the
controlling interests and regulating bodies decide to start passing rulings
based on what other governments want, rather than looking at the global good.”
The
Internet, therefore, should be focused on individual regulation, Anderson said.
The
Imagining the Internet Center will continue to study how individuals use
technology. But it doesn’t matter
whether experts prefer to extoll the benefits or drawbacks of being connected
online. In the end, logging on is a
personal choice.
“People
will use technology as they see fit,” Anderson said.
