How real is the Internet? 10 years ago in 1996 we asked if the Net n' Web would become like stale fish n' chips, once we've all got used to it and the media circus has gone off after new thrills? Yes, and no. It has not become the universal communications standard? As we predicted it has turned out to be very good for certain things, but not others. Books, telephones and meetings remain primary means by which people read for leisure, communicate remotely by voice, and discuss business. For many people, email has stopped being an efficient means of communication because of overload; ironically it's so easy, it has become the seeds of its own undoing.

Then and now one of the key issues is what information is transmitted on a virtually uncontrollable medium. We did some thinking on the Internet and Pornography, and What Use is Banning Newsgroups?. Not much seems to have changed.

Whether the Web and the Internet will have less impact on the culture than say the car, the television, the telephone and the computer remains to be seen. What has happened is a convergence of media which together looks to be extremely powerful for those wired in. A major issue remains who is the Internet empowering - the favoured computer literate who are able to afford it and access it - and who is disenfranchised by it? We offer some general thoughts on Ethics of the Internet which we originally wrote in 1996, much of which we think remains relevant today.

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This page was last revised on 7 March 2006

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