Found this fascinating 170-page report (no, I didn’t read the whole thing, but c’mon!) via BoingBoing on how the Australian government sees the Internet evolving, and the means by which it’s trying to anticipate how much of a bigger splash the Internet of 2010 will make and how it can be met. Sound familiar? The report makes four distinct definitions, or identifying factors, of Internet evolution by 2010:

1. Basic communications: from fixed to mobile telephony
2. Personal managers: same mobile telephony pushes integrated mobile gadgets
3. Lifestyle junkies: new breed of music/video consumers using, surprise, integrated mobile gadgets
4. Communicating machines: nothing new in 2010 but developing said mobile communication.

I didn’t find see any mention of libraries in the whole spectrum of the report beyond a heavy emphasis on Siva Vaidhyanathan’s book The Anarchist in the Library. I figured that libraries, being such crucial access centers to much of the known world, would feature prominently in the report. Perhaps Australians have something else in mind for their libraries? Either way, an interesting read which identifies comparable influences with our own 2020 work-in-progress-vision of Idaho libraries.

The report can be found at http://tinyurl.com/7og65

Memo Cordova