Though almost twenty years old, the World Wide Web is still a very young technology. Barely out of its infancy, it's going through growing pains, facing childhood diseases, wondering what it will be when it grows up. Born to help share data between scientists, the Web has already blossomed into a global meeting place, market, newsstand, and library.

Though how it will evolve to meet the challenges ahead is unknown,  the Net will doubtless
become more and more important to our daily lives. In the short term, social networks, online video, and e-commerce will doubtless continue to grow. Beyond that, not even the sky's the limit - literally: an interplanetary Internet for astronauts is already in the works.

Emailing from Mars will be just the beginning. Closer to home, the Internet might one day absorb both the telephone system and the entire broadcast industry. Perhaps you will use it to manage your home from afar while on vacation. Or work from anywhere on the planet in a virtual office with the help of artificially intelligent digital secretaries.

Here are a few future trends that are already becoming important:

• Convergence: Through high-speed connections, the Internet is finally tapping its true time and money saving potential. Computing, communications, and entertainment are already rapidly merging, as with phone service over the Internet and the Web on cell phones. A good example of how these can combine in new and exciting ways is Apple's iTunes, which legitimized music downloads, and its iPod, which made them portable. Already, individualized desktop interfaces are being developed will incorporate the most useful sites and programs for your convenience into user-designed custom arrays. Imagine having your browser open loaded with exactly what you need to work with. 
• Integration: As online applications become more interactive and versatile, the Internet behaves less like a bunch of linked computers and more like a single huge one. Personal computers may simplify as more information is networked, and could even fade into the background. The virtual world may ultimately infiltrate and dominate the "real" one. We might find ourselves one day in a "smart" responsive environment as sophisticated electronics invisibly permeate everything from clothes to cars to medicine cabinets, not to mention talkative toasters. 
• E-World: The paperless office and the cashless economy have long been promised but have still not yet come about. Meanwhile, renewable resources like paper become ever more expensive while counterfeiting paper money gets easier. Practical e-books and e-pads, improved biometrics, and a secure electronic replacement for cash could ultimately help solve those problems to make these dreams come true. 
• The Grid: For both good and ill, the Internet has long enjoyed a certain anarchic freedom. This will likely slowly diminish over time. Due to growing social and security concerns, more and more areas of the Net are becoming strictly regulated. With superfast connections able to deliver full-length movies on demand in mere minutes, for example, the Web might come to resemble a global virtual mall, where anything desired can be had almost instantly - except perhaps personal anonymity.  

How these possibilities actually play out depends not just on dreamers, entrepreneurs, financiers, and programmers. In the end, they all hinge on you, the end user. It's the services you want that really drives the Internet. Southwest Cyberport will be here to help keep you informed and to provide the best access available for the ride.

By Jay Nelson, Editor