Networks For The Future: To .NET or Not?

Networks, including the Internet, company intranets, personal home networks, community nets, and more, are quickly becoming the lifeblood of society. But pressure is on to control our publicly accessible networks, and with it, to control our speech, preferences, and interactions with the networked world. Toward understanding the networks of the future, NetAction offers two scenarios of future networking. These are not fully developed, but rather sketch out the horizons of two worlds: one largely dominated and controlled by Microsoft (the most powerful of the large corporations that dominate the technology industry), the other largely open to development and use.