Online networking: present and future scenario

Online networking

 

We are in the social networking age.

During these years, we experienced some successful social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, to say a few).

And which is the future of the online networking? Of course, people's understanding and usage of technology and web have evolved over the years. But the innovations in social networking are just getting started.

According to market research and internet marketing website eMarketer, there will be 1.5 billion Internet users by the end of 2012, and the growth rate is estimated to remain in the double digits over the next years, due to the increase coming from social networks.

Apparently, the future looks bright for internet networking companies, but are emerging factors to consider: privacy and personal information, security about personal passwords, frauds, advertisement's overload.

The internet penetration is expected to grow exponentially over the next 10 years, but the social networking sites faces major challenges, among competition in the industry and evolution of people's behaviours.

So what?

Around the world, there are some research projects about the future of online networking. For example, the Open Networking Foundation – launched in march 2011 by Deutsche Telekom, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Verizon and Yahoo! – is a no-profit consortium dedicated to the trasformation of networking through the development of the architecture called Software Defined Networking, which brings direct software programmability to networks worldwide.

The foundation is based in Usa (California) and the Software Defined Networking project is based between Stanford University and Berkeley University.

Nowadays, more than 80 companies have joined the Open Networking Foundation, ranging from startups to big companies.

People's approach to the networking is subject to many variables, but the technical side can be driven. Is this a quality or a defect? In the coming years, we'll have the answer, and it will come from the balance between human evolution and technological development.