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555
15th December 2007, 08:44 AM
Last month hundreds of people descended on Rio de Janiero, Brazil, for the second annual Internet Governance Forum. Sponsored by the United Nations, the IGF attracted politicians, business leaders, technologists, civil society representatives, and others interested in the global issues facing the Internet.

While media coverage of the forum focused primarily on domain name issues, those concerns were overshadowed by a far more important and challenging question - what will the next billion Internet users mean to the Internet itself? With more than a billion Internet users worldwide, doubling that number - which should happen within the next decade - will obviously have a profound effect on the network, technology, the computer software industry, access to knowledge, and our environment.

More:

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2464/159/

Rubber Duck
15th December 2007, 10:33 AM
Yes, and what the next billion does will affect what the first billion continues to do. If Microsoft cannot persuade them to adopt IE7 and Vista, then they will have trouble hanging onto the first billion as well! Desperate times!

555
15th December 2007, 10:58 AM
From the article:

The next billion will differ in more ways than just geography. Most new Internet users will not speak English as their first language, which should lead to increased pressure to accommodate different languages within the domain name system.