The phenomenal rate of expansion in computing power per dollar and in traffic on the network will almost certainly continue for another five to ten years. Computers will become faster and cheaper. For me, the more interesting questions relate to the role and structure of societal institutions, especially colleges and universities and the communities in which they reside. This is the point where our futurists draw scenarios.
Scenarios are projections without the claim of clairvoyance.
Through this set of fifteen ideas we offer one scenario that, though likely not to be fully true, will surely catalyze discussion and thereby give practice to decision makers for the future. Compared to printing on paper, electronic data are more interactive, sharable, searchable, linkable, revisable, updateable, and customizable. The traditional humanities scholars will follow the lead of natural scientists by forming teams of researchers. The sole author tradition will fade. Driving this movement toward teams is the new need for scholars to seek co-authors who know computers, and collaborators who have access to digitized versions of the raw data.