Internet Anticipation

Roger Federer, the number one tennis player in the world, moved to his left to return serve even before the server hit the tennis ball. The Yankees right fielder started running deep just an instant before the batter hit the baseball. The defensive back for New Orleans stepped in front of the Colts’ receiver just and instant before Peyton Manning passed the football. These athletes knew where the ball was coming. They anticipated. Star athletes all have the ability to anticipate. And so it is in politics and business too.

Many commentators anticipated the movement of manufacturing jobs into other countries before it actually occurred. They sensed global labor changes on a macroeconomic scale. These commentators anticipated the impact of this labor shift and reported it. That was their job. And it is now happening again in the digital world. The New York Times has reported that the Obama administration is giving up control of the Internet to other countries in the spirit of Global cooperation.

The Times reporter wrote, “The argument advanced for those seeking international control of the Internet is that the Internet has become such a powerful, pervasive, and a dependent form of international communications, that it would be dangerous and inequitable for any one nation to control and manage it.” Obama's administration, through the Department of Commerce, has agreed to relinquish some control over the Internet and its governance. The times reporter continued to comment that “This amounts to one small step for internationalism and one giant leap for surrendering America's control over an invention we have every right and responsibility to control and manage.”

I anticipate that this agreement by the Obama administration is akin to the policy shifts of the 60’s and 70’s that has caused many people to now ask, “How did we let all our jobs move to other countries?” Some of us can see the ball before it is hit. We are not clairvoyant, but we do study the game more. I do not know what you can do to stop the relinquishment of Internet control to other nations because we as a nation rarely act until a lot of us are hurt, and then it is often too late. Perhaps it is the price we have been asked to pay for borrowing money to pay our bills from the nations who would love to control the Internet. In a few years, you may go to your on-line banking, which will be administered by the Chinese. Don’t laugh or even smirk. Remember we used to make televisions.

Anticipating the future is not just a skill possessed only by athletes. I have personally watched all the business and political “game” films of the last 50 years of history and I can see the ball coming off the Internet bat now.

Can you?

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