I found an old Aspen Institute report yesterday, from 1994, called Society, Cyberspace, and the Future. You can find it here:

http://www.ub.es/prometheus21/articulos/obsciberprome/aspen.pdf

Back then, it was addressing how the advances in technology (specifically growth of the Internet and online communities) would affect the flow of communication. It had a clear vision of the world we now live in; however, it doesn't address the "what happens now" aspect of how those of us who communicate effectively using this new means of community play a role beyond our computer screens.

The most important thing to happen in the next ten years or so will be the transfer of this "information filtering" being done by online communities back into the real world. This is going to happen either the "old-fashioned" way, through people bringing this news full-circle, from source through filter and back to original, traditional sources; or it's going to be a matter of online communities forming "real world" connections and spreading the word face to face.

Probably it will be a combination of the two, as people have individual learning styles and comfort zones; however, as that 1994 report points out, there is still a risk of the exertion of top-down control over the Internet (and, subsequently, the flow of information that is now dramatically affecting media and politics and everything else, in turn).

The whole thing is up for grabs depending upon the power gained by AT&T as Ma Bell is allowed to remake itself. Will Net Neutrality still be in place ten years from now? I'm optimistic, but there are some powerful forces still out there working against it.

Read that report, and imagine in your mind you were participating in the group writing a report looking at the next ten years... I'll bet you come up with some good stuff.