Expert says it will take a new attitude to squash spam, wire your washer, and identify the next IM

Imagine a day when your doctor retrieves your information not from a paper file, but on an encrypted smart card. Or when an instant message alerts you that your laundry is done. Or--unbelievably--a day when you get not a single piece of spam. That's the future of the Internet described in a keynote address at the IAPP Truste Symposium here this week. John Patrick, former vice president of Internet technology at IBM and now president of the consulting organization Attitude LLC, shared his vision and told how the next steps of Internet evolution will come about. Many of his expected changes are already arriving, but can't surface until there are some sweeping changes to the Internet's framework, and--more importantly--to people's attitudes, Patrick said. Having an always-on broadband connection, as opposed to dial-up, opens new possibilities for Internet use, he says. Patrick estimates broadband users are likely to view ten times more Web pages than dial-up users. Those page views aren't confined to desktop PCs, but also appear on handhelds and convergence devices, he notes. And through wireless access, you can log onto a hotspot and make a phone call using Internet telephony instead of your cell phone--perhaps even without a Voice over IP service provider, he added.