We know that the pace of technological change will continue to accelerate. Information technology will continue to improve more or less at the same Moore’s Law rate of recent decades, but IT’s integration with all manner of other information, science and industry activities should assure that the total scope of change will expand at an even dizzier rate. But for this new potential to be realized, new forms of trust will be required. Consider how the futures of so many potentially important technological domains – stem cell research, genetically modified foods, biotechnology, nanotechnology, robotics, nuclear power, alternative energy, identity cards, electronic health care records, wireless communication, open source software, e-commerce, immunization programmes, personal privacy, patent granting, intellectual property protection, and most recently, full body scanning systems – are at least as dependent upon establishing the necessary societal trust as they are on the underlying technological challenges.

However, we have reached a point where this trust cannot be based solely on the views of experts or those with formal decision-making authority. Some sort of bottom-up mass market/consumerist component will increasingly need to be part of the mix, and this is where IT and the Internet will prove crucial. The nurturing of technological trust requires the support of those affected and this is best pursued through processes that are seen as fair and transparent. Such openness can only be efficiently delivered through modern information technologies, be they emails, web sites, social networks, tweets, or whatever comes next.

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