The Next Generation Internet: a large-scale ethnography

This report was produced in the course of the NGI Forward project, itself part of the European Commission's Next Generation Internet initiative. NGI Forward maps the "big picture" of the technological trajectory of the Internet as an ecosystem. Its objective is to offer (positive) perspectives on it, (normative) considerations on how to make it "human-centric" and consistent with Europe's foundations in human rights and the rule of law; and proposals on how to bridge the two. Within this project, this report's objective is to add an intersubjective "community" perspective. We encourage more free-form dialogue among people who might not be credentialed experts, but experience the Internet every day, engage in adaptation strategies and perform innovative activities. From here, we try to understand how technology and business model choices impact the everyday life of people, in the words of the people themselves. To understand their worldviews, we use ethnographic and network science methods to analyse discussions about the Internet on the NGI XChange forum, which we convened for 30 months (from early 2019 to June 2021).