Pew Internet Project and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center surveyed 1,021 “technology stakeholders and critics” to gauge their opinions regarding whether the open Web or Apps will rule in 2020. (For the origin of this debate, see  “The Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet” Wired, September 2010, Tim Berners-Lee’s response, and my take at the time). Only 35% opted for the dominance of Apps scenario. But out of the 59% that “agreed with the statement that most people will trust and rely upon the open Web to access and share information over the Internet, a significant number… said the true outcome will reflect parts of both scenarios, and some people said their choice of the Web as the winner was their ‘vote’ for what they hope to be the 2020 outcome.”

So far, the people using the Web have “voted” differently. A sobering fact cited in the report: “In June 2011, researchers reported that time spent on apps began to outpace time spent on the desktop or mobile Web. The change reflected a 91% increase in time spent with apps between June 2010 and June 2011.”