The engineers, programmers and other implementers of the
  technologies as well as the community leaders who try to make
  these projects a reality on a large scale will make the attempt
  to bridge the gap. I watched a lot of my early idealism of the
  Internet slowly fade away post 1993/1994 after the introduction
  of the WWW and the beginnings of commercial infiltration.

  All the doom and gloom _did_ come true in a sense, but there
  were also added benefits to the addition of commercial
  enterprise over what was before, which was strictly academic,
  hobbiest and military.

  Idealists are useful in keeping hope alive and while I'm
  outwardly drawn to idealistic things, internally, I'm skeptical
  of most things. But I respect idealism for plunging ahead just
  the same because every once in a while, they hit upon something
  really surprising and good that actually changes things in the
  lives of many.