Why I think the Internet is dead and why I think it is a good thing
January 28 2011, 9:29 PM
The Internet as we know it has been around for barely a few decades, but
over that time there has been some characteristics of it that we have come
to take for granted, based on its design. It is a collection of networks
using a common protocol and some standards around address space and it has
no overriding governance. It was designed to be highly reliable, such that
if part of the Internet became unavailable, traffic could find other ways
to go to route around the problem. This last characteristic in particular
was something Internet enthusiasts would boast about in the early days of
Internet adoption. Recently that Internet has been showing it's age. The IPv4 addressing (e.g.
8.8.8.8) is running out of addresses. Egypt has shown that you can damage
the entire Internet for millions of people if you want to. Indeed, China
has apparently pulled off something bigger whereby the convinced large
portions of the Internet to route traffic through China's section of the
Internet. Senator Joe Lieberman in the U.S. Is calling for the ability to
give this President an Internet "kill" switch if need be. It seems like the
Internet is doomed. I think the old Internet is doomed, and I am happy to say that. However
there is a new Internet being built. Egyptians are building it right now
using mesh networks and satellite connections. Activists are encrypting
traffic using TOR servers and proxy servers to connect to the networks they
need. People now build there own wireless networks at home, take a break,
and use entirely different wirless networks at the cafe nearby. More and
more networks are being created, and every day people are coming up with
new ways to connect and communicate and share information. This new network
of networks, this new Internet, is a laboratory that is developing new ways
of doing things that are superior to the old Internet. The old Internet was
great, just like BITNET was great in it's day (and I know because I used
and loved it!). But it is a new era of communications and that requires a
new Internet. Too many people are spending too much time worrying about the
old one. I think we need to get busy working on building the new one. -----------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld.
over that time there has been some characteristics of it that we have come
to take for granted, based on its design. It is a collection of networks
using a common protocol and some standards around address space and it has
no overriding governance. It was designed to be highly reliable, such that
if part of the Internet became unavailable, traffic could find other ways
to go to route around the problem. This last characteristic in particular
was something Internet enthusiasts would boast about in the early days of
Internet adoption. Recently that Internet has been showing it's age. The IPv4 addressing (e.g.
8.8.8.8) is running out of addresses. Egypt has shown that you can damage
the entire Internet for millions of people if you want to. Indeed, China
has apparently pulled off something bigger whereby the convinced large
portions of the Internet to route traffic through China's section of the
Internet. Senator Joe Lieberman in the U.S. Is calling for the ability to
give this President an Internet "kill" switch if need be. It seems like the
Internet is doomed. I think the old Internet is doomed, and I am happy to say that. However
there is a new Internet being built. Egyptians are building it right now
using mesh networks and satellite connections. Activists are encrypting
traffic using TOR servers and proxy servers to connect to the networks they
need. People now build there own wireless networks at home, take a break,
and use entirely different wirless networks at the cafe nearby. More and
more networks are being created, and every day people are coming up with
new ways to connect and communicate and share information. This new network
of networks, this new Internet, is a laboratory that is developing new ways
of doing things that are superior to the old Internet. The old Internet was
great, just like BITNET was great in it's day (and I know because I used
and loved it!). But it is a new era of communications and that requires a
new Internet. Too many people are spending too much time worrying about the
old one. I think we need to get busy working on building the new one. -----------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld.