The Future of the Internet :: The Future of the Internet

The Future of the Internet

February 12th, 2007 | by admin | Published in Future of the Internet, Generativity | 1 Comment

Wired just published a short Q&A about my forthcoming book. I thought I’d share a little bit more of the argument in the meantime, since it’s awfully hard to get across a book’s worth of argument in just a few hundred words of a Q&A — which, of course, was much longer before it was edited.

There are two prevailing business models for putting out tech platforms today: one that I call “generative,” because it allows third parties to build upon it and share what they do (think PC, whether Mac, Linux, or Windows, where anyone can write software for it); and one not generative. The non-generative business model is technology more like an appliance, in ways both good and bad. There, the only entity that can change the way it operates is the vendor or service provider (think xbox, iphone, ipod, etc.). Sometimes third parties can write code for these appliances, but they need clearance before they can share it with everyone else.

I don’t mind those gadgets in the second category, but I’m concerned that they will come to predominate. If they do, we’ll get reliable, even fun, devices, but we’ll lose much of the innovation that’s been responsible for some of the best aspects of the Net and the PC, including such advancements as the Web browser.

I don’t think this is inevitable. The PC has indeed made inroads magnitudes more significant than CB ever did. But appliances can cherry-pick some of the most appealing aspects of the PC without carrying over the generative qualities that keep innovation flowing. If we don’t face the security problems latent in such generative platforms — and yes, they’re in Linux and Macs, too, because the question is whether the user will make poor choices about what code to run, not whether a given OS has a “flaw” — then we may lose the generative PC as the center of the ecosystem.

Responses

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Gyi Tsakalakis says:

May 15th, 2008 at 4:23 pm (#)

Prof. Zittrain,

I recently came across your blog and some comments regarding the future of the internet.

In particular, I found this comment:

“Zittrain clearly shows how clueless he is by lumping Libertarians and Anarchists together, in his contrived graph. In fact, Libertarian principles support the very kind of self-governance that Zittrain espouses… without the central authority.”

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/09/1545248&from=rss

Admittedly, I have not read your book yet. At first blush however, I would agree with the comment.

Perhaps you would like to respond?

Blog

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This semester, we’re starting an exciting new class, aimed not at lawyers, but undergraduate CS students here at Harvard. It’s called CS42: Controlling Cyberspace – and we’re sharing the syllabus online. Anything big we’re missing? Read more »

Computers Going Wild?

Computers Gone Wild: Impact and Implications of Developments in Artificial Intelligence on Society was an informal discussion that took place at Harvard Law School on December 8^th, 2011. Hosted by Jonathan Zittrain, Marin Soljačić and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, we brought together eighteen mostly local guests to discuss the ways that AI is changing society. Unlike futuristic predictions involving the Singularity or the underlying technology, this workshop explored current technology. Sessions included discussions on warfare, finance, education, and labor. Below is a list of attendees and a summary of the discussion.

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Ideas for a Better Internet, or i4bi, is an interdisciplinary course at Harvard and Stanford that challenges students from law, computer science, and public policy to come up with novel and plausible ways to improve the Internet and its use. i4bi centers on immersing participants in Internet history, technologies, and politics, so that students can come up with ideas that help to build a better Internet — however they define “better.” Read more »

Microsoft Echoes Apple App Store Requirements

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“Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Mark Fiore found his iPhone app rejected because it contained “content that ridicules public figures.” Fiore was well-known enough that the rejection raised eyebrows, and Apple later reversed its decision. But the fact that apps must routinely face approval masks how extraordinary the situation is: tech companies are in the business of approving, one by one, the text, images, and sounds that we are permitted to find and experience on our most common portals to the networked world. Why would we possibly want this to be how the world of ideas works, and why would we think that merely having competing tech companies—each of which is empowered to censor—solves the problem?”

Apple’s approach is an example of a larger phenomenon. Read more »

A SOPA compromise is floated

Last week several members of Congress — Senators Wyden, Cantwell, Moran, and Paul, and Reps. Issa, Lofgren and Chaffetz — floated a proposal to substitute for the contentious proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, previously discussed here. Sen. Wyden’s office has commented on the compromise, and TechDirt has a writeup and a copy of the document here. The proposal omits the elements of SOPA that had run into the most resistance. Gone is tinkering with fundamental Internet architecture such as the use of the domain name system. Gone is the involvement of the Attorney General. Gone is the criminal copyright streaming provision that could, theoretically, make a teenage Justin Bieber a felon for streaming amateur videos featuring his renditions of songs by his favorite artists.In all these ways, the Wyden compromise is significantly better than SOPA. So what’s left? Read more »

About Jonathan Zittrain

Jonathan Zittrain is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School

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