'The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It' by Jonathan Zittrain.
This book confronts the most important issues facing the future of the Net. The author says, "Both the internet and the PC were designed by people who shared the same love of amateur tinkering and love of enterprising" Both platforms are therefore poised to continue its growth during its lifetime, mainly, by relying on their users to figure out what to do with them—and to deal with problems as they arose." Grow, it did, but the future path is not very clear. "In fact rather wholesale revision to the Internet and PC environment is happening every moment. And, since we cannot stop it, let us study it".
The book starts by mentioning the successes that led to Internet and the PC and how the technologies are today in a wholesale shift away from the original chaotic design that has given rise to the modern information revolution. How this will limit its innovative capacity—and, for better or worse, heightening its dependence on orderliness. This needs to be read in the light of current visible tussle in the information highway. And, we need to learn about different possible futures. Part I of the book thus give an overview of the PC's growth so far and way the new technology of information processing capable appliances and consoles are driving people away from PCs.
Next part deals with the opportunities and challenges of designing appliances that can share the internet. Mentioning about an unusual experiment in tra?c management in Dutch city Drachten, where, the management consisted of replacing all traffic rules with wo rules. One, drivers should yield to those on their right at an intersection, and two, parked cars blocking others will be towed.
The possibility of a changed cyberspace is then discussed, social editing and wikepedia serving as an example.
More revolutionary changes are then forecasted. With the impetus to innovate experiments in a distributed neighborhood the future is anything but predictable, the book concludes.
A wholesale revision to the Internet and PC environment we’ve experienced for the past thirty years is in the offing, I am sure. Our tinkering nature gave birth to the Web, instant messaging, peer-to-peer networking, Skype, Wikipedia etc.
Now that these are on the way out, we need to look for alternatives.
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