MIT Communicatio

ns Futures Program

Fall 2013 Plenary

Morning

8:45 What’s the Internet For, Anyway? Dave Clark, MIT CSAIL

Panel:Rob Hunter, ESPNSam Chernak, Comcast Hannu Flinck, Nokia Siemens NetworksTessa Sproule, CBC Digital

9:45 Break 10:00 Ultimate Media, Andy Lippman, Henry

Holtzman, Mike Bove, MIT Media Lab 11:00 Visions of the Wireless Future: Insights

into Emerging Technologies, Dina Katabi, Wireless Center @ MIT

11:45 Lunch

Today’s Agenda

Afternoon

12:45 Media and Telecom: The Canadian ExperienceAna Serrano, Canadian Film CentreTessa Sproule, CBC DigitalCaitlin O’Donovan, Corus Entertainment

1:45 Break 2:00 Money Flows in the Internet Ecosystem,

Dave Clark, MIT CSAIL 2:45 Mobile Broadband Working Group, Dave Clark,

MIT CSAIL 3:15 Break 3:30 Sports over IP, Charlie Fine, MIT Sloan 4:15 Trust Frameworks, Karen Sollins, MIT CSAIL 4:45 Next steps

What is the Internet for, anyway?

David ClarkMIT CFP

October, 2013

Well-known history

• Internet started out as non-commercial tool for interconnection of research computers (and interconnection of researchers). – DARPA and NSF

• Backbone became commercial in mid-1990’s.• The Web proved a powerful platform for all sorts of

activities. – Commercial experiments evolved.

• Goal was generality.– Both hosts and applications.

Today

• Most activities are “commercially facilitated”.– Wide range of behaviors.

• Provisioning of Internet is cheap but not free.• Engineering of lower layers is influenced by

high-volume uses.– Streaming content.

• Is this what the Internet is now “for”?

Value

• Even in the pre-commercial world, what mattered was that which was valued by the users.– Discussion about “value” is not just a commercial

discussion.• Discussion of “capturing value” is.

• Content is not king, the user is king. – To paraphrase an old marketing saying.

What do users value?

• Concretely: their favorite apps.– Facebook, twitter, Netflix, etc.– Shopping on line– Email, if you are old.– A rich and diverse space of experiences.

• Abstractly (and more importantly)– Availability, reach, generality, performance, ease of use,

trustworthy character.– The ordering may be debated…– Test case: rural regions.

• The non-users talk about lack of value.– As well as cost, lack of skills, fear, etc.

Its not just commerce

• We should value the non-commercial uses of the Internet.– Do not lose track of “public and social goods” in

the rush to commercialization.– Public sector investment is justified on this basis.

• But they have to get paid for somehow.– In many cases, they can “free ride” on the

commercially supported infrastructure.

Other answers

• Innovation and economic growth.– A popular theme in Washington right now.– The word “innovation” occurs 260 times in the

FCC National Broadband Plan.• Efficiency and cost reduction.– Companies love this.

• Surveillance – Convergence helped a lot…

Asking the right question

• Perhaps asking “What is the Internet for?” is the wrong question.

• Perhaps we should ask “What are the barriers to meeting the needs of the user?”– Availability, reach, generality, performance, ease

of use, trustworthy character.– Which actors must deal with these issues? – To what extent are the barriers economic?