What Does the 'Next Internet' Look Like? 283
Kraisch writes with a link to the Guardian website, which again revisits the subject of reconstructing the internet. This time the question isn't whether it should be done, but what should the goals of a redesign be? From the article: "'There's a real need to have better identity management, to declare your age and to know that when you're talking to, say, Barclays bank, that you're really doing so,' said Jonathan Zittrain, professor of internet governance and regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute. At the moment we are still using very clumsy methods to approach such problems. The result: last year alone, identity theft and online fraud cost British victims an estimated £414m, while one recent report claimed 93% of all email sent from the UK was spam ... Many ideas revolve around so-called "mesh networks", which link many computers to create more powerful, reliable connections to the internet. By using small meshes of many machines that share a pipeline to the net instead of relying on lots of parallel connections, experts say they can create a system that is more intelligent and less prone to attack."
I know what it looks like (Score:5, Funny)
Meet the New Internet... (Score:4, Funny)
This sounds familiar (Score:4, Funny)
the internet is for porn (Score:5, Funny)
except with more high quality Blu-Ray porn of course
Re:It looks like (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously. How about plain text, maybe a standard color and graphics set, no embedded content, downloadable material only. We could even let the government have their infinite monitoring system. If it were all plain text then there'd be no secret to it. To make encoded binary workarounds undesireable, limit the whole sha-bang to 4800 bps. That'll please the recording industry too. Blank CD sales will go through the roof.
Draw a few lines to keep the network secure. Let the crowd whine and cry that it's too difficult to download a file and open it locally with the appropriate application. Those people never really wanted or needed computers anyway. Let them go back to playing dominos or Yahtzee or something.
Do you realize how many problems we could solve by putting the open network back on the terms that it should never have left?
Where are the trolls? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Anonymous cowards? (Score:2, Funny)
It would help keep your identity from being stolen. Which, I think it has. Just look at all the folks who have been posting under your name!
Re:It looks like (Score:4, Funny)
That means that any and every participant can be identified. Anonymity leads to fraud and hence it cannot be tolerated. If you post anything, it should always be possible to trace that back to you.
Also, there should be good record keeping of all online activity, not just for receipt verification but also for legal purposes. This gives the added benefit of making cyber-terrorism more difficult, and enabling a wider range of response options for law enforcement.
Also, there should be very tight controls on the sorts of actions that people can take online. The duplication of intellectual property is illegal, so the system should be designed in such a way that makes this nearly impossible to do (and easy to observe and pinpoint when done). A good way to do this would be to have a central registry of file transfers that administers file transfer licenses on a case-by-case bases. Vendors can pre-authorize the repeated distribution of their products while individuals will need to individually authorize each file they want to transfer. The files in question will, of course, have copies preserved for tracking purposes.
Lastly, better controls on encrypted data exchange need to be put in place. When everyone and his brother can encrypt their communications it becomes impossible to enforce the intellectual property laws which serve as the backbone of the new economy. Ideally individual users would never be able to encrypt anything unless working within the some pre-approved context, such as development on a government contract or what-have-you. Again, some central agency should serve as the distributor of encryption licenses, granting them in bulk to vendors as appropriate for the nature of their business.
Such an Internet would make it much more difficult for people to commit IP crimes, thus freeing up law enforcement resources to focus on other matters. Also, it would allow businesses to easily keep very accurate track of the activities of their clients, and trade this information with one another for demographic marketing efficiency. The greatest benefits of all go to the consumer, of course, since they will have convenient access to online products of every variety for very affordable prices...that alone being more than enough justification for requiring them to absorb the costs of all the data-tracking that needs to be done in order for this infrastructure to exist.
The future is so bright, I need to dim my monitor!
Re:My ideals on the "next internet". (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, and I want it to be not more than 5mm thick, never need recharging, and be stylish and elegant. And a pony.
Re:The first thing to come to my head... (Score:5, Funny)
"Ooooooohhhhhh? You have no idea!
Ready Normal People?"
"Ready."
"Ready."
"Ready."
"Let me hear it!"
Re:It looks like (Score:5, Funny)
AOL!
Re:The first thing to come to my head... (Score:2, Funny)
I don't care what it looks like (Score:4, Funny)
Re:ID theft is not an internet problem. (Score:3, Funny)
oblig. futurama (Score:5, Funny)
Professor Farnsworth: Actually, that's still the case.
Re:My ideals on the "next internet". (Score:4, Funny)
No, you can't have a pony [tri-bit.com].
Re:I know what it looks like (Score:1, Funny)
Re:I know what it looks like (Score:3, Funny)
You're saying it will be mostly Canadian?
I want it (Score:3, Funny)
hmmm. (Score:4, Funny)