The Edge-Centric

by David S. Isenberg

The Internet Experiment
is Not Finished

Is the very existence of the Internet jeopardized by both ^{test new, red ideas. The market test baby}
private and government interests? might go down the drain unnoticed in the
red bathwater.

Is the Internet experiment in dan- data was created and stored in the ‘green’ Also, I’m reminded of the CIA’s prac-ger of being shut down? Oxford Internet mode, leaving ‘red’ mode for experimen- tice of “air-gap” security. In the 1990s, the Institute Professor Jonathan Zittrain be- tation and play.” CIA kept its computers off the Internet in lieves that a backlash is building against Zittrain sees problems with this, but fear that outsiders might steal or corrupt the Internet’s ability to support wide- thinks they’re workable. He says that itsdata. Asaresult, CIAemployeescould ranging innovation. Such a backlash Internet service providers might charge not email non-CIA employees, nor could would be motivated by Internet-threat- more for a red connection, presuming they access facts from daily newspapers, ened interests, like music publishers and that red will be subject to more volume the stock market and other sources. So law enforcers, driven by an alliance of and abuse. He observes that we will need they got accounts from Earthlink and regulators, technologists and telephone a way of certifying green applications, AOL. They used them for work, too. In companies. This alliance would tell the perhaps an “Underwriters Lab” for soft- a red-green scheme, what happens when, story that whereas the Internet is a critical inevitably, the user needs red information utility that hundreds of millions of people in a green context? depend upon for banking, shopping and There’s another path between the Scylla communications, it is also, simultaneous- of an Internet where innovation is illegal ly, a cesspool of worms, viruses, spyware, and the Charybdis of an Internet where identity theft, intellectual property theft innovation and problems are red-walled and fraud. Zittrain points out that the against everyday use. This is the creation Internet’s ability to support innovation of of green applications on an otherwise red every kind, which he calls its generativity, Internet. It’s happening today. My email also supports the development and prop- client silently shuffles spam into a junk agation of malware and misuse. He posits mailbox and warns me about incom-that the occurrence of a network-halting, ing viruses. My iTunes music player has computer-destroying incident, a digital light digital rights management that puts Pearl Harbor, would bring an irresistible some controls on copying. My browser call to severely constrain the Internet, suppresses pop-up ads and lets me man-and a fearful public would be supportive. age cookies if I want to endure that hassle Zittrain understands that the Internet’s to shield my privacy. These programs– generativity has been part of its success. and others–will get better, smarter and He believes that its generativity should ware. And he sees a danger that the green easier to use securely over time, thanks to be preserved, and offers a novel way of machine, “might be so restrictively con- the generativity of the Internet exactly as doing it. ceived that most users would find it un- it exists today.

Zittrain proposes to preserve the In- palatable.” I’m afraid that this red-green thing will ternet in all its wildness, danger and op- I see even more problems. Some of the be exploited by control-freak incumbents portunity by creating another, parallel Internet’s value lies beyond its generativ- in an Internet crisis to wall off the gen-Internet that would be controlled, secure, ity. There’s huge value in the ability to try erativity that made today’s wild and crazy tame and predictable. The wild “red” out new ideas quickly and cheaply on Internet great. I think the experiment is Internet and the tame “green” Internet target markets, with real customers using just starting. V would coexist within the same end-user real applications. Suppose an innovator computer, where a software switch would had an idea that might appeal to typical David S. Isenberg ( isen@isen.com) is author toggle between the two. He says that the green customers but could only try the of “The Rise of the Stupid Network” and computer user could switch back and idea out on red users. Or, suppose the a fellow of the Berkman Center for Internet forth, “to ensure that valuable or sensitive gatekeepers of green charged too much to & Society at Harvard University.