Internet Faces Threat Of Breaking Apart

The threat to the Internet posed by excessive consolidation, driven by big Internet service providers, has been thoroughly discussed. But consolidation isn't the only threat facing the Internet -- the network might also fragment, returning to the days of the 90s when we had proprietary networks like America Online, CompuServe, and Prodigy, and communications between them was difficult, according to a former Obama advisor."We take it for granted that the Internet is one, universal platform," said Kevin Werbach, a key technology advisor for the the Obama transition team, which advised the incoming President on key issues during the 77 days between Election Day and the Presidential Inauguration. "That's what makes it powerful, everything is on the same network, and ubiquitous."

However, the Internet isn't just one network, it's a network of multiple networks, and governments and other groups overseeing parts of the Internet, could adopt different, incompatible technologies that could break the whole apart, Werbach said. For example, the Internet is running out of addresses under the current Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4). Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) solves that problem, but it hasn't been implemented in a standardized fashion. China, which makes up a huge portion of the Internet, is aggressively implementing its own version of IPv6.

"We can see a situation where different parts of the Web don't interoperate," Werbach said.

Werbach spoke at Metanomics, a weekly program sponsored by Cornell University, conducting live interviews in Second Life. Werbach currently advises the National Telecommunications and Information Administration at the Commerce Department, and is an assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at the Wharton School.

Unfortunately, the Metanomics Second Life server crashed a couple of times during the event, which means Werbach only got to speak for a few minutes. But it was an interesting few minutes, and so I and I'm sure the rest of the audience was disappointed we didn't get to hear more.

I was also supposed to speak at the event, going on before Werbach to talk about Apple's WWDC announcements, social media, and virtual worlds. I'm sure the audience was less disappointed to miss hearing me than they were in missing Werbach; indeed, I felt something like Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall, a comedy act who appeared just before the Beatles on their famous Ed Sullivan Show appearance.

As a Second Life enthusiast, I feel the compulsion to say that these kinds of server crashes have been rare this year, although they were extremely common last year; Linden Lab, which develops and operates Second Life, has been working hard to stabilize the platform for the last year and a half and it's been paying off.

Onward.

Also during the brief time Werbach got to speak, he talked about the U.S. lagging other developed countries in broadband penetration. Like net neutrality, the U.S. lag in broadband penetration has been widely discussed, but Werbach gave the best explanation I've heard for why the issue is important.

Werbach argues that broadband penetration is a standad yardstick for competitiveness among nations. The US is unique among major industrialized nations in that it lacks a national broadband strategy, and it shows.

"Broadband is the platform for an information society," Werbach said. "It's the mechanism for how governments deliver information services and the mechansim for how people interact." Prosaically, it's the platform for watching video and participating in discussion, and it's also a platform for business. "Most countries over the past decade have made a conscious decision that broadband is an important element of their citizenry. The U.S. has been unique in leaving it to the private sector, and government stays out of the process. By most metrics, the U.S. was a leader in the world on the Internet on dial-up, and now it's a laggard." On the other hand, Werbach notes, the US has been tremendously successful in the technology industry and in boosting technology startups.

I'm looking forward to hearing more from Werbach when he returns to Metanomics.

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