Global communications networks are at least as critical today as roads and bridges, but unlike most physical infrastructure, they aren't improved the same way. Software has emerged as the centerpiece for digital infrastructure. It means we can move more quickly, and along the way improve society. More
Tag Index / Showing 1 - 20 of 23 results for “internet”
Business Community Insights The Internet
Winners and Losers in Next-Generation Internet Infrastructure
Whatever Happened to the Internet’s Promise?
Idealism helped build a massive global movement of free culture and the net. It may still offer a powerful outline of cyberspace governance: an equitable and enlightened arena, a benign ecosystem that interweaves people and machines. Unfortunately we’re not even close to that today. But it's not too late to retrieve that vision. More
Why Blockchains are For Every Company
The advent of the blockchain is much like the arrival of the Web. It will disrupt technology, society and business. What is today in a database will tomorrow be in a blockchain. Leaders who want to take advantage of this breakthrough need to understand several key points. More
Government Internet of Things Learning
Giant Texas School System Makes a Giant Internet Commitment
The Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District, with 114,000 students, is decidedly Texas-sized. But the district's latest project lives up to that grand scale: updating its entire digital network to bring 100G broadband internet access to every square inch of its classrooms and offices. Cypress-Fairbanks CTO Frankie Jackson is on the front line of an emerging challenge in education. More
When Moore Is Not Enough – Why Our Growing Networks Require More Software
The demand for communications bandwidth is expanding faster each year. We’re entering a stage where just Moore’s Law and faster and cheaper computing power will simply not be enough. The networks themselves need to become programmable platforms. The infrastructure needs to be as real-time, flexible and dynamic as our smartphones have become. Today software can scale up or down networks to meet user demands. More
FCC Chairman Looks to Close Digital Divide by Expanding Lifeline Program
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has circulated a proposal within the Commission to dramatically expand the $1.7 billion Lifeline subsidy program designed to ensure all Americans have access to advanced telecommunications services. Lifeline was created in 1985 by the Reagan administration to subsidize landline phone service; in 2008 it was expanded to include cellphones. To qualify for the subsidy a household must, “have an income at or below 135 percent of the federal poverty line, or must participate in a program like Medicaid or food stamps,” according to a recent article in The New York Times. More
ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé: The Internet Is a Tool for Solidarity
Where is the Internet taking us, and how do we keep it secure? There’s no shortage of people ready to offer up opinions on such questions, but few who are truly qualified to answer them. Fortunately we asked someone who is—Fadi Chehadé, CEO of ICANN, the public-benefit corporation tasked with keeping the Internet stable. Chehadé calls the Internet a “platform for human solidarity” that enables us to form networks with “people we’ve never met” to share ideas, concepts, and resources—and ultimately build consensus. More
KeenON: “Innovators” Author Walter Isaacson
Walter Isaacson, the biographer of great men like Ben Franklin, Albert Einstein, and Steve Jobs, has now turned to the history of the digital revolution. But rather than the story of genius, Isaacson’s "The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution," is actually a narrative of collaboration between talented people. Beginning with the remarkable relationship between Charles Babbage and Ida Lovelace in the middle of the 19th century, Isaacson sees the story of the digital revolution in terms of collaboration. More
Satellites Will Power Google’s Latest Moonshot Project
Mark Zuckerberg isn’t the only tech titan aiming to make the Net truly global. Google’s ambition to help bring Internet access to everyone in the world may soon be taking form. The search giant reportedly plans to invest over $1 billion in 180 satellites that “could amount to a sea change in the way people will get access to the Internet,” according to The Wall Street Journal. The satellite investment is part of Google’s latest moonshot project to deliver broadband service to under-developed areas—an effort that also includes Project Loon, which aims to beam Web access via high-altitude balloons, and the recent acquisition of Titan Aerospace, which will presumably enable drones to transmit broadband signals. More
Global Tech Security & Privacy
The Right to Be Forgotten? Europe’s Orwellian Internet Time Warp
When the European Court of Justice—the rough equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court—ruled that individuals have the "right to be forgotten," it took a dangerous step backward. Among many potential negative consequences, it could contribute to slowing global economic growth. The court endorsed a profoundly ahistorical, anti-technological argument about the supposed rights of individuals. More
Report: Internet Is Faster, More Susceptible to Attack
Internet speeds around the world are up, but so are cyber-attacks, says Akamai in its latest “State of the Internet” report. Released quarterly by the Massachusetts-based content delivery network Akamai Technologies, the report analyzes global statistics on key indicators of Internet connectivity. Findings from 2013’s third quarter disclosed some good news, showing upward trends in both global connection speeds and broadband adoption rates, but also warned of long-term growth in attack traffic—a majority of it coming from China, Indonesia, and the United States. More
If You’re Reading This Article, Chances Are You’re Not Human
The Internet is a sprawling and mysterious place, as anyone who’s spent two minutes on Google—and certainly anyone involved with Web publishing—can attest. It’s a thrumming hive filled with vast amounts of data, knowledge, commerce and media and an equally vast number of gloriously bizarre arguments, grumpy cats and adorable sloths. Also, bots. Lots and lots of bots. Bots are software applications built to perform automated tasks. A report released this week by Incapsula, a cloud-based web-security service, found that 61.5 percent of all website traffic now comes from these non-human visitors. If you’re reading this and you’re human, you’re apparently in the minority. More
In Chicago, It’s Hot to Study How People Interact Online
People who build technology want you to have the most simple—and emotionally satisfying—experience possible. That's why more and more students are studying UX, or user experience, design. There are many subtleties in how understanding how users interact with technology and how to create user-friendly products. The field of UX design is often described as how and why things work. And Chicago is becoming a hotbed for studying it. More
Tech Entrepreneurs Agree: It’s Time to Regulate the Internet Ecosystem
Among the crowd of optimists and cheerleaders for the transformative power of the Internet, Andrew Keen stands out as a contrarian. The Internet is transformative, all right, he says: It’s transforming humans into commoditized products—bits of sellable data. The subtitles of Keen’s two recent books sum up his point of view: “How Today’s Internet Is Killing Our Culture,” and “How Today’s Online Social Revolution Is Dividing, Diminishing, and Disorienting Us.” Keen, who founded Audiocafe.com in 1995, joined a panel of fellow entrepreneurs and commentators at Techonomy 2013 in Tucson last week for a discussion on the theme, “Is the Internet for or Against You?” More
Myanmar’s Promising Experiment with Internet Freedom
After decades of rule by a brutal regime known for imprisoning cyber-dissidents, internet freedom in Myanmar expanded dramatically over the past year, according to a recent report by Freedom House. The report warns that the Internet in Myanmar is still “not free,” however, and that major obstacles remain to further improvement. One is a legacy of repression that casts a shadow on the reform process. More
Internet of Things Security & Privacy
More Connected Worlds May Threaten Personal Security
What will happen when hackers break into the “Internet of Things”? A growing number of Internet-connected home devices are hitting the market, but two security researchers are warning consumers of potential security breaches, according to MIT Technology Review. These new remotely-managed devices offer convenience and potential energy savings—but are they worth it? More
Business E-Commerce Global Tech
Tencent, eBay in Potent Partnership
After its first attempt to develop the China e-commerce market failed miserably nearly a decade ago, US Internet giant eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) is making some smarter moves this time around by choosing better partners and also by building up its business more gradually. In the company’s latest China development, media are reporting eBay has formed a new joint venture with Chinese Internet giant Tencent (HKEx: 700). At the same time, separate reports are saying that eBay may fail in its bid to become the first foreign licensee to offer electronic payment services in China. More
The Industrial Internet Will Rewrite the Rules of Business
The world is on the threshold of the next frontier of innovation with the rise of the Industrial Internet. Brilliant machines are converging with the power of advanced analytics, low-cost sensing and new levels of Internet connectivity. The next decade will bring a software and services-driven movement that will be nothing short of breathtaking: analytics that learn from experience and constantly improve machine intelligence that blends digital output and human insight to deliver better outcomes. It will help eliminate waste across every major industry. More
Can Syrian Government Starve Rebellion with Information Deprivation?
Last year, a 75-year-old woman in the former Soviet republic of Georgia hacked through a cable with a shovel while scavenging for scrap metal, inadvertently crippling Internet service in that country and in neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan. Accidents like this have happened on a smaller scale in the U.S., and the loss of Internet connectivity in the wake of Superstorm Sandy had a paralyzing effect on businesses in New York and elsewhere. But, as Rachel Maddow pointed in the opening segment of her November 29 broadcast, governments are realizing that shutting off the Internet on purpose is a powerful political weapon. More
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