For the past 15 years, the Internet has been the Wild West with little regulation. This has created a landscape in which innovation has thrived – most of it good, some of it (spam, malware, etc.) not so good.
For companies and consumers, it has been an amazing smorgasbord with lots of selection and few rules of what to “eat”. In other words, we’ve had a it good as governments have, for the most part, stood on the sidelines.
There are growing signs, however, that the Internet as we know it is poised to disappear. Every day, there is more evidence that governments are going to attempt to regulate the Internet. In the Middle East, for example, Research in Motion is being pressured to change its encryption technology so governments can see the e-mail of BlackBerry users.
Meanwhile, Google and Verizon are apparently hold secret talks about creating a new system in which content providers could get access to faster Internet “roads” if they paid fees to ISPs. This ideas is contrary to the concept of Net Neutrality, which has been a huge issue over the past few years.
Regardless of what happens in the Middle East or the Google-Verizon talks, the sad reality is the Internet is going to change, and maybe not in a good way. Just as the Wild West was tamed, so too will be the Internet. It was good while it lasted.
Yes, the internet is poised on the brink of change. But that isn’t really a surprise, if you consider its origin. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Network, or , was never designed for commercial enterprise. I doubt it was designed with much thought of security, either!
I suppose that the change you sense (so do I), is necessary, for the internet to evolve into a multi-purpose, widely accessible information delivery system. Well, that’s what it is now! But you could argue that now is the time to put controls in place, to prevent inefficiencies that I can’t even anticipate. We’ll need technically savvy regulators though, else they’ll be be gullible or put up arbitrary barriers that will hurt innovation yet not protect consumers.
I’m sentimental, it is my perogative. The internet and e-commerce has always been so much easier, streamlined and usually faster than the old way of doing things. I don’t like endings, particularly of something that was so good, for so many of us.
Ellie,
Thanks for the comment. The origins of the Interent is something that I forgot to consider. It says a lot about how the Internet has evolved so dramatically over the past 40 years, and how it’s going to continue to evolve.
cheers, Mark