BBC: * Net pioneer predicts web future *

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: bobr () bobrosenberg phoenix az us
Date: June 25, 2004 12:42:53 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: BBC: * Net pioneer predicts web future *

Dave

Perhaps for IP.

 * Net pioneer predicts web future *
The man behind the ".com" and ".uk" system predicts the disappearance 
of phone
numbers.
Full story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/technology/3832527.stm

--
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Cordially,

Bob Rosenberg, Principal
R.G. Rosenberg & Assoc.
Public Policy Consulting & Advocacy
P.O. Box 33023
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LandLine:  (602)274-3012
Mobile:  (602)206-2856
bob () bobrosenberg phoenix az us

“An informed public is the most potent of all restraints upon 
misgovernment.”
U. S. Supreme Court, Grosjean vs. American Press Co., 297 U.S. 233, 250 
(1936)

I yearn for the day when eternal vigilance doesn't have to be quite so 
bloody
vigilant!

"Eternal Vigilance" is supposed to mean citizens watching their 
Governments,
not the other way around....

PLEASE NOTE:  No trees were destroyed in the sending of this 
contaminant free
message.  However, I do concede that a significant number of electrons 
may have
been somewhat perturbed.

**********************************************

 Net pioneer predicts web future
By Jo Twist
BBC News Online science and technology staff
The net is only in the Bronze Age of evolution, according to the 
pioneer who
invented the Domain Name System (DNS).

In 1983, Dr Paul Mockapetris created the now familiar system which 
gives net
pages names such as ".com" and ".uk".

Celebrating DNS's 21st birthday he says: "Ten years from now, we will 
look back
at the net and think how could we have been so primitive."

All communication will be over the net, he predicts, and we will no 
longer need
phone numbers, just web addresses.

"Ten years from now, we will wonder how it was so hard to find things 
on the
network too," he told BBC News Online.

"At best we are at the Bronze Age, we are not even at the Iron Age 
stage in the
network."

'Laboratory curiosity'

Dr Mockapetris came up with the DNS system 21 years ago while he was a 
scientist
on the Arpanet project, part of Darpa (US Department of Defense's 
Advanced
Research Projects Agency), which provided the basis of the net.

The system meant codes attached to information could be translated into
easy-to-remember web addresses and domains, which people could own.

We have a notion about what nature should be like, the way it was 1,000 
years
ago for example, with no pollution. From the standpoint of cyberspace 
and the
net, we don't have the benefit of any natural starting point so we have 
to
construct the future
Dr Paul Mockapetris
The net, which he describes as once being a "laboratory curiosity", has 
come a
long way in those 21 years.

Now, as head scientist and chairman of Nominum, a DNS management 
company, he has
been reflecting on how the net has grown up.

"I think when we first started out there were several visions running 
around the
world, and people converged on net technology," he said.

"One of things I always argued for was diversity, so that people could 
try
different things.

"I'm pleased people have tried different things. But I didn't quite 
believe it
would turn into such an industry."

Looking ahead to its next 21 years, there are much bigger steps to take 
in terms
of access, security, and how information and people are located.

Number trouble

His anticipation of web addresses replacing phone numbers may trouble 
some.

But, he points out, technology can have such a powerful influence many 
people no
longer memorise phone numbers anyway.

"It is quite possible that phone numbers will have disappeared and 
people will
just use menus off their phone. I don't think there is particular value 
in
having them."

A more unified system of identification could mean people do daily 
tasks, like
paying bills, more easily and conveniently.

Searching and finding people are certainly the two areas that still 
need to
develop further, according to Dr Mockapetris, and replacing numbers 
with web
addresses will help that, he says.

"We have to make it an everyday system. We have to make it so that 
people don't
see it, so that the surfing experience just happens," he thinks.

Access for all

Although advanced countries are at the point where most people have net 
access
in one form or another, much still needs to be done so that every man, 
woman
and child on the planet has it all of the time, he says.

Permanent net connection through broadband has meant the physical 
infrastructure
is almost there, taking us a step towards the Iron Age.

"I think the steps are that you construct broadband technology - and we 
have
done that - then you give people a taste of that, with wi-fi hotspots in
hotels, for example."

And that, he thinks, is when people start to want it everywhere.

Access for all brings with it the problem of security, however.

Part of the challenge for the net's next 21 years is to make sure 
people can be
certain they are using the net safely.

At the moment, many net users are unable to recognise if the e-mail 
they have
been sent from their "bank" is dodgy or not.

"Creating a model of when things are safe and not, will have to happen 
in
cyberspace.

"We all know that walking in a dark park at night is more dangerous." 
The same
kind of knowledge needs to be forged in cyberspace.

Essentially, net users have to be prepared to take responsibility for 
its future
and the changes ahead.

"We have a notion about what nature should be like, the way it was 
1,000 years
ago for example, with no pollution," says Dr Mockapetris.

"From the standpoint of cyberspace and the net, we don't have the 
benefit of any
natural starting point so we have to construct the future."

At the same time, what an individual person or society wants has to be 
balanced
with what commercial interests say they want.

At best, the world is only halfway through the development of 
technology, he
says.

"It was fun to be in on the Stone Age. But what comes next is even 
better."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/3832527.stm

Published: 2004/06/23 13:55:24 GMT

© BBC MMIV



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