DEVELOPING THE INTERNET: A GENERATION OF OPENNESS

Developing the Internet: A Generation of Openness

Why has the Internet been so successful?

The key, Internet pioneer Vint Cerf explained to an audience of more than 200 at his recentVerisign Labs Distinguished Speaker Series lecture, is its openness.

"The openness of the net has allowed so many other people to contribute that it's sort of like creating a giant tidal wave," Cerf stated.  "We've been surfing (no pun intended) on that tidal wave for 30 to 40 years."

The tidal wave started when Vint and Bob Kahn invented the TCP/IP protocol for sending packets of data reliably from one location to another.  TCP/IP is the "lingua franca" of Internet communications, the common language by which computer systems exchange data of any kind.  How the data is exchanged -- dial-up, broadband, wired, wireless, or carrier pigeon -- is up to the network implementation.  What the data means is up to the application.  But the format of the exchange is standard:  a source address, a destination address, and data.

A standard interface between layers can often be the catalyst for innovation in both.  By reducing the diversity of interfaces, a standard can increase the diversity of parties on both sides of the service interface -- applications and network implementations in this case, service consumers and service providers more generally.  Instead of a polyglot of point-to-point interfaces within specific protocol "stacks", developers could master one interface, and focus instead on the applications above or the network implementations below.  This architecture of "loose coupling" would naturally attract more applications, because they could be used with more network implementations, and vice versa, a symbiotic relationship that would ultimately make the architecture dominant.

Open architecture takes the principle a step further, by inviting contributors to share their work with one another, and relying on their engagement in the ongoing evolution of standards, a point also made by IETF chair Russ Housley in his lecture in this series.  The parts that are built may have proprietary aspects, but the growing body of publicly available specifications and reference material on how they work together strengthens the system overall.  Vint described how similar openness benefited another layer of today's Internet stack, HTTP with its HTML format, where developers learned how to write HTML by copying one another's pages.  "Openness [created] new opportunities," he remarked, as "everybody learned from everybody else."

A generation of technologists has grown up surfing the Internet wave, learning along the way as a result of the essential openness that Vint has personally championed throughout his career.  More than the technical merits of TCP/IP itself, it's the open, collaborative environment around its development that has made the difference.  And that environment itself is shaped by the Internet:  the more easily technologists have been able to connect with one another, the more rapidly and confidently they've been able to develop TCP/IP and the Internet.  (Keeping in mind, of course, the ongoing value of meeting in person, in addition to the online interactions, whether at conferencesor in this series.)

My observations here are distilled from my reflections on just the first 10 minutes or so of Vint's lecture, the rest of which was equally well thought and presented.  Another thread he pursued was a three-fold classification of security responses (or more broadly, "safety", a phrase he prefers).  The best response, he said, is "a technical one that prevents the bad thing from happening."  The next best is "post hoc enforcement":  detecting a security incident and responding after the fact.  The third alternative, "social morays", has merits as well:  the admonition "don't do that."  Some actions, if not easily preventable or detectable, can simply be discouraged.

In the world of cybersecurity -- which would be a story of its own -- I'm not sure how much we can count on the last approach.  But in the world of Internet development, the converse has energized a transformation.  No technical action ensured the "good thing" would happen, but the social moray of "request comments" and "collaborate" has turned a protocol designed in the lab into a part of the lives of 3 billion people and counting, as well as an entire industry.

How has the open architecture of the Internet made a difference for you?

WHY WE SHOULD ALL BE THANKFUL FOR THE INTERNET

Why We Should All Be Thankful for the Internet

Ah autumn!  It is during this season that I tend to reflect more on my past, and for things I am truly thankful for.  Of course, topping this list are my family, close friends, and work that I am truly passionate about.  As I often reflect on the role of technology in the daily lives of a large portion of the planet, a recent addition to this list of thanks is the Internet.

Technology has always been present in my life. The possibilities of technology as platforms for discovery, communication of ideas, and creation have fascinated me going all the way back to the 1970s, when I first started playing rudimentary video games and first laid hands on an Apple II - leading to my Commodore VIC-20 in 1980. While the first home computers provided mostly a solitary experience, the advent of faster and cheaper modems allowed consumers to broaden their reach to Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) into the early 1990’s.  This provided access to new communities, new thoughts, and new experiences, but they were limited by geography.

It was in 1994 that I realized that things were about to drastically change.  I remember where I was when I first booted up a Mosaic browser on a grey scale monitor at my office and managed to surf to a site that displayed the Dead Sea Scrolls.  The impact of this was immediate and forceful: thanks to the Internet, I was witnessing an ancient artifact from my chair that was located on the other side of the planet.  My reach was now global.

Fast forward to the present day and the Internet has grown to become the most transformative communication platform in the history of mankind.  Today, individuals can broadcast a message to the planet, meet with great minds from all corners of the globe, experience different cultures, and reconnect with old friends from the comfort of their living rooms or their local coffee shop.  It has become ubiquitous and it has changed the face of global industries - from music to manufacturing - in ways we could not predict, faster than we imagined.

The rapid growth of the Internet has led to tremendous understanding and sharing, and increased our view from a window into our backyards, to a window into the world.  This is exciting.  This is inspiring.

The next great leaps forward will manifest through a world of web connected and web aware devices and services. The potential to improve our lives through the connected fabric of the “Internet of Things” is staggering. Some impressive examples include  the acceleration of medical research through protein folding on PS3 game consoles, and micro-loans that allow business to start up in even the most impoverished of nations.

But there are also very (seemingly) basic ways the Internet has eased my daily routine – and that of others - that I am immensely thankful for. From online bill payment and account management, to keeping track of my friends and family on social networks and email, to providing a source of entertainment for my three kids (and myself) on long trips, the Internet is being woven into every aspect of our environment.  And there’s little argument that it will be critical to the advancement of human knowledge and discovery moving forward.

So, in addition to my family, my friends, and my work, I am thankful that the Internet continues to be an important growing and evolving presence.  How we use the Internet to better our lives and the lives of future generations is up to each and every one of us.

This week, as most of us in the U.S. prepare to gather with family and friends, and perhaps do a bit of shopping, think about the role that the Internet plays in these experiences and why we should all be thankful for it. Please send me your comments on what you come up with.

Tips to Develop Your Skills as a Successful Blog writer

Tips to Develop Your Skills as a Successful Blog writer

If you are a blogger you would certainly love to have a large traffic on your blog. The primary requisite for traffic generation and attraction is the quality and standard of the content you have on your blog. If the content is of high quality, interesting, thought provoking, dealing with hot issues and purposeful then the visitors will not only stick to your blog but would also recommend it to others. 

The question here is that how to get top quality content for high traffic generation. If you are not a well skilled writer or professional blogger you simply need to hire someone for the bestguest posting services. This will give you profitable results with you sitting relaxed with resting your back on the easy chair. There are a number of professionals out there who could do the best job for you. And, if executed in the right way the guest posting can grow your business.

However if you want to improve your own skills and do it by yourself then you need to follow the following few tips and tricks. It is much better to do it yourself rather than to leave it to armatures and your friends.

1. Improve Your Writing Power

Take your time. Don’t rush. Just give it some time to improve your writing. Extensive reading of articles on various topics by top professionals will enhance your capability of writing. It is important that you take time to analyze a few things first before you write content yourself. Till the improvement of your writing skill you had better leave it to some expert writer for some time and in the meanwhile you carry on working on your writing development skill.

2. Self Promotion

Self promotion is very important as it brings you in the limelight. Nowadays it is quite easy quite easy to advertise yourself without spending a penny. This can be done through social media. Social networks will place you on the map, because people who you know will read your content, and others are likely to follow suit.

3. Relationship Building

It is advisable to try and build a long lasting business relationship. This you can do by posting your article in a website that has much greater traffic than yours. Thus you can benefit from the backlink that you will get on posting your article to that site. It is all about business that you can blog on their site and they can blog on your site.

4. Quality of the Content

What really matters is your content. If your content is below standard, boring, containing errors, and slack readers are likely to lose interest very soon in your blog. It is not going to stop here but it will certainly pass on to others by the existing viewers to the potential visitors which will end up in a great harm to your blog. So, try writing a good content full of interesting matter giving the viewers’ choice a priority.