Re: [arch-d] Musings on Internet evolution

[Vittorio Bertola <[e-mail]>]

> Il 08/07/2020 15:26 Jari Arkko <[e-mail]> ha scritto:
> 
>  
> Colin, Tommy, Alissa and me wrote some thoughts on COVID-19 impacts, Internet evolution, and future challenges. See here:
> 
> http://www.circleid.com/posts/20200707-evolving-the-internet-through-covid-19-and-beyond/
> 
> But what do you think? What do you think has fuelled evolution, what do you see in store in these processes in the future, and what bigger challenges do you think we face in the Internet? Do you see other changes that functional aspects, e.g., about the way evolution happens? (We’ve seen some movement from standards to open source-based interoperability, for instance.)

Understandably, your article is focused on the ability of the Internet to cope with evolution at the technical level, which is excellent. But you seem to miss the evolution at the societal level, where two big and interconnected topics have emerged (at least in Europe) in the last 2-3 years:

1) centralization: in practice, much of the Internet is now decentralized technically but centralized economically and in terms of control into the hands of a few immense and unaccountable businesses; 

2) digital sovereignty: how can national governments restore some degree of non-negotiable control over the consequences that the Internet has on their societies, and fulfill their strategic need for the Internet to continue working even in the face of strained international relations.

The last 2-3 decades were an age of globalization, but as the pendulum swings and many social groups are increasingly unhappy, the next ones could again be an age of nationalism. If so, the borderless technical nature of the Internet could get increasingly strained by the attempts to counter #1 and accomplish #2, if it failed to adapt to the new political climate.

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Vittorio Bertola | Head of Policy & Innovation, Open-Xchange
[e-mail] 
Office @ Via Treviso 12, 10144 Torino, Italy