1. MIT Communications Futures Program Fall 2013 Plenary

2. Morning 8:45What’s the Internet For, Anyway? Dave Clark, MIT CSAIL Panel: Rob Hunter, ESPN Sam Chernak, Comcast Hannu Flinck, Nokia Siemens Networks Tessa Sproule, CBC Digital 9:45 Break 10:00Ultimate Media, Andy Lippman, Henry Holtzman, Mike Bove, MIT Media Lab 11:00Visions of the Wireless Future: Insights into Emerging Technologies, Dina Katabi, Wireless Center @ MIT 11:45 Lunch Today’s Agenda Afternoon 12:45Media and Telecom: The Canadian Experience Ana Serrano, Canadian Film Centre Tessa Sproule, CBC Digital Caitlin O’Donovan, Corus Entertainment 1:45 Break 2:00Money Flows in the Internet Ecosystem, Dave Clark, MIT CSAIL 2:45Mobile Broadband Working Group, Dave Clark, MIT CSAIL 3:15 Break 3:30Sports over IP, Charlie Fine, MIT Sloan 4:15Trust Frameworks, Karen Sollins, MIT CSAIL 4:45Next steps

3. What is the Internet for, anyway? David Clark MIT CFP October, 2013

4. Well-known history Internet started out as non-commercial tool for interconnection of research computers (and interconnection of researchers). – DARPA and NSF Backbone became commercial in mid-1990’s. The Web proved a powerful platform for all sorts of activities. – Commercial experiments evolved. Goal was generality. – Both hosts and applications.

5. Today Most activities are “commercially facilitated”. – Wide range of behaviors. Provisioning of Internet is cheap but not free. Engineering of lower layers is influenced by high-volume uses. – Streaming content. Is this what the Internet is now “for”?

6. Value Even in the pre-commercial world, what mattered was that which was valued by the users. – Discussion about “value” is not just a commercial discussion. Discussion of “capturing value” is. Content is not king, the user is king. – To paraphrase an old marketing saying.

7. What do users value? Concretely: their favorite apps. – Facebook, twitter, Netflix, etc. – Shopping on line – Email, if you are old. – A rich and diverse space of experiences. Abstractly (and more importantly) – Availability, reach, generality, performance, ease of use, trustworthy character. – The ordering may be debated… – Test case: rural regions. The non-users talk about lack of value. – As well as cost, lack of skills, fear, etc.

8. Its not just commerce We should value the non-commercial uses of the Internet. – Do not lose track of “public and social goods” in the rush to commercialization. – Public sector investment is justified on this basis. But they have to get paid for somehow. – In many cases, they can “free ride” on the commercially supported infrastructure.

9. Other answers Innovation and economic growth. – A popular theme in Washington right now. – The word “innovation” occurs 260 times in the FCC National Broadband Plan. Efficiency and cost reduction. – Companies love this. Surveillance – Convergence helped a lot…

10. Asking the right question Perhaps asking “What is the Internet for?” is the wrong question. Perhaps we should ask “What are the barriers to meeting the needs of the user?” – Availability, reach, generality, performance, ease of use, trustworthy character. – Which actors must deal with these issues? – To what extent are the barriers economic?