Designing for the Internet s of the Future Genevieve

Setting the stage: the next internet revolution is already happening The internet is more than just the technology by which it is underpinned – it is a product of particular social, historical and political forces – it encodes its moments of inception and conception – and it is manifested in more our lives through the world-wide-web Democracy, transparency, openness and accessibility of all information ARE cultural values, and not just anyone’s. – “virtual town-hall”, bulletin boards, the wild-west, the information superhighway, surfing the web – images and metaphors that speak to particular cultural imaginings So what comes next for the internet and the web? – will a single semi-coherent Internet fragment into multiple internets? – What are the lines along which such fragmentation might happen? • Language, culture, experiences, values, imaginings Copyright © 2008 Intel Corporation 2

Setting the stage: the next internet revolution is already happening The internet is more than just the technology by which it is underpinned – it is a product of particular social, historical and political forces – it encodes its moments of inception and conception – and it is manifested in more our lives through the world-wide-web Democracy, transparency, openness and accessibility of all information ARE cultural values, and not just anyone’s. – “virtual town-hall”, bulletin boards, the wild-west, the information superhighway, surfing the web – images and metaphors that speak to particular cultural imaginings So what comes next for the internet and the web? – will a single semi-coherent Internet fragment into multiple internets? – What are the lines along which such fragmentation might happen? • Language, culture, experiences, values, imaginings Copyright © 2008 Intel Corporation 3

The internet goes feral the web well beyond the PC The web now runs on many devices • • mobile phones, TVs, navigation devices, gaming consoles, health technology … embedded devices (ie: smart meters, etc) run on IP backbones The affordances, constraints and preferred usage models mean the internet/web is changing shape • • • non flash applications more transactions, less surfing more ‘widget’/button based interfaces (ala i. Phone*, “the Widget Channel” etc. ) There will be some people who never encounter the web on a PC • Phones, intermediaries * Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others Copyright © 2008 Intel Corporation

An end to the “anglosphere”? More languages, more stories 2008: Chinese mainland internet users overtake US users … 253 M↑ • Mandarin can be idiomatic, visual and oriented to sub-text and interstices – what isn’t said is important, elliptic references (cockney-esque) In fact, different languages do have different attendant practices • Chinese, English, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Bengali, Hindi, Portuguese, Indonesian, Japanese have different forms, conventions, affordances and practices New sites, new experiences, new services will arise. • Incommensurability seems inevitable Copyright © 2008 Intel Corporation

Fat pipes, narrow pipes? Infrastructure is personal Different models of connectivity: • • Korean Model: two-way high speed connectivity UK Model: fast down-load, constrained back-haul (ie: upload) Highly variable speed worldwide Indian model: Asynchronous connectivity Video content requires more bandwidth • • launch of BBC i-player felt UK-wide Up to 20% of episodic content viewing occurs online in US – users are mostly female aged 25 -44. Different payment structures are evolving • Contracts, pay-as-you, all-you-can-eat, capped downloads Copyright © 2008 Intel Corporation

Regulating the internet: participation, citizenship & control Govts make strong links between ideas of good citizenship and technology usage • • • “U-Society” in Korea Singapore’s “Smart Island” India’s recent 500 -100 Govts also play an important role in contextualizing the internet and access to it • • • Indonesia e-mosque program Cairo wireless cloud The Treaty of Waitangi (1840) shapes contemporary spectrum policy. Govts are controlling content (types and experiences) • • Limiting access to sites Regulating internet practices Copyright © 2008 Intel Corporation

Porn, trolls & social regulation another side of the web The internet/web has a complicated dystopian side • Magnifying social concerns Lies about location, context, intent, identity are all possible with the internet • • Cornell researchers found 100% of US online daters lie about something Websites and services target cheaters and those cheated Social “regulation” and ‘stalking’ • “human-flesh searches” – Chinese internet users punishing perceived wrong-doers by publishing all details of their lives What other experiences are created? Copyright © 2008 Intel Corporation

Socio-technical concerns new anxieties, old anxieties Internet/web is linked to well known set of socio-technical concerns • Privacy, trust, security, risk (ie: identity loss, access to inappropriate content, threats to children), and regulation New devices, infrastructures & services produce new socio-technical concerns • Reliability, access, reputation/image, participation, health/wellbeing, sustainability, responsibility, authenticity (authorship), ownership, surveillance/control, cultural health (digital literacy, dumbing down, distinctiveness). “Big-brother” is re-framed: internet has more agency Copyright © 2008 Intel Corporation

Designing toward the future(s): the possibility of many webs Increasingly there is no single or fixed notion of “the web” and no single trajectory of adoption or use • • • Cultural, social, legal, historical, political contexts all matter Shifting landscape of socio-technical concerns and compelling value propositions. Changing interfaces, user paradigms and expectations New challenges & questions • • Non-users and ex-users require a great deal more study Disconnection & switching-off are also interesting phenomenon Reproduced with permission from Jerry Watkins & Jo Tachi. 2008 Copyright © 2008 Intel Corporation