Addressing Future Internet Challenges

posted 8 Nov 2012, 08:16 by Brian Pickering

The Future Internet (FI) promises much if only in respect of the opportunity which might be available to exploit all the benefits of the Internet as it is now, but bigger, better, more secure and more efficient. As the technology develops, more and more potential is created. Bring users into the picture – as has been seen to be essential on many occasions in SESERV, not least the workshops in Oxford, Athens and Brussels, as well as the focus groups described in D2.2 and D3.2 – then there are benefits to them in various areas, such as access to and the generation of content; the potential to engage in ad hoc as well as existing on-line communities; but also to be able to learn about and effect the environment; all of which will ultimately have an effect on the network and infrastructures underlying all these activities. In each of these areas – content, community, the environment, and networks – as we move forward there will doubtless be risks and challenges that must be addressed (the red boxes in the figure), though at the same time there will be greater opportunities especially for inclusion and on-line presence (the green boxes). The challenges and opportunities are discussed more fully in D2.2. Here, let’s just summarise SESERV’s recommendations for a way forward.

Having identified the main FI ecosystem stakeholders, the two SESERV co-ordination work packages engaged with most of them directly and in discussion (in the figure below, we are specifically interested in those outlined with red boxes. For more detail, see D2.2 and D3.2 ). In drawing together the discussions, not least from the focus groups, we came up with recommendations that fall into eight different categories:

  1.  Regulation and public policy: which we’d begun to discuss with [WeGov]
  2.  Project design and development: not least based on the technology discussions we had early on [Ref] and the focus groups
  3.  Internet Data: a leitmotif for societal as well as economic consideration – who owns what? what happens to it? how is it protected? etc
  4.  Citizenship, Awareness and Education: a theme in both the Digital Agenda for Europe and Horizon2020: how do we make the FI serve all?       
  5. Transparency and Trust: from Oxford to Brussels a major concern
  6.  Participant/User Experience: which has come up time and again (cf for instance the Internet of Services presentation we gave.
       We may summarise these recommendations within each area as follows, though they are dealt with in context and in greater depth in D3.2 : 



 

Stakeholder Types

Recommendation

Regulation and Public Policy

Governments, regulatory bodies, users, content businesses

Need to revisit what content is now being generated and shared. It doesn’t all have commercial value.

Governments, regulatory bodies, users, technology providers

All interested parties need to be involved

Governments, regulatory bodies, technology providers

Investing in infrastructure is not enough to keep pace with what the infrastructure is being used for

Funding bodies, governments, civic society, regulatory bodies, technology providers, content businesses

Urgent need to review actual usage along with optimisation of resource exploitation

Funding bodies, governments, civic society, regulatory bodies

Findings need to be incorporated into the instruments of government to ensure appropriate attention and funding

Project Design and Development

Technology developers, project managers

·         Projects need a decent start up time for discussion, especially across disciplines

·         Allow for many/several iterations

·         Create flexible structures to facilitate multidisciplinary teams

Funding bodies, project managers

Be prepared to fund longer projects, or follow-up projects

Funding bodies, project managers, user communities

Consider caretakers/’champions’ to continue to work with communities after project end to ensure continuity

Citizenship, Awareness and Education

Citizens, students, technology users, funding bodies

Identify users/students with skills who can act as “bridgers” during training and beyond

Citizens, technology users, businesses, governments, civic society

Training users will enable them to make informed decisions on such things as security

Technology developers, governments, civic society, technology providers, businesses, citizens

Create better methods for informing users of what their data areworth

Transparency and Trust

Project managers, technology developers

Teams need to be created based on mutual trust

Citizens, civic society, technology providers, businesses, governments, regulatory bodies

Increase data transparency, and give users clear choices

Businesses, technology providers

Transparent technologies and new business models need to be developed to ensure all stakeholders are treated openly and fairly

Project managers, governments, regulatory bodies, technology developers, technology providers

Direct involvement of end-users in the design and validation of security-related issues, plus flexibility in allowing users to set their own boundaries

Participant/user experience

Technology developers, project managers, funding bodies

Support technology projects with involvement of skilled user experience expertise

Technology developers, governments, civic society, technology providers, business

Don’t allow data collection to be so easy that users find themselves under constant surveillance

Technology developers, governments, civic society, technology providers, business, citizens

Let users know what their data are worth and what they are getting by sharing it

Funding bodies, governments, civic society, regulatory bodies

Findings need to be incorporated into the instruments of government to ensure appropriate attention and funding

Technology developers, project managers

Look at what users actually do and what they expect

Technology developers, technology providers, businesses

QoE and not QoS is what matters. Let the users judge that

Internet Data

Citizens, civic society, technology providers, businesses, governments, regulatory bodies

Increase data transparency, and give users clear choices

Technology providers, businesses

Understanding the form and format and uses of data is often more important that its size and structure

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