Stop Signs

Katie Hallen -- About 150 tech geeks and policy wonks gathered at Google’s new D.C. office last Thursday to celebrate The Future of the Internet – And How To Stop It, Jonathan Zittrain’s new book out in April. The soiree, cosponsored by Harvard Law’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Family Online Safety Institute, featured a tripleheader – Zittrain plus Stanford Law’s Larry Lessig and one of the Internet fathers, Vint Cerf.

In the audience, it was button-down shirts and pinstripes intermingled with satirical Ts and washed jeans. In a way, the eclectic dress of Capitol Hill meets Silicon Valley provided visual symbolism for Zittrain’s book, which contrasts the Internet’s openness of yesteryear with the rising tide of lawmakers, courts, and even tech companies seeking to lock it down.

Zittrain argues that it was the “smiley geeks,” like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, who helped set the Internet and home computers on a “generative” path that allowed virtually anyone (who could code software) to innovate, giving us new Web browsers, free encyclopedias, Internet phone calls, etc. Generative systems have thrived because they lack central control and depend on the goodwill of their participants.

Today, though, the generative model is threatened with the rise of locked appliances like the iPhone, Xbox and TiVo that prohibit innovation to their platforms from anyone except the manufacturer. Why the lock down? In large part, to protect the consumer from hackers seeking to wreak havoc and purloin sensitive data.

Lessig projected that a “9/11-type event over the Internet” where hackers take control and cause a massive shutdown could very well happen and warned the government likely has a Patriot Act for the Internet waiting in the wings – a prediction that made several geeks sitting near me at the event visibly cringe.

The answer? For one, a democratic Internet where constituencies are allowed to police themselves and encourage moderation within a system that thrives on decentralization. For more, the book is out April 14.

The Berkman Center at Harvard Law School is a 463 client.
Photo by Grant Hamilton

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