The New Internet
The New Internet
Without a doubt, the Internet is undergoing
a major transition as it experiences a tremendous influx of new users.
Due to the anarchic, distributed nature of the net, we cannot even begin
to enumerate the population of the Internet or its growth. As more of the
world’s population moves on-line, new concerns will arise which did not
confront the earlier generations. The new culture will demand different
resources, services and technology than the old generations expected and
used. Already we can witness a clash between the emergent culture and the
entrenched culture. The largest conflicts occurring now are about sharing
resources, the impending commercialization of the net, and the growing
problem of computer crime.
The Internet was born in the union of government
and researchers, and for two decades afterwards remained mostly the realm
of those two groups. The net began as ARPANET, the Advanced Research Projects
Agency Net, designed to be decentralized to sustain operations through
a nuclear attack. This nature persists today in the resilience of the net,
both technologically and in its culture. ARPANET was phased out in 1990
and the net backbone was taken over by NSFNET (National Science Foundation).
Since 1969 the main users of cyberspace have been involved in research
or in the university community as computer experts or hackers, exploring
the limitations and capabilities of this new technology. These people formed
a cohesive community with many of the same goals and ethics. In addition
to the homogeneity of the net, the small size contributed to a strong feeling
of community. There has been some conflict between the hackers and the
researchers over sharing resources, and philosophies about security and
privacy, but on the whole, the two groups have co-existed without major
incident.
The newest of the members of the so-called
old generation are the university users who are not involved in research
work on the net. Generally these are the students using the net for email,
reading netnews and participating in interactive real-time conversations
through talk, telnet or irc. This wave of people integrated smoothly with
the community as it existed. Still sharing the common research and education
orientation, the community remained cohesive and the culture did not change
much, perhaps it only expanded in the more playful areas. These users did
not compete with the researchers for resources other than computer time,
which was rapidly becoming more available throughout the eighties.
It is only in the past year or two that
we have begun to see the explosion of the new generation on the Internet.
Businesses have begun connecting themselves to the net, especially with
the prospect of the NSFNET backbone changing hands to permit commercial
traffic. Public access nets run by communities or businesses are springing
up in cities all over the world, bringing in users who know little about
computers and are more interested in the entertainment and information
they can glean from the net. Commercial providers like America Online and
Compuserve are beginning to open gateways from their exclusive services
to the open Internet, specifically allowing their users to access email,
netnews and soon ftp and telnet services. The explosion of BBSs and the
shared Fidonet software has brought many users who were previously unable
to get an account through a university to the world of email and netnews.
At this point, anyone with a computer and a modem can access these most
basic services. Several state s, such as Maryland, have begun efforts to
connect all their residents to the net, often through their library system.
The city of Cambridge, MA now offers access to the world wide web for short
segments of time in its public libraries, and even several progressive
coffeehouses in the San Francisco Bay area and soon in the Boston area
are offering public net access.
In the last 20 years, the net has developed
slowly, adapting comfortably as its population grew steadily and shifted
the culture to more diverse interests. But as the net faces a huge increase
in its users in a short time, the reaction is bound to be more severe,
and debate will center around several key issues that were irrelevant in
a small homogeneous community. The establishment of new customs concerning
these issues will define the culture of the future Internet.
Most resources on the net currently are
not designed to handle the amount of usage that will occur within the next
six months. Sites which offer access to ftp archives are particularly worried
about the massive influx of new users from commercial services opening
access soon. America Online administrators addressed this issue in a recent
piece of email to ftp sysadmins where they recognized the perceived problem
and stated that they would “request that AOL members limit their FTP traffic
to off-peak hours for sites” and “work with administrators to help manage
load problems.” They offer to set up mirror sites for easier access to
these resources. Unfortunately, this may not be adequate — it is certainly
agreed by now that Internet users will need more patience in the future
when accessing the information they want. Many net users have been complaining
recently about the influx of AOL users onto Usenet. Of course, perceptions
of these new posters were not enhanced by a bug that caused their messages
t o be reposted eight times. Newsgroups (such as alt.aol-rejects) were
created specifically with the intent of insulting AOL users and resenting
their entrance onto Usenet. As the net becomes more crowded, we can expect
more animosity and rivalry for “rights” to access resources.
As the NSFNET backbone changes hands to
allow business traffic, we will see even more of a business presence than
that which already exists. At the present time the ethics of business on
the net are very unclear. The perception of commercial use as inappropriate
use of the net still exists among many segments of the net community. Incidents
such as the mass advertisements from the law team of Canter&Siegel
have made many people fearful of the potential of abuse of access in cyberspace.
On the other hand, useful services are coming on-line, especially with
the advent of fill-out forms on the World Wide Web. With technology advancements
like authentication and digital money, commercial activity will become
even more widespread.
Computer crime becomes a much more immediate
problem as the net’s population expands without control. The old and new
generations on the net have different security and privacy needs, and different
views of what constitutes a computer crime. Even as this conflict plays
out on the net, the print media sensationalize every story of computer
break-ins and computer pornography rings. Often crimes that only incidentally
involve the net are promoted as being symptomatic of the destructive anarchy
that exists on the net. This attitude towards news about the net will eventually
bring with it stricter laws governing cyberspace. Major concerns in net
crime now involve break-ins, data theft, privacy violations and harassment.
When the net was new, it existed solely
for the purpose of cooperation and collaboration between researchers. Thus,
resources were shared regularly and uncomplainingly. There were few enough
users that one could take the resources one needed without disturbing other
people’s use of the net. Of course, there was not as much available then
for which users would compete.
A few years ago, the idea of commercializing
the net was a thought anathema to most of the users, but slowly and surely,
businesses are establishing themselves on the net and will soon form a
large portion of the traffic. The old generation fears the abuse of the
anarchy of the net for advertising. Most people oppose intrusive methods
of advertising, such as junk-mailing lists and “spamming” Usenet, or
posting messages to many newsgroups as Canter&Siegel did. Individual
choice in viewing promotional material is important to the older generations
because this is not intrusive, and in fact supplies a desirable service.
Word of mouth is an important factor in deciding to view information about
a product or a service.
On the smaller net of the past, there was
less crime, less reason for crime, and less vulnerability to major damage.
The net was a homogeneous community, dedicated to collaboration, and the
information stored on the net was hardly as sensitive as the information
soon to be spreading across the net like credit card numbers, driver’s
records, medical histories, proprietary information and sensitive financial
information. The action most frowned upon by members of the old generation
was misuse of resources. Most realized that their systems and accounts
were not very secure and tolerated some exploration by curious hackers
(though not destruction of data). However, the old generation received
a rude awakening in November 1988 with the Internet worm. As the worm spread
to machines all over the nation, bringing down computer systems by the
dozens, the net community began to realize that the security of the net
would help them protect their data and their resources. Although the worm
was not a malicious invent ion, it was easy to conceive of a recurrence
of the worm with destructive attributes.
In the early beginnings, many systems were
open to all who wished to come and share data or read documents. Computer
experts enjoyed exploring systems and finding entrances just for the knowledge
to be gained from these activities. This “breaking in” to systems was
not a major concern for users. Over time, though, people began to feel
a right for privacy and security of their information and hackers fell
into disfavor. Data theft was also not a big concern, as the purpose of
the net was to share data, not to restrict information. There was very
little personal or private information stored on the net. The small community
only included users with legitimate research concerns at the beginning,
and cyberspace was not as anonymous as it is now, so harassment was not
a concern.
The new generation has heard of the infinite
resources of the net and the hundreds of communities established on-line.
In the last several years the news media have been trumpeting the magical
things that the Internet can do for our society. Tantalized by these reports,
thousands of people unaffiliated with research institutions or the government
are streaming onto the Internet to access these resources. This influx
is causing a monumental change in the direction and the culture of the
Internet.
We are seeing the beginning of commercialization
of the net. This definitely represents a trend away from the old attitudes,
as commercial activity has been frowned upon for years. Now the people
of the net demand commercial services, information about products, and
companies demand access to consumers. It is unclear to me what the new
generation of net users want in the form of advertising. Within the last
year, however, we have seen a frightening example of the potential of abuse
of the Internet by advertisers with the law team of Canter and Siegel.
Their message which was posted to almost all newsgroups was considered
very invasive and extremely inappropriate, yet the duo states that they
considered the advertisement a success, and are willing to repeat it. Is
this the kind of advertising the new generations want to see? Do we want
our inboxes filled with junk email and our travels on the net interspersed
by advertising?
Because more of us will be on-line, and
more of our commercial and business transactions will be taking place on-line
in the future, crime will rise in cyberspace, and people will need to be
protected. Currently the net operates mostly in an anarchic state with
sysadmins and government officials patrolling the borders. There may, however,
be a call for greater security on the net. Because of the existence of
much proprietary and personal information on the net in the future, access
to sites will be restricted severely, and breaking into systems will become
a more serious crime. Many people are willing to let the government install
our safeguards, but there has been recent controversy about what kind of
access the government should have to our information. Computer crime has
been sensationalized recently in the media, especially crimes linked to
sex offenders or pornography distributers. I believe that this kind of
reporting is detrimental to the future of the net because it may incite
unnaturally stringent lawmaking in cyberspace.
As the Internet grows to encompass a larger
segment of the world’s population its diversity will increase until it
begins to mirror the external world. We are beginning to see breakdown
in the previously homogeneous characteristics of economic status and educational
background. In the San Francisco Bay area there are coffeehouses with cheap
access to an on-line chat area that even homeless people can afford and
indeed, many homeless people have come to find that these chat areas give
them a sense of community and “home.” Local library systems across the
nation are providing net access. Maryland’s Sailor project is a good example
– they provide gopher access in the libraries and through toll-free dialup,
and individual libraries will begin to offer full access with mail, ftp
and telnet. With the coming of the National Information Infrastructure,
net access may become as common as telephone access. It will cease to be
merely a useful toy and tool for the research community and will be a simple
fact of life, a point of access to a wealth of information and a meeting
place for dispersed communities. We can easily expect conflict to arise
in this nascent world net community simply because of differences in needs
and visions for the net.
An old attitude that makes it difficult
to create harmony between the old generations and the new is the behavior
of more experienced users towards `newbies’ on the net. In the past, one
could expect other users to be somewhat familiar with computing environment.
People who asked too many `stupid’ questions were ostracized and `flamed.’
Now the net must handle a gigantic influx of users with less computer experience,
who will ask thousands of questions in their exploration of the obscure
operations of the Internet.
People come to the net with great expectations
of the vast resources available to them, and they do make use of them.
Unfortunately, not all sites are able to accommodate the increase in traffic,
especially with services like Compuserve and America On-line opening their
gates to the Internet. In a letter to ftp sysadmins, Robert Hirsh of AOL
states that AOL will request that its members limit traffic to off-peak
hours and that AOL will work with administrators to manage load problems,
specifically by providing local mirror sites for AOL users and for Internet
users. One Internet user from the University of Massachusetts voiced his
fears in a post to the newsgroups alt.aol-sucks: “…careless actions
by AOLers could seriously jeopardize access and availability on sites already
overloaded and restricted.” and“Those who depend on the Internet for
legitimate information retrieval/sharing and communication will find themselves
swamped in a sea of curiosity seekers, net.sex geeks, and those who are
convince d that `telnet’ is synonymous with `Information Superhighway.’
” The old generation perceives the new generations as overtaxing the resources
and resents the burgeoning population.
Conflicts are inevitable in the commercialization
of the net. Simply, the old common philosophy was opposed to commercial
activity on the net because the net existed solely for research purposes.
The new generations see the net as the center for many services and operations,
and thus will require heavy commercialization of the net. Commercialization
does promise to bring more advancement in technology and more investment
in the net. The old generation is being forced to accept commercialization,
and there has been little outcry over the appearance of commercial WWW
sites. More than anything else, the old generation fears the intrusion
of advertising, but this may become commonplace as people join the net
through commercial providers and access commercial servers.
Beyond resource management and commercial
use, the area of most concern policy-wise and legally is that of computer
crime. The older generation were used to an anarchic Internet and some
would like to continue this experiment in the spirit of freedom, but new
users are demanding protections similar to those we enjoy in the physical
world. I believe that the need for security is justified, though, because
of the expanding and changing nature of the Internet. In particular, breaking
in for exploratory purposes will be frowned upon. As our cyber-dealings
gain importance and we begin to think in terms of our cyber-personae as
being extensions of ourselves into the realm of cyberspace, privacy violations,
data theft and other crime will become more serious.
We will spend more time in cyberspace handling
our business correspondence, purchasing products, disseminating information
and interacting with other people. Through these activities we will gain
identities in cyberspace that will be as important to us as our identities
in the physical world. We will need to have easily available forms of authentication
of people’s identities, probably through a digital signature. Will we need
to ensure that people only have one identity in cyberspace? This may seem
logical at first, just as in the physical world we are only one identity
by the government for purposes of the law and finances. However, I believe
that imposing too many restraints in cyberspace will fail, because there
is a tradition of working around the technical solutions of authority to
access greater freedom. Perhaps it will work in the business world, because
fair dealings involve authentication of identity.
The net will become increasingly supported
by commercial services, and many of the resources we now have free of charge
will become commercial because they cannot serve the increasing population
without funding. Advertisement will become a commonplace occurrence on
the net, though I hope that by convention it will remain unobtrusive. I
fear that as more information about ourselves become available on-line,
marketers will not resist the opportunity to use this knowledge to their
advantage by targeting us for specific product pitches.
Cyberspace will be policed in the future.
I envision an agreement between nations regarding illegal actions occurring
in cyberspace on a international scope not unlike the current law of the
sea. We will see the most control occurring where people get their access
to the net. Walls will go up in cyberspace, information will be hidden
and restrained. We will still have hackers working their art on the net,
finding ways around our technological barriers, and they will become more
dangerous as we have more sensitive information on the net. Crime stories
on the net will be sensationalized because there will still be fear and
misunderstanding of cyberspace, and because of the increasing importance
of on-line security.
The diversity of the emerging cultures
will segment into like-minded communities. Information on the net is oriented
towards serving interests and not uniting diverse interests. Thus, I fear
that the division between the older generations and the new ones will become
institutionalized as each culture builds the part of cyberspace in which
they wish to exist, and there will be little communication between the
parts culturally.
As we progress into the information age,
everyone will move into cyberspace, just as most people have adopted telephones
and integrated them into their homes and businesses. Thus, the on-line
culture will slowly begin to duplicate the physical world in its inequalities
and segmentation, its diversity and opportunity. Restrictions will go up
and walls will be built in cyberspace. There will be laws and regional
police to enforce those laws and monitor security in their regions.
We are undergoing a transition perhaps
on the same scale as the transition to literacy several hundred years ago.
For many centuries after writing began, this skill was left in the hands
of the educated elite – mainly the church servants. When literacy finally
came to the majority of the middle class and some of the lower class, the
Renaissance began. Similarly, we are witnessing the opening of a new medium
of information to the general populace, and we can only guess at the outcome.
References
Brandt, Daniel. Cyberspace Wars: Microprocessing
vs. Big Brother. NameBase NewsLine, No. 2, July-August 1993.
Response from Canter&Siegel’s net
access providers April 1994
Dern, Daniel. “Myth or Menace? A History
of Business on the Net.” Internet World July/August 1994 pp 96-98.
Elmer-Dewitt, Philip. “Battle for the
Soul of the Internet.” Time Magazine, July 25, 1994 pp 50-56.
Hardy, Henry. History of the Net
Hirsh, Robert. AOL FTP Access Oct 13,
1994.
US State of MD gopher site
Meyer, Gordon. The Social Organization
of the Computer Underground. August 1989
Otto, Justin. post to alt.netcom.conspiracy
Aug 9, 1994.
Townson, Patrick. MCI Employee Cearged
TELECOM Digest V14 #385
Taylor, Roger. “Brave New Internet.”
Internet World, September 1994 pp 36-42.
