Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Vint Cerf: 'The Internet Is For Everyone'

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the pay-as-you-go dept.

Joel Rowbottom writes "Vint Cerf has written a damn fine RFC (3271), entitled 'The Internet Is For Everyone'. It's a good, well-balanced document which details the 'Internet Society's ideology' about the growth of the 'Net, where we can go now, and where we might be in some years' time. Worth a read."

4 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Slashdotted by AirLace · · Score: 5, Informative

    The official RFC3271 page at the IETF is http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3271.txt?number=3271.

  2. Users as consumers? by Florian+Weimer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Vint Cerf seems to view users mainly as consumers. He doesn't even mention the danger of proprietary protocols, trade secrets and patents, and the domination of big media conglomerates, which has already started to divide the Internet in the content-producing Rich and the content-consuming Poor.

    It's unfortunate that the days of the beginning Internet mass media, on which everyone could publish more or less equally, rapidly become history, and nobody seems to regret it.

  3. Internet for the wealthy, by the rest of us ... by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful



    Things always go this way - the people built stuffs, useful stuffs, and then the wealthy and powerful will come and take it away.

    Internet is just the latest "useful stuff" about to be taken away from us.

    Who's the "wealthy and powerful" in this case ?

    Ask Hollywood.

    Ask Disney's Eisner.

    And ask that "Mickey Mouse Senator".

    With all the existing and upcoming draconian laws, the Net will be taken away from us.

    Not just copyright. Not just royalties.

    The Net is what they are after.

    We, the Netizens, are "out of control", so they are here to "provide law and order".

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  4. The Internet is NOT for Everyone. by Bowie+J.+Poag · · Score: 5, Interesting



    Since it's an RFC, here's my C..

    The Internet should not be "for everyone", much the same way as driving a car should not be legal for everyone.

    Having been a SysAdmin for a number of years, I can tell you that the vast majority of Internet users are law-obiding, decent and considerate people. Then, of course, you have the 1% who want to take such a wonderful gift, and abuse it. They will abuse it for their own personal or financial game, or simply because they get off on making someone else on the other end of their "attack" miserable.

    I propose that people should be required to carry a Computer License, which proves they are capable of using the Internet responsibly, in much the same way as you're required to carry a Drivers License to prove you know how to use a car responsibly.

    To the vast majority of us, its no big deal. Having a Computer License is no more a threat to one's personal freedoms and rights to privacy as carrying a Drivers License is. For people who have demonstrated a clear-cut lack of understanding of the fundemental governing principles of behavior and usage, their license should be revoked, just as it is for people who have demonstrated a lack of understanding for the basic principles of behavior and usage for a car. While I wouldn't impose fines, and I would not create a police force to apply the law, I would leave it up to the individual ISP to decide how to best apply this for his or her system.

    Its only after we do something like I've just described that the net can be cleaned up, and relatively free of abuse, garbage, and other miscellaneous mindbarf.

    Cheers,

    --
    Bowie J. Poag