<nettime> Vinc Cerf: The Internet is for Everyone

["geert lovink" <geert@xs4all.nl>]

(Can anyone help to decipher this document? The Internet is for everyone.
According to Vinc Cerf this is going to be the new ideology of the Internet
Society. One really wonders what the previous ideology then was. The
document then goes on and talks about staggering growth, Internet access on
other planets, the tremendous rise of e-commerce (as if the dotcom crash did
not happen). Cerf continues the old line of accusing only governments while
remaining silent over the rise of corporate control over the Internet.
Completely uncritically of what's going on inside ICANN he calls for
unconditional support of ICANN, etc. Geert)



http://rfc3271.x42.com/



Network Working Group

Request for Comments: 3271

Category: Informational

V.Cerf

Internet Society

April 2002



This document expresses the Internet Society's ideology that the Internet
really is for everyone.However, it will only be suchif we make it so.



How easy to say - how hard to achieve!



How have we progressed towards this noble goal?



The Internet is in its 14th year of annual doubling since 1988. There are
over 150 million hosts on the Internet and an estimated 513 million users,
world wide.



By 2006, the global Internet is likely to exceed the size of the global
telephone network, if it has not already become the telephone network by
virtue of IP telephony. Moreover, as many as 1.5 billion Internet-enabled
appliances will have joined traditional servers, desk tops and laptops as
part of the Internet family.Pagers, cell phones and personal digital
assistants may well have merged to become the new telecommunications tools
of the next decade.But even at the scale of the telephone system, it is
sobering to realize that only half of the Earth's population has ever made a
telephone call.



It is estimated that commerce on the network will reach somewhere between
$1.8T and $3.2T by 2003. That is only two years from now (but a long career
in Internet years).



The number of Internet users will likely reach over 1000 million by the end
of the year 2005, but that is only about 16% of the world's population. By
2047 the world's population may reach about 11 billion. If only 25% of the
then world's population is on the Internet, that will be nearly 3 billion
users.



As high bandwidth access becomes the norm through digital subscriber loops,
cable modems and digital terrestrial and satellite radio\ links, the
convergence of media available on the Internet will become obvious.
Television, radio, telephony and the traditional print media will find
counterparts on the Internet - and will be changed in profound ways by the
presence of software that transforms the one-way media into interactive
resources, shareable by many.



The Internet is proving to be one of the most powerful amplifiers of speech
ever invented. It offers a global megaphone for voices that might otherwise
be heard only feebly, if at all. It invites and facilitates multiple points
of view and dialog in ways unimplementable by the traditional, one-way, mass
media.



The Internet can facilitate democratic practices in unexpected ways. Did you
know that proxy voting for stock shareholders is now commonly supported on
the Internet? Perhaps we can find additional ways in which to simplify and
expand the voting franchise in other domains, including the political, as
access to Internet increases.



The Internet is becoming the repository of all we have accomplished as a
society.It has become a kind of disorganized "Boswell" of the human spirit.
Be thoughtful in what you commit to email, news groups, and other Internet
communication channels - it may well turn up in a web search some day.
Thanks to online access to common repositories, shared databases on the
Internet are acting to accelerate the pace of research progress.



The Internet is moving off the planet! Already, interplanetary Internet is
part of the NASA Mars mission program now underway at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.By 2008 we should have a well-functioning Earth-Mars network that
serves as a nascent backbone of an inter-planetary system of Internets -
InterPlaNet is a network of Internets! Ultimately, we will have
interplanetary Internet relays in polar solar orbit so that they can see
most of the planets and their associated interplanetary gateways for most,
if not all of the time.



The Internet Society is launching a new campaign to facilitate access to and
use of Internet everywhere.The campaign slogan is "Internet is for
everyone," but there is much work needed to accomplish this objective.



Internet is for everyone - but it won't be if it isn't affordable by all
that wish to partake of its services, so we must dedicate ourselves to
making the Internet as affordable as other infrastructures so critical to
our well-being.While we follow Moore's Law to reduce the cost of
Internet-enabling equipment, let us also seek to stimulate regulatory
policies that take advantage of the power of competition to reduce costs.



Internet is for everyone - but it won't be if Governments restrict access to
it, so we must dedicate ourselves to keeping the network unrestricted,
unfettered and unregulated. We must have the freedom to speak and the
freedom to hear.



Internet is for everyone - but it won't be if it cannot keep up with the
explosive demand for its services, so we must dedicate ourselves to
continuing its technological evolution and development of the technical
standards the lie at the heart of the Internet revolution. Let us dedicate
ourselves to the support of the Internet Architecture Board, the Internet
Engineering Steering Group, the Internet Research Task Force, the Internet
Engineering Task Force and other organizations dedicated to developing
Internet technology as they drive us forward into an unbounded future. Let
us also commit ourselves to support the work of the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers - a key function for the Internet's operation.



Internet is for everyone - but it won't be until in every home, in every
business, in every school, in every library, in every hospital in every town
and in every country on the Globe, the Internet can be accessed without
limitation, at any time and in every language.



Internet is for everyone - but it won't be if it is too complex to be used
easily by everyone.Let us dedicate ourselves to the task of simplifying the
Internet's interfaces and to educating all that are interested in its use.



Internet is for everyone - but it won't be if legislation around the world
creates a thicket of incompatible laws that hinder the growth of electronic
commerce, stymie the protection of intellectual property, and stifle freedom
of expression and the development of market economies.Let us dedicate
ourselves to the creation of a global legal framework in which laws work
across national boundaries to reinforce the upward spiral of value that the
Internet is capable of creating.



Internet is for everyone - but it won't be if its users cannot protect their
privacy and the confidentiality of transactions conducted on the network.
Let us dedicate ourselves to the proposition that cryptographic technology
sufficient to protect privacy from unauthorized disclosure should be freely
available, applicable and exportable. Moreover, as authenticity lies at the
heart of trust in networked environments, let us dedicate ourselves to work
towards the development of authentication methods and systems capable of
supporting electronic commerce through the Internet.



Internet is for everyone - but it won't be if parents and teachers cannot
voluntarily create protected spaces for our young people for whom the full
range of Internet content still may be inappropriate. Let us dedicate
ourselves to the development of technologies and practices that offer this
protective flexibility to those who accept responsibility for providing it.



Internet is for everyone - but it won't be if we are not responsible in its
use and mindful of the rights of others who share its wealth. Let us
dedicate ourselves to the responsible use of this new medium and to the
proposition that with the freedoms the Internet enables comes a commensurate
responsibility to use these powerful enablers with care and
consideration.For those who choose to abuse these privileges, let us
dedicate ourselves to developing the necessary tools to combat the abuse and
punish the abuser.



Internet is for everyone - even Martians!



I hope Internauts everywhere will join with the Internet Society and
like-minded organizations to achieve this, easily stated but hard to attain
goal. As we pass the milestone of the beginning of the third millennium,
what better theme could we possibly ask for than making the Internet the
medium of this new millennium?



Internet IS for everyone - but it won't be unless WE make it so.



Vint Cerf

former Chairman and President, Internet Society

January 2002



Sr. Vice President, Internet Architecture and Technology

WorldCom

22001 Loudoun County Parkway, F2-4115

Ashburn, VA 20147



EMail: vinton.g.cerf@wcom.com

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