Gadgets kill the Internet
Boffin bemoans lack of tinkering
GADGETS SUCH AS Apple’s iPhone, RIM’S Blackberry and Vole’s Xbox are killing the creativity that created the Internet according to a top boffin.
Professor Jonathan Zittrain scribbles in his new book that the latest gizmos, which are sealed, "sterile" boxes do not allow the sort of tinkering that leads to technological advances.
He said that people should be able to get into their gadgets and muck around with them so that they can develop new ideas.
Zittrain also said that the mix of gadgets, over-regulation and Internet security fears could destroy the system where new ideas came because people did random things to the software and hardware they used.
Speaking to Reuters he said that there was a two-tier world developing where experts survived but ordinary punters were stuck between something they don't understand and something that limits them.
Zittrain, who is professor of Internet governance and regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University, says the World Wide Wibble had done so well because it was simple, open and flawed. This meant that amateurs have come up with scores of new ideas just by tinkering around with it.
He was particularly scathing of the iPhone which he said was too easy for vendors to change from afar and a world away from the open, creative, innovative approach that built the web. µ
L'Inq
Reuters
Comments
RIM should not be on that list
The API for developing blackberry applications is actually quite powerful.That's even without using the parts of the API that require you to sign it with a certificate from RIM. That certificate is quite easy to obtain and not that expensive either (100$)
In fact, almost all of the software on the BB by default (adress book, messaging, dailing, etc) is made with the same API that is available to developers.
WTF?
"Professor Jonathan Zittrain scribbles in his new book that the latest gizmos, which are sealed, "sterile" boxes do not allow the sort of tinkering that leads to technological advances."Wow, he needs to read TheINQ a little more.
BTW, how long was it before the iphone was hacked and set up on a different service provider again?
Aak!
iPhone? I ask?nIck that barbarian!
Professor Zittrain, study the Internet at your school!
Perhaps Professor Zittrain should take a look at Harvard and other universities and do a reality check. How many of his students are allowed to run their own web servers on their computers, how many of the researchers can still do that. The basic idea of the World Wide Web that everybody could provide information and services on their own computers is long gone, thanks to control maniacs who keep a lock on the network and restricted servers. You find those control maniacs at every university, research lab, and of course at the so called "Internet Service Providers." Sorry, Professor Zittrain, but the Internet has far bigger problems than closed box gadgets.Take the Reality Zittrain
The dear professor should also realize that there still are scores of tinkerers toiling away on the Internet, their numbers have not diminished at all - it is the large surge of clueless users that has changed everything.What has really changed in the Internet today is that the population has grown to the point where the tinkerers are reduced to their normal, real-world share. Instead of the 99% of scientists and curious tinkerers that were connected at the beginning of the Internet, 99% of users connected today are just users, who have interests that are not only restricted to Internet and toying with electronics.
Basically, Professor Zittrain is simply pining for the Ole Days, where his correspondents could give a subject to a mail (not to mention write the bloody mail in actual English), and where 95% of his mailbox was not full of various pill adverts, watch sales or pseudo-kinky links.
Come to think of it, I miss the Ole Days as well.