5 ms·

Vint Cerf: Introducing the People-Centered Internet Newsletter

112 points by GuiA 10y ago

jimhefferon 10y ago
Does anyone have any idea what this means? He is a smart person, so I assume I am just being dense.
- pgrote 10y ago
  My take is focusing on internet related innovation that focuses on bringing them to users. Things like AI and 3D printing are typically out of the reach of normal internet users, so the goal is to make it available to them.
- snaky 10y ago
  Free Internet access in exchange of privacy.
meeper16 10y ago
It's one of the most transparent newsletters I've seen in a while.
jacquesm 10y ago
Is he still working for Google?
- pgrote 10y ago
  Yes. Chief Internet Evangelist. http://research.google.com/pubs/author32412.html http://research.google.com/pubs/author32412.html
  - just_observing 10y ago
    "4. The system achieves a level of trust that meets the users’ expectations of affordability, privacy, safety" This is Google. I assume they anticipate low expectations.
    - snaky 10y ago
      B-but they want provide it for free! "Complete universal Internet coverage", what could go wrong?
    - mikekchar 10y ago
      To be honest, like all very large organisations, I suspect there are many different points of view within Google. For example, Google is slowly working on End-to-End [1]. People tend to expect that businesses run to the lowest common denominator: if it is profitable, then they will do it. This is demonstrably false, though. Most companies avoid the most egregious crimes in our society, and others actually take moral stands on various issues (Lush comes to mind [2]). But of course, no matter what, it's always going to be a nuanced issue (see the comments in the second link to see some people's negative reactions). Somewhat like Lush, Google has potential to improve the situation and position itself as "the least bad" option. The reality of the situation is that while privacy is very important, almost nobody wants to be completely private. They want to advertise things about themselves -- even to the whole world (see Facebook). Possibly they even want to lie about themselves, but this is still compatible with selling them things to help them sustain their fantasy. From the perspective of targeting ads, it seems to me to be much more effective to target the "public persona" that people wish others to see rather than the true private person. Building better tools that allow someone to say, "This is how I wish the world to see me" is much, much better than trolling through their personal information and patching up a profile that nobody wishes to expose. And for the few people who wish to be an informational black hole? You weren't going to sell them anything anyway. P.S. I understand that Google and others have a very long way to go to make this kind of thing a reality. It's just that I don't see it as being antithetical to their business goals. [1] - https://github.com/google/end-to-end https://github.com/google/end-to-end [2] - https://uk.lush.com/article/lush-ethical-company https://uk.lush.com/article/lush-ethical-company
  - adamgravitis 10y ago
    Then there'll definitely be ads.
codemac 10y ago
For those who don't know what their goals are: Desirable properties of the People-centered Internet: 1. Complete universal Internet coverage that enables functionality that is otherwise unreachable or ineffective 2. The Internet is affordable, open, available and accessible to all 3. Fosters digital literacy, local content in local language to achieve widespread usage and increased value to people, families, communities and countries 4. The system achieves a level of trust that meets the users’ expectations of affordability, privacy, safety 5. The quantity and quality of educational and information services is increasingly available to families and communities 6. Anyone can contribute to improvement of the utility of the global Internet. 7. Personal information in the digital environment is protected by law and controlled by the individual http://peoplecenteredinternet.org/ http://peoplecenteredinternet.org/
- gue5t 10y ago
  There won't be any ads. This may not have been explicitly listed, but a user-centric communication medium does not perpetrate psychological warfare against its users and reward distracting them, stalking and profiling them, or exploiting their naïvete. It empowers them by giving them access to information on their terms. This is definitional.
  - krapp 10y ago
    If users choose to advertise, a user-centric communication medium would allow them to do so. To ban advertisements outright would be censorship.
    - eevilspock 10y ago
      He didn't say "ban" much less "ban outright", did he? The list is "desirable properties". I agree with his characterization of advertising, and that to be "people centric", there would be no ads by definition. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7485773 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7485773
      - 10y ago
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
daly 10y ago
People centered? So will we see a list of locally hosted websites available using peer-to-peer, open source, end-to-end encrypted software? Or will we see the usual global "data collection" through centralized services? There used to be "bulletin board systems" (BBS) software that was point-to-point, ran on local systems, and was fully distributed. Anyone could customize their own BBS. Lists of available BBS were circulated. It was the ultimate people-centered architecture.
unfocused 10y ago
I read his introduction, and glanced over the first 3 articles. It's written in a very heavy "government corporate" language. To be honest, who is the audience that this letter is supposed to reach? People that can't read "government corporate" language are not going to even attempt to read it. It's a shame really because the message is a good one, but they need to change how they write if they don't want their message lost.

112 points by GuiA 10y ago

jimhefferon 10y ago

Does anyone have any idea what this means? He is a smart person, so I assume I am just being dense.

pgrote 10y ago
My take is focusing on internet related innovation that focuses on bringing them to users. Things like AI and 3D printing are typically out of the reach of normal internet users, so the goal is to make it available to them.
snaky 10y ago
Free Internet access in exchange of privacy.

meeper16 10y ago

It's one of the most transparent newsletters I've seen in a while.

jacquesm 10y ago

Is he still working for Google?

pgrote 10y ago
Yes. Chief Internet Evangelist. http://research.google.com/pubs/author32412.html http://research.google.com/pubs/author32412.html
- just_observing 10y ago
  "4. The system achieves a level of trust that meets the users’ expectations of affordability, privacy, safety" This is Google. I assume they anticipate low expectations.
  - snaky 10y ago
    B-but they want provide it for free! "Complete universal Internet coverage", what could go wrong?
  - mikekchar 10y ago
    To be honest, like all very large organisations, I suspect there are many different points of view within Google. For example, Google is slowly working on End-to-End [1]. People tend to expect that businesses run to the lowest common denominator: if it is profitable, then they will do it. This is demonstrably false, though. Most companies avoid the most egregious crimes in our society, and others actually take moral stands on various issues (Lush comes to mind [2]). But of course, no matter what, it's always going to be a nuanced issue (see the comments in the second link to see some people's negative reactions). Somewhat like Lush, Google has potential to improve the situation and position itself as "the least bad" option. The reality of the situation is that while privacy is very important, almost nobody wants to be completely private. They want to advertise things about themselves -- even to the whole world (see Facebook). Possibly they even want to lie about themselves, but this is still compatible with selling them things to help them sustain their fantasy. From the perspective of targeting ads, it seems to me to be much more effective to target the "public persona" that people wish others to see rather than the true private person. Building better tools that allow someone to say, "This is how I wish the world to see me" is much, much better than trolling through their personal information and patching up a profile that nobody wishes to expose. And for the few people who wish to be an informational black hole? You weren't going to sell them anything anyway. P.S. I understand that Google and others have a very long way to go to make this kind of thing a reality. It's just that I don't see it as being antithetical to their business goals. [1] - https://github.com/google/end-to-end https://github.com/google/end-to-end [2] - https://uk.lush.com/article/lush-ethical-company https://uk.lush.com/article/lush-ethical-company
- adamgravitis 10y ago
  Then there'll definitely be ads.

codemac 10y ago

For those who don't know what their goals are: Desirable properties of the People-centered Internet: 1. Complete universal Internet coverage that enables functionality that is otherwise unreachable or ineffective 2. The Internet is affordable, open, available and accessible to all 3. Fosters digital literacy, local content in local language to achieve widespread usage and increased value to people, families, communities and countries 4. The system achieves a level of trust that meets the users’ expectations of affordability, privacy, safety 5. The quantity and quality of educational and information services is increasingly available to families and communities 6. Anyone can contribute to improvement of the utility of the global Internet. 7. Personal information in the digital environment is protected by law and controlled by the individual http://peoplecenteredinternet.org/ http://peoplecenteredinternet.org/

gue5t 10y ago
There won't be any ads. This may not have been explicitly listed, but a user-centric communication medium does not perpetrate psychological warfare against its users and reward distracting them, stalking and profiling them, or exploiting their naïvete. It empowers them by giving them access to information on their terms. This is definitional.
- krapp 10y ago
  If users choose to advertise, a user-centric communication medium would allow them to do so. To ban advertisements outright would be censorship.
  - eevilspock 10y ago
    He didn't say "ban" much less "ban outright", did he? The list is "desirable properties". I agree with his characterization of advertising, and that to be "people centric", there would be no ads by definition. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7485773 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7485773
    - 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

daly 10y ago

People centered? So will we see a list of locally hosted websites available using peer-to-peer, open source, end-to-end encrypted software? Or will we see the usual global "data collection" through centralized services? There used to be "bulletin board systems" (BBS) software that was point-to-point, ran on local systems, and was fully distributed. Anyone could customize their own BBS. Lists of available BBS were circulated. It was the ultimate people-centered architecture.

unfocused 10y ago

I read his introduction, and glanced over the first 3 articles. It's written in a very heavy "government corporate" language. To be honest, who is the audience that this letter is supposed to reach? People that can't read "government corporate" language are not going to even attempt to read it. It's a shame really because the message is a good one, but they need to change how they write if they don't want their message lost.