New White Paper: Considerations for Mandating Open Interfaces

People all around the world depend on the Internet to live their lives and do their jobs. Behind the surface of applications, online services depend on “interoperability” – the ability of software to work together.

For instance, this is what allows you to send a document from the Outlook account on your iPhone to a friend’s Gmail, then edit the document on a Samsung tablet before saving it in Alibaba cloud, and finally posting it on Twitter using an application like Hootsuite.

But as we recognized in the 2019 Global Internet Report, trends of consolidation in the Internet economy, particularly at the application layer and in web services, have spurred concerns and public debates on the need to regulate Big Tech. Among the proposed measures by policymakers, academics, and other thought leaders across the world is for software services and systems to be legally required to provide interoperability or open interfaces. Today we release a new white paper on this topic, with the aim to support and add depth to the discussions about the key considerations involved.

The general sentiment among competition experts, policymakers and other stakeholders is that existing competition policy is not addressing the economic and societal Continue reading

How Do We Ensure the Internet Grows and Improves? Start with the Internet Impact Assessment Toolkit

The Internet has been revolutionary for human progress. Bit by bit, byte by byte, it has come to underpin modern life. For those of us online today it is hard to imagine (or remember) a world where the Internet was not the fabric of our social lives, education, entertainment, innovation, and culture. But what makes the Internet such a success, and how can we ensure its future? What takes a “network of networks” and makes it the Internet? We’ve launched the Internet Way of Networking’s Internet Impact Assessment Toolkit (IIAT) to to help answer that question.

The current pandemic has showed us both the value and the opportunities the Internet holds. For societies to pivot to a reality where most of our lives became digital overnight is a true testament to the possibilities that are inherent in the Internet.

But while the Internet has proved its resilience under the weight of an online society, it is easy to forget that its fundamental premise is not about cables and computers, but about collaboratively interconnecting independent networks to a greater whole. Because what fundamentally makes up the Internet, and what it could grow to become in the future, is rooted in its Continue reading

Internet Society-Chatham House Collaboration: How Is Consolidation Changing the Internet?

For the past couple of years, here, at the Internet Society, we have been thinking about Internet consolidation. After releasing the 2019 Global Internet Report: Consolidation in the Internet Economy, we understood our limitations and the complexity of the issue. To this end, we decided to partner with Chatham House and reach out to the community of researchers and academics, seeking their input to learn more. This resulted in a long process to create a special issue of the Journal of Cyber Policy, including more than 40 proposals for articles, various peer-review cycles and many edits from the authors.

The selection process was tough. We had to weigh in a broad range of ideas and perspectives, which touched virtually all aspects of the Internet economy. And while hard choices had to be made, we are also confident we made the right ones. The level of quality, creativity, and interest that is incorporated in each and every research paper is truly outstanding. For this we are also grateful for the amazing support we have received from our community in spreading the word, for submitting proposals, and to the broad range of experts who have participated in the review of Continue reading