The WING Blog

The Web and Internetworking Group at BU/CS

Oct

3

Is “social pressure” enough to fix the Internet?

By matta

From ACM TechNews, Wednesday, October 3, 2012…

Hmm, Kleinrock is hoping “social pressure” and “sentimental pressure” will help mitigate the Internet’s problems 🙂 Is he serious?

Internet Pioneer Dr. Leonard Kleinrock Still Pushing Emerging Technologies
Network World (10/01/12) Jim Duffy

University of California, Los Angeles professor Leonard Kleinrock has helped launch several technology companies over his 50 years as a computer scientist and Internet pioneer. Now, Kleinrock is developing an exhibit of the nodes involved in what is considered to be the first host-to-host communication that led to the modern Internet. “We’ve created an Internet history center at UCLA, the idea being that the Golden Era was a very special time,” Kleinrock says. The UCLA team is combining the Interface Message Processor with other materials from that era. “We’re not simply going to ask them just what did you accomplish; we’re going to ask them, what was the environment that allowed you to accomplish what you did,” Kleinrock says. The effort is complementary and cooperative with the Internet history work being done at the Computer History Museum. Kleinrock says although the Internet has its dark side, it will evolve into a more positive incarnation. “So much depends on the Internet that those who disrupt it or exploit it or abuse it there’ll be an awful lot of social pressure brought to bear, and sentimental pressure that would hopefully modulate and moderate the extent of the abuse,” he notes.

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