Testimony Summary for "Networks of the Future"

 Testimony Summary for "Networks of the Future"

FCC Hearing

Mitchell Kapor, Electronic Frontier Foundation

May 1, 1991

By the end of the next decade, today's computer networks and telephone

systems will evolve into a web of digital links connecting nearly all homes

and businesses in the U.S.  This "National Public Network" will support

commerce, learning, education, and entertainment in our society.

At its best, this National Public Network could be the source of immense

social benefits.  As a means of increasing cohesiveness, while retaining

the diversity that is an American strength, the network could help

revitalize this country's business and culture.

To design the NPN we must nurture a diverse community of participants, who

together will evolve the National Public Network to its fullest potential. 

The Commission is to be congratulated for seeking a diversity of counsel by

undertaking such programs as today's "Networks of the Future".  I am

pleased to appear before the Commission today as an entrepreneur, software

designer, and concerned citizen.

I want to share my vision of the applications which will drive demand for

services on the National Public Network.  Applications are so important

because users are interested in doing something new with technology in

order to make a difference in their lives.  They have an aversion to

technology itself.  We should therefore give as much attention to

applications as we do to the construction of the underlying  network.

Key Applications

We don't know and probably can't know the key applications of the NPN.  The

users and entrepreneurs of the network will surprise us, in the same way

that the electronic spreadsheet came as a complete surprise.  Just as the

Apple II personal computer was a platform that allowed others to invent new

applications, the NPN can be a platform for information entrepreneurship.

While we can't predict which applications will open up huge new markets, we

can make a few educated guesses, based on today's prototypes.  These

include the Internet, a decentralized, anarchic web of computers and

electronic mailboxes, linking major universities and industrial research

labs around the world.  Other "Petri dishes" of social ferment include

smaller, regional computer conferencing systems like the Whole Earth

'Lectronic Link (the WELL) and a turbulent mass of tens of thousands

non-commercial computer bulletin board systems linked in the Fidonet

network.

Messaging will be popular: time and time again, from the ARPAnet to

Prodigy, people have surprised network planners with their eagerness to

exchange mail.  "Mail" will not just mean voice and text, but also pictures

and video -- no doubt with many new variations.

We know from past demand that the network will be used for electronic

assembly  -- virtual town halls, village greens, and coffee houses, again

taking place not just through shared text (as in today's computer

networks), but with multi-media transmissions, including images, voice, and

video.  Unlike the telephone, this network will also be a publications

medium, distributing electronic newsletters, video clips and interpreted

reports.  It will also be an information marketplace which will include

electronic invoicing, billing, listing, brokering, advertising,

comparison-shopping, and matchmaking of various kinds.

Innovation Enablers

I believe it is possible to identify several key innovation enablers which,

if applied in the context of the NPN, will result in a more rapid emergence

of high-demand applications.  These factors strongly imply directions for

national policy and business strategy which are mentioned under each point.

1. Design the NPN as an Applications Platform

The most valuable contribution of the computer industry in the past ten

years is not a machine, but an idea -- the principle of open architecture. 

In computing, the hardware and system software companies create a

"platform" whose specifications are published openly and which seeks to

attract independent third parties to develop applications for it. 

Similarly, we need to think how to make the NPN into an attractive platform

for the development of new information products and services.

The most useful role of Apple's famous "software evangelists" is not

selling the virtues of the Macintosh to application developers, but

listening to them to help Apple improve the design of its platform. 

Perhaps the RBOC's need evangelists too.

It isn't possible for the platform vendor to identify an appropriate set of

application developers, but a well-designed commercial platform will

naturally attract developers.

The platform must be designed to be appealing to the application

developers.  It cannot be thought up in isolation and foisted onto the

market in the hope that it will be found interesting.

A computer platform is more than the hardware.  The NPN platform will be

far more than the wires.  It must include a basket of basic services for

directories and billing that are accessible and available to all providers.

2. Understand and Capitalize on Market-mediated Innovation.

In the early stages of development of an industry, low barriers to entry

stimulate competition.   They enable a very large initial set of products

for consumers to choose from.  Out of these the market will learn to ignore

almost all in order to standardize on a few, such as a Lotus 1-2-3.  The

winners will be widely emulated in the next generation of products, which

will in turn generate a more refined form of marketplace feedback.  In this

fashion, early chaos evolves quickly a set of high-demand products and

product categories.

This process of market-mediated innovation is best catalyzed by creating an

environment in which it is inexpensive and easy for entrepreneurs to

develop products.  The greater the number of independent enterprises, each

of which puts at voluntary risk the intellectual and economic capital of

risk-takers, is the best way to find out what the market really wants.  The

businesses which succeed in this are the ones which will prosper.

It is worthwhile to note that not a single major PC software company today

dates from the mainframe era.  Yesterday's garage shop is today's

billion-dollar enterprise.  Policies for the NPN should therefore not only

accommodate existing information industry interests, but anticipate and

promote the next generate of entrepreneurs.

There should be thousands of information proprietors on the net, just as

there are thousands of producers of personal computer software and

thousands of publishers of books and magazines.  It should be as easy to

provide an information service as to order a business telephone.  Just as

every business is automatically listed in the Yellow Pages, every online

provider should be listed in a national digital Yellow Pages.

3. Design the NPN for Transparency and Ease of Use

"Transparency," in computer circles, is a subjective state of awareness --

and a desirable one.  When a program is perfectly transparent, people

forget about the fact that they are using a computer.  The most successful

computer programs are nearly always transparent: a spreadsheet, for

instance, is as self-evident as a ledger page.

Personal computer communications, by contrast, are practically opaque. 

Users must be aware of baud rates, parity, duplex, and file transfer

protocols -- all of which a reasonably well-designed network could handle

for them.  When newcomers find themselves confronting what John Perry

Barlow calls a "savage user interface" the excitement about being part of

an extended community quickly vanishes.  On a National Public Network, that

would be a disaster.

Therefore it is crucial the NPN platform be designed with the proper basic

functions and capabilities to promote ease of use.