The Internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that comprises private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information services and resources, such as the interlinked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, discussion groups, internet telephony, streaming media and file sharing.
The Internet Is Making You Less Free
Our current age is defined by the internet. The internet—a technology that allows the decentralized, globalized dissemination of information—has become so
The Extended Internet Universe
The Internet is now a very complicated place
The one and future internet
The internet has become inextricably entangled into our economies, cultural and social lives. We stand on the brink of the next technological revolution, in which the internet of things transforms ...
[39c3] Auf die Dauer hilft nur Power: Herausforderungen für dezentrale Netzwerke aus Sicht der Soziologie
Die Soziologie hat immer etwas mitzuteilen, sobald Fragen kollektiven Handelns auftreten. Dies gilt sowohl für soziale wie auch digitale Räume. So hat der Soziologe Peter Kollock bereits in den 1990er Jahren festgestellt, „the Internet is filled w...
Decentralized Syndication — The Missing Internet Protocol
The Internet is decentralized by design. It came into being not at once, but in parts. New protocols were added on top of previous ones…
The Internet is a Global Public Resource | The Mozilla Blog
One of the things that first drew me to Mozilla was this sentence from our manifesto: “The Internet is a global public resource that must remain open and
Centralization, Decentralization, and Internet Standards
Despite being designed and operated as a decentralized network-of- networks, the Internet is continuously subjected to forces that encourage centralization. This document offers a definition of centralization, explains why it is undesirable, identifies different types of it, catalogues limitations of common approaches to decentralization, and explores what Internet standards efforts can do to address it.
Internet
The Internet routing technology was originally based on military requirements, i.e. nuclear attack survivability. The possibility for non-hierarchical and decentralized routing makes the network quite resilient.
Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization
How Control Exists after DecentralizationIs the Internet a vast arena of unrestricted communication and freely exchanged information or a regulated, highly
Eaten by the Internet
This book makes internet infrastructure visible as a force of political power, which is transforming the social world, from the bottom up—through fifteen chapters contributed by a global set of researchers, activists, and techies. We are living a unique moment: internet technologies are the default infrastructure for society, not just how we communicate but also how we organise our social life, politics, and economy, all the way down to our material environments, like cities. Our world is eaten by the internet. This means that those who control the internet control the bounds of public speech, economic production, social cohesion, and politics, making its infrastructure a core political terrain in the networked age. The book’s chapters cover a wide set of topics, spanning from the global politics of content moderation by internet infrastructure to the colonialism inherent in the race to plug the moon, from the harms wrought by blockchain companies in rural America to the particularities of online censorship across Asia. The chapters take on thorny topics, discussing power consolidation in the advertisement and cloud industry, the role of internet infrastructure in the war in Ukraine, and tech’s environmental impact—amongst others. In doing so, this book roots contemporary technology debates in the politics of internet infrastructure and urges us to ask how can we ensure our infrastructures sustain us, rather than consume us?
Centralization, Decentralization, and Internet Standards
This document discusses aspects of centralization that relate to Internet standards efforts. It argues that, while standards bodies have a limited ability to prevent many forms of centralization, they can still make contributions that assist in the decentralization of the Internet.
The Internet Transition
The Internet is allowing us to build a richer, more complex society but the way in which we Internet today is failing to support the governance systems that a more complex world requires. I take a look at why these issues are related, try to develop an intuition for a way forward, and point at the emerging field that is coming together to build that future.
Internet Histories
Publishes research into the history of the internet, from early computer networks, Usenet, mobile technology and the internet of things.
The Internet explained from first principles
Learn more about this critical infrastructure, which you likely use for hours every day.
