All of these problems, and more, can also be addressed by a thorough program of internal network security and education. Make no mistake – we do not think such ideas are a substitute for a firewall in a high-threat environment. But they can and will slow down the rate of any penetration attempts, regardless of their origin.
Firewalls are not the be-all and end-all of security … Much more can and should be done … We recommend very strong authentication by the server (PPPÕs challenge/response mechanism is adequate), coupled with a packet filter to block any routing protocols or any packets with an invalid source address.
They have treated information the way John D. Rockefeller treated oil – as a commodity, in which the distribution network, rather than product quality, is of primary importance. But once people can get the raw data themselves, that monopoly ends. And that means big changes, soon … I will have artificial intelligence agents roaming the databases, downloading stuff I am interested in, and assembling for me a front page, or a nightly news show, that addresses my interests. I’ll have the 12 top stories that I want, I’ll have short summaries available, and I’ll be able to double-click for more detail. How will Peter Jennings or MacNeil-Lehrer or a newspaper compete with that?
To my mind, it is likely that what we now understand as the mass media will be gone within 10 years. Vanished, without a trace … Who will push The New York Times? The answer, I think, is technology … Consumers will naturally want better information. They’ll demand it, and they’ll be willing to pay for it. There is going to be – I would argue there already is – a market for extremely high-quality information.
Video e-mail will be a killer app. Not so much for business use, but for personal use. People in this scattered society will want to see each other – family, friends, new (e-mail) acquaintances – maybe not bosses, co-workers and clients, though.
The problem is not getting the information – the problem is rejecting the information. A tool, a system, a paradigm – whatever – that will allow even a relatively naive user to comfortably and easily keep an electronic eye on just those pieces of information that interest the user, and can do so in semireal time, so that they have the news just as soon as anyone besides the person who first made the information available to the network – this will be the basis for the killer app.
The perfectly friendly interface is too often seen as the Holy Grail of online service designers. It’s the application, stupid! It doesn’t matter how cute the icons are in my spreadsheet software – I’m not going to use it to balance my checkbook … If the online industry is going to attract a lot of new users, we’re going to have to spend less time inventing new features and more time figuring out the answer to the fundamental question of defining something of value that people need and want … Perhaps the thing online services could do today to make the technology more user-friendly is hire a few less programmers and a lot more guides, teachers and facilitators to bridge the gap between the complex resources and people who currently find them arcane.
It’s critical for online services to pay attention to the user interface; what a person sees on the screen. Graphical front ends which let users manipulate files by pointing to pictures instead of typing in arcane commands will be standard sooner rather than later.
The Internet will be to women in the ’90s what the vibrator was to women in the ’70s. It’s going to have that kind of power.
Guaranteeing equal opportunity of access to the technology and software, and equal opportunity to add to and comment on the information in the network, should be items Number One and Two in the Virtual University Bill of Rights, I believe.