/Interview/ Q&A: Jonathan Zittrain

12/11/2008 | Filed under Discover > Interview

Internationally renowned cyberlaw scholar Jonathan Zittrain’s new book carries the provocative title, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It. Oliver Lindberg asks him exactly what he means

.net: What’s the future of the internet and why do you want to stop it?

JZ: We’ve had an amazing 30-year run of PCs on everyone’s desk that can be reprogrammed to do new things by code that comes from anywhere, and a 15-year run of networks that carry any data they’re given. It didn’t have to be this way: the PC fought off information appliances like smart typewriters and video game consoles that could only be programmed by their vendors, and the internet had to trounce a bunch of proprietary consumer information services like CompuServe, Prodigy, and The Source. Now, for a variety of reasons the future looks like it will be more like information appliances and proprietary networks, which would be bad. It’s bad because so many innovations may be blocked, namely those that seem pointless or downright threatening at first - think early streaming video, instant messaging, peer-to-peer, or Wikipedia - and then turn out to be crucial. It’s also bad because it offers regulators opportunities for control that they’ve never previously enjoyed - and that are all too readily abused.

.net: How can we save the good side of the net and get rid of the bad side?

JZ: We need to develop tools that let people participate in the net and PC as civic technologies - technologies that depend on goodwill among many of the users, including non-expert ones, to continue working. If what we expect of our tech is that we pay our money and it works perfectly, we’ll end up with appliances that no longer pleasantly surprise us.

.net: Why do you think appliances like the iPhone and the Xbox threaten the internet’s innovative culture? Aren’t they great? There are already tons of iPhone apps, for example, which seems to suggest the iPhone gives the web a boost...

JZ: The iPhone began as a completely ‘sterile’ technology - only Apple was to develop software for it. Then Apple opened up the phone to outside apps, but with important contingencies: Apple would get to approve every single appmaker and app, and could revoke an app at any time. Apps that conflict with Apple’s business model (such as those that allow the iPhone to be used to give one’s PC wireless connectivity) can be banned, and Apple ends up retaining control over the whole ecosystem. In that environment, we see software developers afraid to even go on the record with concerns about how the App Store works for fear of being declared non grata by Apple.

.net: You mention the danger posed by closed systems but isn’t the internet moving more and more towards open systems and abandoning walled gardens? Open source is more popular than ever and then there’s projects like OpenSocial, DataPortability and your own OpenNet Initiative.

JZ: I don’t think the future is immutable, and the free software and other commons-based movements exactly reflect the kind of ethos that might preserve the generative internet. But I also see more and more nerdy kids happily coding Facebook or iPhone apps, taking it for granted that there’s a single private overseer to everything their app can do.

.net: Why are you concerned about the increasingly popular cloud computing services like Amazon EC2 and Google App Engine?

JZ: Cloud computing is great, but without safeguards it’s too easy for the platform provider to be able to pull the plug on any apps - either for its own business reasons or because a regulator demands it (think Facebook withering under pressure by Hasbro to yank Scrabulous because it’s said to infringe certain rights in Scrabble). No one would ever have dreamed of ordering Bill Gates to kill a third-party Windows app that was said to be contraband.

.net: Why did you choose Wikipedia as an example of how the web should be? They’re not without problems themselves and especially Jimbo Wales has recently come under criticism.

JZ: Wikipedia has long since gone beyond Jimbo’s personal running of it. It’s a community that faces continual threats and problems - and that for several cycles has innovated ways of keeping afloat without cauterising its generative qualities, allowing nearly anyone to contribute.

.net: Please talk us through the StopBadware.org project you direct. What’s its goal?

JZ: StopBadware aims to help take on the problem of malevolent code online without creating new gatekeepers who get to say what will and will not run on a PC. We invite people to download a little code to their machines that radiate the PCs' vital signs to the other machines - together it starts to give an overall set of pulses about how the net and its attached devices are doing, and which software might be worth avoiding.

.net: Malware and viruses are a huge problem but isn’t your talk of zombie computers frightening the public a bit too much?

JZ: Well, I hope it’s frightening the public just the right amount: it’s a more serious problem than most geeks acknowledge (perhaps because they know how to secure their own machines), and it’ll be all to easy to blow out of proportion - in particular, to garner an overreaction by consumers and government - if something goes widely wrong in a cyberattack. I fear the lockdown that will come if we don’t have other ways to secure the machines.

.net: Why did you make the book available under a Creative Commons licence?

JZ: I should eat my own dogfood! I’m also eager to see how more fluid online versions - such as the ones that allow others to annotate the book one paragraph at a time - lead to much more dialogue and engagement than a single book sent out on paper.

.net: What is your favourite tech gadget?

JZ: The original intro to the book started with: I love my TiVo (and Sky+!). And just yesterday I obtained an iPhone. It’s so cool - I love it - but of course that makes me worry even more about it!

Jonathan Zittrain

Job title Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; co-founder, Berkman Center for Internet & Society

Age 38

Education Bachelor’s summa cum laude in cognitive science and artificial intelligence from Yale University, JD magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and a master’s in public administration from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government

Previous career Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford

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