Meet The Magical Mystery Internet Platform
The internet is a magical thing. Judging by the state of the market, it’s a bit of a mystery as well. So today’s post is all about explaining what the internet is, why it is here, and what it’s here to do. I’ll also try to describe a little what the future might look like and what might happen next.
The internet was originally created by the government. Telecommunications companies are who built the commercial/consumer internet we all use now. In order to really understand why the internet platform is here and what it is here to do, it’s important to know a little about communications and information distribution platforms so I’ll start there. Radio, broadcast television, landline phone (PSTN), mobile phone and print media are all ways of distributing information and/or fostering communication between people. In a society, these things are critical for obvious reasons, and that’s what a government would care about. In the event of a natural disaster, attack, or other emergency, people need information. Second to this, people need to be able to communicate with others. Think about it and you’ll see where and how platforms fit into our world and the important role they play in a society. That is why they exist. The side bonus of course is that they can foster consumer recreational use and entertainment as well.
Unfortunately, in the case of an emergency, the platforms other than the internet are typically disabled. If your city were leveled, the print media wouldn’t likely be able to provide information, and you would not likely be able to get it. Even in the slightest storm, TV and telephone platforms are often knocked out. In addition, each of these older platforms require their own separate devices to access and other limitations. You can’t watch TV without a TV set plugged into the wall, you need one type of phone for landline (PSTN) and another for mobile, etc. This obviously creates problems — the means of providing information and communication in a society needs to be stable. Second, it needs to be as accessible as possible.
Enter the internet, which not only marries all of the things other existing platforms can do in one, but also enables consumers to access it from a variety of devices — including while on the go. Magical! What’s more is that it’s “fault resistant” — in layman’s terms, this means that when something goes down (storm, attack, etc.) by design the internet will continue to distribute information. How this works is a little complicated to explain, but in a nutshell, it reroutes itself so that services continue. Imagine what a powerful platform this is in a society. Enormous!
Up until 2005, the internet was not at the full functionality to provide certain communications and information distribution services delivered via the other, older platforms. It can now. This will make for a very, very interesting future to soon come.
Other important things to know:
A single, unified platform means many companies in one sandbox. In the past, NBC played one platform (broadcast TV), Conde Nast on another (print media), AT&T telephone on yet another (PSTN and/or mobile), and of course, companies like Google over the internet (Internet protocol). But, as the internet grows into its desired destiny of being the sole information and communications distribution platform in our society, guess what’s going to happen: All of the above doing business and selling services in one place, the internet. This creates a very interesting new landscape — and lots of new issues, including ensuring that the playing field is fair, because in that mix of course are those who built the internet, telecommunications companies.
There have already been many cases here in the U.S. and abroad of telcos messing with certain functionality of the internet that may hurt their market. Net neutrality is not just about ensuring consumers have fair access to the internet platform, but also that it remains a fair playing field.
Understanding how the internet works is important to understanding why it’s important to keep things fair. Information travels across the internet platform in what’s called “packets” — they’re like little boxes with stuff inside. Data packets are very “light” — they can move with very minimal speed (hello, dial up). Voice is a bit heavier, and then video/TV the heaviest. In order to move well enough to deliver services to us, these packets need speed and the ability to be delivered. Because these packets are essentially moving over one single platform, which packets get priority becomes an issue. This is called “provisioning.” Lots of people talk about how Vonage service was poor quality and blamed Vonage, but it was often a case of an ISP not giving priority to the voice packet Vonage was asking it to deliver. It’s a complex thing to explain, but in a sense plays a part in what net neutrality is all about — When there’s only one platform, who decides what services get priority? Who is going to prevent companies such as telecom providers (who essentially “own” the internet) from blocking the delivery of those services?
A study into voice over internet would show you lots and lots of cases where that’s absolutely happened. Not only have telcos blocked other companies from providing phone calls over the internet, but there is actually software to do it. Net neutrality also plays into fair access to the internet by consumers, but an equally important issue is of course when everybody’s in one sandbox, who is in charge? And, how can we keep everything fair so that everybody can do business?
This is all far ahead but it is a reality. The internet is where it had intended to be in terms of what it can do, but that doesn’t mean we’re all going to wake up tomorrow and see it as a reality in our world. That’s because there’s a lot more to it than just the platform being able to do what it’s here to do. User adoption is enormously critical to the process, along with devices. We are starting to see the early evolution of devices, sparked in part by the invention of the iPhone. Apple very much understands not only both of these elements, but how to move mass user bases to adopt. If other companies knew and understood the same, which they very much could, they’d have just as much of a chance to be as successful. Unfortunately, mass, widespread misunderstanding and misinformation about the internet is limiting everybody but those who know better, like Apple.
So what’s next? The internet has disrupted industries by two and only two things: What it can do, and where users are at in adopting it. Up until 2005, it wasn’t much of a threat to TV business as it couldn’t deliver video/TV well enough to be dangerous. Now that it can, you are seeing the very early signs of its coming disruption. Print media was first disrupted in the late 90s, but because users and devices weren’t in a place to really shake the business, it wasn’t hit much. This is changing now — Kindle, tablet PCs, iPhone, etc. has made internet access easier and more comfortable, and that’s changing how and where we access and consume information in our world. This has nothing to do with social networks or social media — that’s another, different functionality of the internet platform. It has everything to do with the proliferation of internet use in our society and the ease and comfort of accessing it.
The next generation of the internet platform’s evolution in our society will likely shift to devices, since the internet at long last is ready to go. This has the potential to completely change the landscape, though with all this confusion and unwillingness to learn, it’ll likely be as slow and painful as virtually everything else related to the web has. It doesn’t have to be this way — retail’s adaption and adoption to the internet’s disruption was really quite smooth. TV business despite what bloggers and media claim is also adapting and adopting pretty well. It understands it is a bit too early to be a concern, and its very focused on learning what to do. I also think its reasonable to believe that the internet will actually disrupt internet business in the end. In the past, it had a fairly open playing field with virtually ignorant competitors — that won’t be for long, particularly since internet business has become as confused about the internet as everybody else. I think it’s also likely that user interface will change in the coming few years, booming lots of innovation and new business as well.
In terms of monetization over the internet platform, that’s a snarly mess I’ll address in the future.
I’ll keep posting on this topic this week, digging into some areas. Let me know if there’s something specific you want to drill down into, ask or know.