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In this urgent wake-up call, Jonathan Zittrain shows how the Internet is on a path towards ruin - a victim of its own success - and how we have a chance to avoid this rapidly approaching future.

The Internet is so ubiquitous that we take it for granted. But it is surprisingly delicate, and under threat. Just what is at stake? Zittrain gives a fascinating history of the rise of the PC and Internet and reveals how their 'generativity', their capacity to welcome unfiltered contributions from anyone, has driven them. He argues that generativity is the greatest benefit to us as users of the Internet: we are free to connect with other people and to reap the rewards of unanticipated opportunities. Ever-increasing security threats, however - in the form of viruses, spyware and invasions of privacy - are now driving us to a new form of 'tethered' appliances, unable to be modified by anyone except their vendors, such as iPods, iPhones, Xboxes and TIVos, which are set to eclipse the PC.

Tethered appliances have unusual and worrisome features. They have already been used in remarkable but little-known ways: car GPS systems have been reconfigured to eavesdrop on their owners, and digital video recorders have been ordered to self-destruct in viewers' homes. New Web 2.0 platforms like Google mash-ups and Facebook are rightly celebrated - but their applications, even those written by outsiders, can similarly be monitored and controlled from a central source. 

Jonathan Zittrain argues that the generative Internet must be preserved for everybody. And he shows us how, through new technologies and behaviour, we can do it.

Computer architecture. Operating systems --- Internet --- Social aspects --- Security measures --- #SBIB:309H1710 --- #SBIB:309H1713 --- DARPA Internet --- Internet (Computer network) --- Wide area networks (Computer networks) --- World Wide Web --- Telematica, algemene werken --- Mediatechnologie: nieuwe toepassingen (abonnee-televisie, electronic mail, desk top publishing, virtuele realiteit...) --- Internet - Social aspects --- Internet - Security measures