Jonathan Zittrain

Foremost Authority on the Future of the Internet

BIG IDEAS

• Minds For Sale: The Rise of Cloud Labor
  "The Cloud" is not just for computing anymore: you can now find as much mindshare as you can afford out in the cloud, too. A new range of projects is making the application of human brainpower as purchasable as additional server rackspace. What arises is ubiquitous human computing, enabling individuals and organizations to network and distribute mindpower as a global fungible resource. The result is brainpower applied to problems as varied as aerospace technology (X-Prize), chemistry (Innocentive), and micro labor (amazon mechanical turk) and graphics/art (worth1000). What are some of the issues arising as armies of thinkers are recruited by the thousands and millions? How might this phenomenon do great good, but also potential harm? Zittrain offers a provocative view of a future in which nearly any mental act can be bought and sold.
• The Future of the Internet—And How To Stop It
  Drawing from his recent book, Jonathan Zittrain examines the Internet of today, which has catapulted from backwater to ubiquity—and reveals that it is sputtering precisely because of its runaway success. With the unwitting help of its users, the generative Internet is on a path to a lockdown, ending its cycle of innovation and facilitating unsettling new kinds of control.
  
  Zittrain believes we don’t see clearly what we risk losing. IPods, iPhones, Xboxes, and TiVos represent the first wave of Internet-centered products that can’t be easily modified by anyone except their vendors or selected partners. These “tethered appliances” have already been used in remarkable but little-known ways: car GPS systems have been reconfigured at the demand of law enforcement to eavesdrop on the occupants at all times, and digital video recorders have been ordered to self-destruct thanks to a lawsuit against the manufacturer thousands of miles away. New Web 2.0 platforms like Google mash-ups and Facebook are rightly touted—but their applications can be similarly monitored and eliminated from a central source. As tethered appliances and applications eclipse the PC, the very nature of the Internet—its “generativity,” or innovative character—is at risk.
  
  The Internet’s current trajectory is one of lost opportunity. Its salvation, Zittrain argues, lies in the hands of its millions of users. Drawing on generative technologies like Wikipedia that have so far survived their own successes, this book shows how to develop new technologies and social structures that allow users to work creatively and collaboratively, participate in solutions, and become true “netizens.”
• National Security
  CyberTerrorism and Technology Infrastructure Protection: Should we be afraid? Why is the government so deeply concerned about it, while proposing only a "partnership" to deal with it?
  
  Civil Liberties: Zittrain paints a picture of the surveillance society to come, and highlights the ethical implications.
  
  The Cantonized Internet: Get ready for filters left and right—ideological, mercenary, governmental, and ultimately our own, as the idea of a "generally accessible" web site available on "the" Internet recedes into the past.

SNAPSHOT BIO

Jonathan Zittrain is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the Kennedy School of Government, co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and Professor of Computer Science in the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Internet Society and is on the board of advisors for Scientific American. Previously, he was Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Forum Fellow of the World Economic Forum, which has named him a Young Global Leader.
 
His research interests include battles for control of digital property and content, cryptography, electronic privacy, the roles of intermediaries within Internet architecture, and the useful and unobtrusive deployment of technology in education. His book, The Future of the Internet -- And How to Stop It, focuses on the future of the now-intertwined Internet and PC, and he has co-edited two studies of Internet filtering by national governments, including Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering.

A Closer Look at Jonathan

FOCUS AREAS
What's on Jonathan's current research agenda?

Jonathan is interested in “netizenship” —the tools and practices that can lead to people solving their own problems on the Net, working in concert, often automatically—having their own PCs help other PCs acquire the radar they need to detect and avoid threats.

RECOMMENDED READING
What's on Jonathan's must-read list?

Code 2.0, by Lessig
Wealth of Networks, by Benkler
Promises to Keep, by Fisher

MIND FUEL
Which blogs, web sites, and industry events does Jonathan tap into to feed his mind and fuel his creativity?

memepool (http://www.memepool.com)

Talking Points Memo (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com)

Slashdot (http://www.slashdot.org)

Politech (http://www.politechbot.com)

http://www.interesting-people.org