Experts say the Internet is sick: what happens to it? Do you have a cure?

« Actually, the internet is an ecosystem: a critical ecosystem upon which billions of people depend.Like any ecosystem, its health impacts everything-and everyone-what lives inside it.health of each part of the ecosystem impacts on others.Everything is connected. »

With this little paragraph starts what we could call synopsis of an unprecedented report on the Internet.Presented by the Mozilla Foundation (yes, those of the browser), it intends to become the First Report on Internet Health .It seems that the Internet suffers from several diseases that must be cured among all.

What is the Internet (for us)?

We could say that Internet is a set of connected computers that speak a common language, but it would be like saying that a pen is a wooden rod with graphite pressed inside.The potential and implications of the The pen is such that a simple definition practically says nothing.

None of these representations and schemes about what the Internet is capable of explaining what the Internet is.Sources: jeferrb , Ludovic.Ferre , Matt Britt ,

In less than two decades, the Internet has gone from being an interesting communication tool to being the place where we live our lives , where we get our income and from which we pay our needs.

The Internet has become a structure within which we live, which surrounds us and keeps us at a level of development and wealth that centuries ago could not even be suspected.

For many it is the means through which they have met the most interesting people of their lives, and there is little doubt that is our greatest resource and achievement as a civilization .in good health .

How (and what) can the Internet be sick?

If the Internet is all that I have commented on-and it is certainly much more- the one that does not fulfill the expected functions could be classified as a type of deterioration or disease .This is the starting point of the report, which is in its version v.0.1.That is, it is still waiting for its first version (v.1.0) to be formalized with the help of the Internet collective.

The network of networks is no longer, Mark Surman explains with some nostalgia, that « something collective that belonged to everyone ».Detect what has changed over these two decades and if done better or worse (as suspected) is crucial for the Internet to be the tool we need or just a tool we use.

Capture that shows how anyone can create a public account to participate with annotations and comments in the collaborative report.Web: internethealthreport.org

The report seeks to find ways to know what health the Internet has, and presents a batch of five possible diseases , which users themselves should doubt, modify and complete along the sheet route.

A declared innovation closed

If the opening of the Internet is what you are looking for with the network of networks, the fact that you have to ask permission to publish or create online does not seem very healthy.So that we all have the same opportunities with the network of networks, anyone should be able to create content and dump it.In other words, anyone should have a voice.

The v.0.1 of the report presents as possible evils the that the patented software is promoted against open technologies and standards that allow anyone to access them; or that the Copyright policies have been outdated.

Lack of digital inclusion

The expression digital divide , which represented the difference in Internet access by certain groups, became famous, namely, people without resources, with low educational level or age advanced.Against reality, the technology seemed not to be made for them.

Internet access is understood today as one more right.However, much of the planet still does not have access to it.And those who can navigate find other barriers, such as language , which they leave them out.

The Chinese population accounts for almost 20% of the world's population, but only 2% of Internet content is written in this language.This barrier has even affected the World Organization of the Health and the United Nations in preventing pandemics.The studies were in Chinese and nobody read them.

Internet centralization

Returning to the metaphor of the pen, what cultural development would the world have had if the pen had been an invention in the hands of a few?

The report states that decentralization (that the Internet is controlled by many) is a key point towards a healthy Internet.Otherwise the Internet is not neutral, but partisan.

In mid-2016 the news came that the United States cedes the power it had over Internet domain names (DNS) to ICANN.ICANN is a non-profit entity that represents non-profit entities , so it is considered that domain names (the end of web pages, such as .com or .es ) have become more democratized.

However, there are still ills and a complex solution, as two corporations monopolize almost all the operating systems of the mobile phones of the planet.Android (86.2%) and iOS (12.9%).

The general lack of security

Great advances in encryption have been made in just a few years to improve security.A large part of them with the https protocol (the s is from secure ).In two years we have gone from having 40% of the encrypted indexed network to having almost 50% of it.It seems that we are on the right track.

But the Internet is far from secure today, as demonstrated after the massive 2016 DDoS attack that left Internet areas inaccessible for a while.

One of the great challenges at this point is that the IoT will generate huge swarms of connected devices, many of them piratable and convertible into zombies that attack Internet zones.If we are not able to protect our devices connected to the Internet, it is possible that crackers use them to exert power (illegal, it is understood) on another point of the network.

Today we are not able to solve most of the problems associated with our security, but it is because we neither think it is important nor are we interested in doing so.The tools are just a couple of clicks away.At least for some.Other...

Digital illiterates

The last century was that the population knew how to read and write as their main line of defense and autonomy against the world around them.But in the 21st century that is not enough, and it is intended that people understand the technology and know how to use it .Something that is far from being a reality.

Without leaving Spain, a relatively formed country, it is still confused informatica with office automation , and it is presumed in certain curriculums a supposed experience in the understanding of ICT because you know how to use Word.Something halfway between a tragedy and a bad joke that is in our hands to solve.

The results of a survey in five countries with little digital literacy appear in the graph above.Its inhabitants confuse Facebook with Internet .This type of technological culture is a widespread problem.

Does cure Internet?

If we don't want to call it disease , which seems perhaps an excessive personification, what seems to be consensus is that today there are serious barriers to equality and Internet access .Problems that negatively affect millions of people and for which we need diagnostic and remedy tools.

Mozilla has A small large collaborative website has been made available to the entire planet so that anyone who believes that they should contribute knowledge of the situation can do so, because identifying the problems is the first step in order to solve them.

It is possible that in a few years we will talk about as in 2017 the Internet health parameters were set that would monitor your future.I close with the open questions that the web asks, and links to minds Curious people want to soak up the problems we suffer today:

Is it open?

Who is welcome online?

Who controls the Internet?

Is it safe and protected?

Who can succeed online?

Images | iStock/Grassetto, Buntsifte