[CAnet - news] Marriage of Next generation Internet and Cyber-infrastructure

For more information on this item please visit my blog at 
http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
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 [Andrew McAfee at Harvard University has an excellent blog on Enterprise
2.0 discussing SOA, Web 2.0.  In his latest posting I think he makes an
excellent point that was reinforced by Van Jacobson's talk at Google that
next generation of the Internet will be focused on "platforms" rather than
"channels". From two opposite starting points we are gradually seeing a
convergence in architecture for both cyber-infrastructure and for next
generation Internet.  To date a lot of next generation Internet and telecom
architecture has been focused on communication channels and all the
challenges they impose in terns of security, reliability, routing, overlays,
VPNs, etc etc.  But if we start to think of Internet applications and
services as platforms such as SOA architectures and peer to peer
applications like Joost, Skype, SIP-P2P, etc then the channels become an
integral part of constructing information and service platforms. See
www.uclp.ca for more information.  We are less interested in getting from
here to there as with traditional telecom and Internet point to point binary
channels - and more about building collaborative platforms and service with
Web 2.0, P2P and SOA. Some excerpts from  Andrew McAfee's blog-- BSA]


http://blog.hbs.edu/faculty/amcafee/index.php/faculty_amcafee_v3/a_technolog
y_flip_test_introducing_channels_in_a_world_of_platforms/

A Technology Flip Test: Introducing Channels in a World of Platforms

The writer and  and cultural observer Stanley Crouch, when asking his
audience to consider a given issue, sometimes proposes a 'flip test' in
which important elements of the status quo are reversed.  It's an effective
way to unmask hidden assumptions and double standards.  And it can work
quite well for questions around technology.

One useful flip test consists of mentally switching the order of appearance
of a new technology and an existing one.  At a conference years back I was
sitting on a panel that was asked to talk about future of the book.  As the
discussion was heating up about the inevitability of the electric media,
someone on the panel (I wish it had been me) proposed a flip test.  He said
"Let's say the world has only e-books, then someone introduces this
technology called 'paper.'  It's cheap, portable, lasts essentially forever,
and requires no batteries.  You can't write over it once it's been written
on, but you buy more very cheaply.  Wouldn't that technology come to
dominate the market?"  It's fair to say that comment changed the direction
of the panel.

So as talk about the risks and possible downsides of Enterprise 2.0
technologies continues, a flip test might bring some clarity to the
discussion.  This flip test consists of imagining that communication
platforms (like E2.0 tools) are already in place, and then channels show up
within corporations.

Most current collaboration technologies, including email, instant messaging,
and cell phone texting are what I call channels.  They essentially keep
communications private.  People beyond the sender and receiver(s) can't view
the contents of information sent over channels, and usually don't even know
that communication has taken place.  Information sent via channels isn't
widely visible, consultable, or searchable.  And no record exists of who
sent what to whom, so channels leave no trace of collaboration patterns.  

The new generation of collaboration technologies that are underpinning Web
2.0 and Enterprise 2.0, in contrast, are all platforms.  They're
repositories of digital content where contributions are globally visible
(everyone with access to the platform can see them) and persistent (they
stick around, and so can be consulted and searched for).  Access to
platforms can be restricted (to, for example, only members of an R&D lab or
a team working on a particular deal) so that proprietary content isn't
universally visible within a company, but the goal of a platform technology
is to make content widely and perennially available to its members. A lot of
content on this blog and other writing on W2.0 and E2.0 has articulated the
desirable properties of digital platforms.

So here's the flip test:  imagine that current corporate collaboration and
communication technologies were exclusively E2.0 platforms -- blogs, wikis,
etc. --  and all of a sudden a crop of new channel technologies --  email,
instant messaging, text messaging --  became available. In other words,
imagine the inverse of the present situation.  What would happen?  How, in
the flip-test universe, would the new channel technologies be received?

I imagine two main outcomes.  First, users would adopt the new channel
technologies for private communications, but not for much more than that.
They'd quickly see that it's less efficient to use channels, and less
helpful to their colleagues.  In other words, whether they were thinking
selfishly or selflessly they'd keep using platforms.  And the endowment
effect would be working in favor of the platform technologies they're
already using.

Second, many constituencies would hate the new technologies, and strenuously
advocate that they be kept out.  In a company accustomed to platforms,
introducing channels would be perceived as asking for trouble.  They'd be
seen as tools that would let sensitive information leave the company and
jump over Chinese walls, let sexual harassment and other inappropriate
behavior flourish below the radar, and let people waste as much time as they
wanted to chatting with each other about irrelevant stuff.  What's even
worse, compliance officers and other managers would feel largely powerless
to stop this bad behavior, because channel traffic is so hard to monitor.
They couldn't read all employee emails, and sampling would be unlikely to
catch all the problems quickly enough to head them off.  

For managers accustomed to platforms where all contributions are immediately
and universally visible and traceable, channel technologies would seem
scary.  I could imagine that a common response, upon hearing about them,
would be something like "No way.  The risks of email and IM are too great.
If people need to talk privately, let them pick up the phone.  We'll set up
a few email accounts so that we can exchange information with the outside
world, but we're sticking with our platforms for internal communication."

What does this flip test reveal?  To me, it indicates that many companies
are paying far too much attention to the possible risks and downsides of
E2.0 platforms, given that they've already deployed technologies that have
much greater potential for abuse.  I'm not advocating that channel
technologies should be shut off and entirely replaced by platforms; I'm just
trying to highlight the relative risks of the two technology categories.
The flip test is a good way to do this.  

What do you think?  Am I missing something, or downplaying some important
downsides about E2.0?  Or is the flip test telling us what I think it is?




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