In the early days of networked computing systems, connectivity was reserved to special research departments in government and academia. From these meager beginnings, the Internet expanded into a global resource that is today utilized by more than three billion people. The far-reach of Internet connectivity has proven to be a significant building block for global economic development.
Today, hundreds of millions of users harness the power of the Internet wherever they go with mobile devices: smartphones, tablets, wearable devices and other Internet-capable tools. In our modern world, many people leverage their mobile devices as a primary (if not only) means of accessing the Internet.
To Internet Society President and CEO Kathy Brown, mobile Internet access may hold the key to driving the next billion users to the Internet. In a recent blog post, Brown suggests that the secret behind the transformative power of the Internet is its ability to connect anybody anywhere to the same set of resources.
“The rise of mobile will unleash the creativity and innovation of a whole new generation of Internet citizens, which will benefit all of us.”
The mobile Internet unleashes the free Internet from the confines of space and location. To address this phenomenon, Michael Kende, the Chief Economist for the Internet Society, has authored a report on mobile Internet usage around the globe, which brings some fascinating research to light.
The report teases out the implications of the increasing amount of Internet traffic from mobile platforms and paints a picture of how current mobile infrastructure must adapt in the face of growing demand. Brown responds, “If the next billion are coming online as a result of mobile, then it is incumbent upon us to make sure that the technology does not limit them in any way. In particular, the mobile Internet should remain open to enable the permission-less innovation that has driven the continuous growth and evolution of the Internet to date, including the emergence of the mobile Internet itself.”
As mobile devices make dynamic new Internet resources available to more users, the task of keeping the Internet safe, stable, open and interoperable is of greater importance than ever. For decades, open standards that align to the OpenStand Principles have played a critical role in creating an open internet and driving open innovation. In the future open standards will serve as the essential building blocks for future development serving the expansive Internet community.
As the global community weighs in on the future of the Internet, we encourage OpenStand Advocates to share OpenStand and the OpenStand principles with friends and colleagues, asserting their importance in the technology development that will impact our future Internet. To stand in support of the OpenStand principles, interested persons may:
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