Forks in the digital road : key decisions in the history of the internet / Scott J. Shackelford and Scott O. Bradner ; foreword by Vint Cerf.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shackelford, Scott J., author.

Bradner, Scott O., 1944- author.

Contributor:

Cerf, Vinton G., 1943- writer of foreword.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Internet--History.

Internet.

Internet--Government policy--United States.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 207 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2024]

Summary:

"Science fiction has long featured various visions of cyberspace. From the original "shared hallucination" in William Gibson's Neuromancer, which first coined the term 'cyberspace,' to the dystopian metaverse of the Matrix, authors and fans alike have been fascinated by how interconnected technologies that are being developed today will shape our collective future, for better and worse. Less common is an urge to look back and understand how decisions made by a relatively small number of entrepreneurs, graduate students, researchers, and government officials have given us the Internet we have. But if we don't know where we've been, it's tough to understand where we are, to say nothing of where we're headed. This book revisits some of these key decision points in the history of cybersecurity and Internet governance, revealing the potential alternative options that existed at the time, and engage with that perennial question - what if? What if encryption had been built into the Internet's architecture from the beginning? What if Section 230, which shields Internet platforms from civil liability, had taken a different form? What if Tim-Berners Lee had taken the advice of counsel and patented the World Wide Web? And what if the U.S. government had not helped to establish the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in 1998, or elected not to launch a new era of cyber conflict in 2006? This book answers these questions, and many more"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Setting the stage: core technical decisions that created the internet

"Layer 9" : core policy decisions that gave us the internet we have

A flaw in the design

The web for free

Regulating online speech

Why we're still living in 1995 : ISP wars and net neutrality

What passed for internet governance

Taking stock : the internet we deserve.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Shackelford, Scott J. Forks in the digital road

ISBN:

9780197617762

019761776X

9780197617779

0197617778

OCLC:

1409617372

Publisher Number:

99996452472