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Network Working Group V. Cerf Request for Comments: 3271 Internet Society Category: Informational April 2002

                    The Internet is for Everyone

Status of this Memo

 This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
 not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
 memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

 This document expresses the Internet Society's ideology that the
 Internet really is for everyone.  However, it will only be such  if
 we make it so.

1. The Internet is for everyone

 How easy to say - how hard to achieve!

 How have we progressed towards this noble goal?

 The Internet is in its 14th year of annual doubling since 1988.
 There are over 150 million hosts on the Internet and an estimated 513
 million users, world wide.

 By 2006, the global Internet is likely to exceed the size of the
 global telephone network, if it has not already become the telephone
 network by virtue of IP telephony.  Moreover, as many as 1.5 billion
 Internet-enabled appliances will have joined traditional servers,
 desk tops and laptops as part of the Internet family.  Pagers, cell
 phones and personal digital assistants may well have merged to become
 the new telecommunications tools of the next decade.  But even at the
 scale of the telephone system, it is sobering to realize that only
 half of the Earth's population has ever made a telephone call.

 It is estimated that commerce on the network will reach somewhere
 between $1.8T and $3.2T by 2003.  That is only two years from now
 (but a long career in Internet years).

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 The number of Internet users will likely reach over 1000 million by
 the end of the year 2005, but that is only about 16% of the world's
 population.  By 2047 the world's population may reach about 11
 billion.  If only 25% of the then world's population is on the
 Internet, that will be nearly 3 billion users.

 As high bandwidth access becomes the norm through digital subscriber
 loops, cable modems and digital terrestrial and satellite radio
 links, the convergence of media available on the Internet will become
 obvious.  Television, radio, telephony and the traditional print
 media will find counterparts on the Internet - and will be changed in
 profound ways by the presence of software that transforms the one-way
 media into interactive resources, shareable by many.

 The Internet is proving to be one of the most powerful amplifiers of
 speech ever invented.  It offers a global megaphone for voices that
 might otherwise be heard only feebly, if at all.  It invites and
 facilitates multiple points of view and dialog in ways
 unimplementable by the traditional, one-way, mass media.

 The Internet can facilitate democratic practices in unexpected ways.
 Did you know that proxy voting for stock shareholders is now commonly
 supported on the Internet?  Perhaps we can find additional ways in
 which to simplify and expand the voting franchise in other domains,
 including the political, as access to Internet increases.

 The Internet is becoming the repository of all we have accomplished
 as a society.  It has become a kind of disorganized "Boswell" of the
 human spirit.  Be thoughtful in what you commit to email, news
 groups, and other Internet communication channels - it may well turn
 up in a web search some day.  Thanks to online access to common
 repositories, shared databases on the Internet are acting to
 accelerate the pace of research progress.

 The Internet is moving off the planet!  Already, interplanetary
 Internet is part of the NASA Mars mission program now underway at the
 Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  By 2008 we should have a well-functioning
 Earth-Mars network that serves as a nascent backbone of an inter-
 planetary system of Internets - InterPlaNet is a network of
 Internets!  Ultimately, we will have interplanetary Internet relays
 in polar solar orbit so that they can see most of the planets and
 their associated interplanetary gateways for most, if not all of the
 time.

 The Internet Society is launching a new campaign to facilitate access
 to and use of Internet everywhere.  The campaign slogan is "Internet
 is for everyone," but there is much work needed to accomplish this
 objective.

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 Internet is for everyone - but it won't be if it isn't affordable by
 all that wish to partake of its services, so we must dedicate
 ourselves to making the Internet as affordable as other
 infrastructures so critical to our well-being.  While we follow
 Moore's Law to reduce the cost of Internet-enabling equipment, let us
 also seek to stimulate regulatory policies that take advantage of the
 power of competition to reduce costs.

 Internet is for everyone - but it won't be if Governments restrict
 access to it, so we must dedicate ourselves to keeping the network
 unrestricted, unfettered and unregulated.  We must have the freedom
 to speak and the freedom to hear.

 Internet is for everyone - but it won't be if it cannot keep up with
 the explosive demand for its services, so we must dedicate ourselves
 to continuing its technological evolution and development of the
 technical standards the lie at the heart of the Internet revolution.
 Let us dedicate ourselves to the support of the Internet Architecture
 Board, the Internet Engineering Steering Group, the Internet Research
 Task Force, the Internet Engineering Task Force and other
 organizations dedicated to developing Internet technology as they
 drive us forward into an unbounded future. Let us also commit
 ourselves to support the work of the Internet Corporation for
 Assigned Names and Numbers - a key function for the Internet's
 operation.

 Internet is for everyone - but it won't be until in every home, in
 every business, in every school, in every library, in every hospital
 in every town and in every country on the Globe, the Internet can be
 accessed without limitation, at any time and in every language.

 Internet is for everyone - but it won't be if it is too complex to be
 used easily by everyone.  Let us dedicate ourselves to the task of
 simplifying the Internet's interfaces and to educating all that are
 interested in its use.

 Internet is for everyone - but it won't be if legislation around the
 world creates a thicket of incompatible laws that hinder the growth
 of electronic commerce, stymie the protection of intellectual
 property, and stifle freedom of expression and the development of
 market economies.  Let us dedicate ourselves to the creation of a
 global legal framework in which laws work across national boundaries
 to reinforce the upward spiral of value that the Internet is capable
 of creating.

Cerf Informational [Page 3] RFC 3271 The Internet is for Everyone April 2002

 Internet is for everyone - but it won't be if its users cannot
 protect their privacy and the confidentiality of transactions
 conducted on the network.  Let us dedicate ourselves to the
 proposition that cryptographic technology sufficient to protect
 privacy from unauthorized disclosure should be freely available,
 applicable and exportable.  Moreover, as authenticity lies at the
 heart of trust in networked environments, let us dedicate ourselves
 to work towards the development of authentication methods and systems
 capable of supporting electronic commerce through the Internet.

 Internet is for everyone - but it won't be if parents and teachers
 cannot voluntarily create protected spaces for our young people for
 whom the full range of Internet content still may be inappropriate.
 Let us dedicate ourselves to the development of technologies and
 practices that offer this protective flexibility to those who accept
 responsibility for providing it.

 Internet is for everyone - but it won't be if we are not responsible
 in its use and mindful of the rights of others who share its wealth.
 Let us dedicate ourselves to the responsible use of this new medium
 and to the proposition that with the freedoms the Internet enables
 comes a commensurate responsibility to use these powerful enablers
 with care and consideration.  For those who choose to abuse these
 privileges, let us dedicate ourselves to developing the necessary
 tools to combat the abuse and punish the abuser.

 Internet is for everyone - even Martians!

 I hope Internauts everywhere will join with the Internet Society and
 like-minded organizations to achieve this, easily stated but hard to
 attain goal.  As we pass the milestone of the beginning of the third
 millennium, what better theme could we possibly ask for than making
 the Internet the medium of this new millennium?

 Internet IS for everyone - but it won't be unless WE make it so.

2. Security Considerations

 This document does not treat security matters, except for reference
 to the utility of cryptographic techniques to protect confidentiality
 and privacy.

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3. References

 [1] Internet Society - www.isoc.org

 [2] Internet Engineering Task Force - www.ietf.org

 [3] Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers -
     www.ICANN.org

 [4] Cerf's slides: www.wcom.com/cerfsup

 [5] Interplanetary Internet - www.ipnsig.org

 [6] Internet history - livinginternet.com

4. Author's Addresses

 Vint Cerf
 former Chairman and President, Internet Society
 January 2002

 Sr. Vice President, Internet Architecture and Technology
 WorldCom
 22001 Loudoun County Parkway, F2-4115
 Ashburn, VA 20147

 EMail: vinton.g.cerf@wcom.com

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5. Full Copyright Statement

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

 This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
 and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
 kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
 included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
 developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
 copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
 followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
 English.

 The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

 This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
 "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
 TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
 BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
 HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
 MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Acknowledgement

 Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
 Internet Society.

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