K
Kathleen Martin
Guest
Are we on the cusp of yet another internet revolution? We are, according to technology experts gathered in Berlin for a conference organized by digital learning platform ada.
New technology could overhaul the web as we know it in the coming decade, they said — both when it comes to how it is built and how it looks.
On a technical level, tech idealists hope that blockchain technology will help build a new decentralized architecture underlying the internet. In this new "web3" era, the idea goes, users rather than a handful of tech giants would have control over their data, privacy, and what they create online.
"This reinvents how the internet is set up in the backend," Portugal-based author Shermin Voshmgir said. "It is a complete paradigm shift."
At the same time, companies around the world are working on technology to revolutionize the way we navigate the web.
In October 2021, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced to rebrand his tech behemoth as "Meta"
Their vision: Rather than scrolling through websites or apps, people will soon stroll virtually through a three-dimensional version of the internet dubbed the "metaverse" — a digital landscape of sorts where users can work, buy things or meet their friends, and where physical and digital realities converge.
"It will be a walk-in internet, so to speak," said Constanze Osei, who leads the society and innovation policy efforts for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland at US tech giant Meta, formerly known as Facebook.
But as companies like hers pour billions into developing that next generation of the internet, digital rights activists caution that the firms will eventually want to cash in on their investment — and that this could thwart efforts to give users more power over their digital selves.
"The metaverse could become the most invasive surveillance system ever created," said Micaela Mantegna, an Argentinian lawyer and digital rights researcher.
The evolution of the internet
To understand where the next generation of the internet could go wrong, it helps to look at how we got here.
As early as the 1960s, researchers began connecting computers around the world. But it wasn't until the 1990s that the invention of the world-wide-web and web browsers made the network available to anyone who was able to afford an internet connection.
Continue reading: https://www.dw.com/en/what-will-the-internet-of-the-future-look-like/a-63158651
New technology could overhaul the web as we know it in the coming decade, they said — both when it comes to how it is built and how it looks.
On a technical level, tech idealists hope that blockchain technology will help build a new decentralized architecture underlying the internet. In this new "web3" era, the idea goes, users rather than a handful of tech giants would have control over their data, privacy, and what they create online.
"This reinvents how the internet is set up in the backend," Portugal-based author Shermin Voshmgir said. "It is a complete paradigm shift."
At the same time, companies around the world are working on technology to revolutionize the way we navigate the web.
In October 2021, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced to rebrand his tech behemoth as "Meta"
Their vision: Rather than scrolling through websites or apps, people will soon stroll virtually through a three-dimensional version of the internet dubbed the "metaverse" — a digital landscape of sorts where users can work, buy things or meet their friends, and where physical and digital realities converge.
"It will be a walk-in internet, so to speak," said Constanze Osei, who leads the society and innovation policy efforts for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland at US tech giant Meta, formerly known as Facebook.
But as companies like hers pour billions into developing that next generation of the internet, digital rights activists caution that the firms will eventually want to cash in on their investment — and that this could thwart efforts to give users more power over their digital selves.
"The metaverse could become the most invasive surveillance system ever created," said Micaela Mantegna, an Argentinian lawyer and digital rights researcher.
The evolution of the internet
To understand where the next generation of the internet could go wrong, it helps to look at how we got here.
As early as the 1960s, researchers began connecting computers around the world. But it wasn't until the 1990s that the invention of the world-wide-web and web browsers made the network available to anyone who was able to afford an internet connection.
Continue reading: https://www.dw.com/en/what-will-the-internet-of-the-future-look-like/a-63158651
