[Esip-preserve] The End of the Internet?

[Bruce Barkstrom via Esip-preserve]

The new Atlantic has an interesting article
on the potential fracturing of the current Internet:

Goldstein, G. M., 2014: The End of the Internet? :
How regional networks may replace the World Wide Web,
The Atlantic, July/August 2014, pp. 24-27

The article discusses the natural inclination of
states to control things, including data resources.
One of the researchers quoted by the author says
"We must get used to the idea that the standardized
internet is the past, but not the future. ... And that
future is a federated internet, not a uniform one."
One implication would appear to be that the notion
of stable, persistent items accessible by one naming
convention may not be where things are headed.
On the other hand, perhaps there's an opportunity
for "new intermediary technologies that would
essentially allow the different Internets to talk
to each other, and allow users to navigate the
different legal and regulatory environments."

Anyway, this would certainly make information
preservation a more interesting prospect.  One
perspective might be the replacement of the
intellectual environment in Europe when local
languages replaced Latin as the standard language
for scholarly discourse.

Bruce B.
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