POLICY :: Towards the Next Generation Internet (archived)
This subsite was archived when this portal was restructured in early 2007. For up to date information, please visit the portal's Research & Innovation theme.
Towards the Next Generation Internet
The Web and email are just two applications which can be run across the Internet. More are on the way, and European mastery of them will be essential if Europe is to reap the benefits of the Information Society.
Tomorrow’s internet will play a crucial role in developing the EU’s vision of Ambient Intelligence – where Information Society services are available via intuitive interfaces to anyone, anywhere.
Tomorrow’s internet will therefore be:
- Faster (Broadband) and more Secure, two eEurope 2005 policy priorities;
- available everywhere, on more platforms: Making Information Society services more accessible to more people means liberating them from the ‘tyranny of the PC’. In a "multiplatform" approach, both mobile internet devices and digital television could play key roles;
- smarter: While today’s internet is good at carrying data, it does not have any inherent intelligence - it does not understand the data it carries. The Semantic Web will change all that.
- more powerful: the IST research programme is also helping Europe build Grids, which are going to revolutionise computing as profoundly as email and the Web revolutionised communications and publishing;
- empowered by IPv6. IPv6 is a key technology for the Next Generation Internet. Rolling it out as quickly and as widely as possible is essential to achieve the above objectives.