I spent an inspirational morning with The Web Science Institute at their Southampton University Campus.  For 10 years the institute has strived to be  a "globally recognised authority on the development and social impact of Web technologies", and was the brain-child of luminaries, Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt.  One month into the consultation, surely this was an ideal place to share the latest findings from the Next Generation Internet initiative!

 So what did her team make of the findings of the NGI consultation so far? I quizzed them on the ethics of AI, the assurance of personal data spaces and the importance of a manufacturing base.

Artificial Intelligence

Finding  1) For Artificial Intelligence the key challenges are in ethics and privacy (e.g.an ethical framework to cover legal issues related to liability, transparency of algorithms and data use and accountability), and Human-machine-relations (e.g. living with greater autonomy for the "machines").

Dr Mark Weal's views and those of colleague Clare Walsh were very much in line with these.  "It's not the machines, it's those behind the machines " that will influence our relationship with more autonomous systems.  The underlying message is that we can't leave it to the technologists, but the deep involvement of the social sciences is needed.

Broadly they were encouraged by the above finding and the clear majority view that's formed.  The criticism for the consultation however is that so few of the younger (18-24 year old) groups have been involved.  'Is the internet the next area where the older generation limits the opportunities for the younger ones?' wandered Mark.  This is a useful point.  In Great Britain at least, home ownership is now out of reach of the younger generation.  Free education is a thing of the past.  All the vices of my generation (I am in my 40's) are being priced (or legislated) out of reach for this generation too.  On the reverse side healthcare is following fast with a rapidly developing two tiered system.

I sensed a genuine concern that the internet has the potential to be (at least) two tiered with the majority of the losers being on the generally more exploitable 18 year old and younger generation.

I hope to see more of this age group involved in the consultation before my final report in the second week of January.

Personal Data Spaces

Finding 2) The main challenges for personal data spaces concern infrastructure (e.g. the creationof protocols and systems that allow data to be secure whilst still enabling needed innovation) and keeping data secure (e.g. assuring that users are equipped to protect and manage their own data easily).

Professor Wendy Hall is a Director of the Web Science Institute and appears frustrated by the "Splinternet" as the dream of truly distributed services and data stores is being disrupted by the internet giants treating both as "assets" and hiving them into their own, exclusive silos.  Under Wendy's lead the institute clearly focuses as much on people as it does technology.

The institute itself is concerned with personal data spaces and its founder, Tim Berners-Lee's, work is now dedicated in this area pursuing an initiative called "Solid" which addresses many of the concerns highlighted in the consultation and Wendy's views above. 

The need for a manufacturing base

Observation 1) - A personal observations from me really; Surely the fabulous interfaces have driven our relationship with the internet and shaped the way it works.  Are we therefore held back in Europe by a lack of inspirational interface product design and manufacture?

On the interface side, Professor Les Carr's view was that tangible technology was becoming more important (have you noticed how well old vinyl records sell these days?).

Virtual Reality, and its little brother Augmented Reality, are still accessed through interfaces that are too clunky to really become a part of daily life. Until a time when the internet of things embeds into our daily objects (clothes for example) these interface technologies will only be on the fringe. 

Regards the Internet of Things Dr Weal pointed to the Gartner Hype curve, predicting that disillusionment with the current state of things (how groovy is it really to have a self serving fridge?) is a pre-cursor to the latter take-off of this technology as it becomes more "embedded" and becomes exploited .  But this all awaits a publically compelling use case enabled by greater functionality into ever smaller sensors.

So in order to exploit this future potential, are we disadvantaged by not having a big device manufacturer in Europe?

"No", says Carr. "In device manufacture it's a race toward zero cost units" he said. He prefers that local expertise should aim at the knowledge economy - innovating creating and licensing the algorithms. The manufacturing battles can be left to those in the far East while the real value can be realised through licensing of technology developed within Europe.  Though we talked about our biggest chip designer, ARM, and their success in creative design, it did expose a flaw in this idea... ARM have now been sold to Softbank in Japan for $32billion! It seems knowledge is now as easy to sell as it is to lend.   Part of a Eastward knowledge drain?

What's left to know?

What a great opportunity to meet people who spend their careers thinking and contributing to the internet!  But it's the same every time I meet people with bigger brains than me.  It  leads to more questions!  Can you help me with these?

1) Is the trend now that the innovation is following the manufacturing and moving East? 

2) Could a future for Europe based on licensing algorithms be doomed as the brains that created them get purchased and transferred?

3) Does this also mean that any social construct we build around the internet will be lost as just the profitable parts of the transferred business gets "broken-up"?  Lets watch ARM as an example.

3) Can we really put ourselves in the shoes of the Next Generation when it comes to internet?  Are we just inventing ways to "lock-it-down"?  How can we involve younger people in this consultation and prevent the two-tier internet?

4) Is there any way we can assure that the future AI and all those autonomous decisions will be based upon principles that treat both people and machines with respect? 

5) Do the Google and Facebook silos really disrupt the benefits of a more open internet?

My great thanks to the Institute for their time on a very busy graduation day.  I hope their thoughts will stimulate you further!   

Please have a go at answering my questions above, then dive into the consultation!