EIFFEL whitepaper available

The EIFFEL think tank has published its whitepaper entitled Starting the Discussion. The paper is a summary of largely the first EIFFEL think tank meeting in Frankfurt in October 2008. It was originally written in preparation to the second EIFFEL think tank meeting in London in February 2009, then refined with comments from think tank members until its public release.

The main point of the whitepaper is that future Internet research should focus on the processes we are using to conduct research: given the large-scale existence of the Internet in our times, the style of research towards the Future Internet must take into account the intertwined issues stemming from technology, economics and society. It therefore requires inter-disciplinary approaches, focus on sustaining innovation while allowing getting from here to there (i.e., evolution although in possible larger step sizes than we have seen in the past). It requires a dialogue among ‘camps’ that have not much been talking to each other in the past, e.g., technologist and economists. The role of the current Internet also poses questions on future governance and the impact on governing people in general.

To me, the whitepaper is a good first step to highlight the issues. But (much) more is needed to make the required dialogue happen. One result of the EIFFEL meeting in London has been the creation of the wiki-based site FIpedia.org. This site is intended to serve as an online debate and discussion stage. It is split into three main areas:

• Repository: this holds a growing pool of relevant state-of-the-art for Future Internet research.
• Architecture Forum: this serves as an online venue to discuss architectural issues, such as longevity, design of systems and more. It was recognized in London that current conference venues less and less provide such stage, which is why this part of FIpedia.org was created.
• Agreement on Disagreements: one of the hard problems of the Future Internet is agreeing on what we can disagree on (and therefore start developing solutions). This part of FIpedia.org provides a stage where these disagreements are formulated and debated (in the form of viewpoints). The wiki allows for others to comment on the disagreement or particular viewpoints, similar to blogs.

Please have a look at the site. It is free to read but needs registration for contributions (which in turn require a confirmed email address).