What will the internet of the future look like?

A one-day workshop on Next Generation Internet

2 March 2017, Wolfson College Cambridge

9am - 4pm

The Centre for Science and Policy is working with DG CONNECT at the European Commission and the Cambridge Computer Laboratory to deliver a workshop on Next Generation Internet.

*If you would like to join us for this event, please send an email to Jackie Ouchikh* jackie.ouchikh@csap.cam.ac.uk.

The future internet will no longer just be smart phone apps and the Cloud, largely deployed in the richest 20% of the world for knowledge, fun and profit. It will be the Internet of drones, the Internet of AIs, the Internet of the developing world. It will also be the Internet of truth, lies and mixed realities. It will continue, as today, to be unevenly distributed.

Past debates about future internet architecture have centred around technological details of improving the security, resilience, and cost of the net, largely cementing its existence as one of the great utilities, alongside water and electricity. However, the net connects computers, which are humanity's most flexible machines. Thus, the net can subsume many more things than mere utilities do. It behoves us to consider this future far more carefully, and this event is one attempt to begin that sort of conversation.

Who should attend

Working in collaboration with Professor Jon Crowcroft and Dr Jat Singh at the Cambridge Computer Laboratory, the workshop will bring together policy professionals from government and industry, as well as experts from academia and beyond such as lawyers, economists and computer scientists.

Next Generation Internet

The European Commission’s Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative, to be launched in 2018, will address both the technological and policy aspects of the future of the internet. Preparation for this initiative is now underway, with an open online consultation and a series of workshops taking place across the EU. The range of issues to be explored is diverse, ranging from cybersecurity and the ‘Internet of Things’ to threats and possibilities for the infrastructure behind the internet.

Purpose of the workshop

The purpose of this workshop is to brainstorm novel ideas for innovative research topics in the domain, and to have an open and multidisciplinary discussion of the approach the EC are taking in preparing for the launch, for example:

• the process (open consultations, engagement between policy and research)
• the type of research topics (technology- / socially-driven)
• the tools to be used

*If you would like to join us for this event, please send an email to Jackie Ouchikh* jackie.ouchikh@csap.cam.ac.uk.