Random thoughts
Monday, August 9, 2010
20 years Internet in Austria
Today we take ubiquitous Internet access for granted and feel lost when our network connection briefly drops. It wasn't always like that.
On August 10, 1990, Austria became connected to the Internet with a 64 Kbit/s leased line between Vienna University and CERN in Geneva. Having Internet connectivity at one university didn’t mean everything moved to the Internet immediately.
The first online service I had used was CompuServe in 1985 while visiting friends in the UK. Watching the characters and occasional block graphics slowly trickle in over an acoustic coupler at 300 baud transfer rate was exciting (and expensive for my host). Back home, the post and telecom’s BTX service and Mupid decoders promised a colorful world of online content at “high speed”, relatively speaking, but most of the online conversations still happened on FidoNet, which was the easiest way to get connected. “His Master’s Voice” and “Cuckoo’s Nest” were my favorite nodes. At university our VAX terminals in the labs continued to run on DECNet, as did the university administration system. We learned the ISO/OSI reference model and RPC over Ethernet, but no word of TCP/IP. At work my 3279 terminal eventually gave way to an IBM PS/2 with a 3270 network card, and some foresighted folks in our network group Advantis and in IBM Research started putting gateways in place to link the mostly SNA connected mainframes with the Internet. The BITFTP service Melinda Varian provided at Princeton University opened another window to the Internet world (belatedly, Melinda, thank you!)
Meanwhile Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau made the first proposal for a system they modestly called the World Wide Web in 1989, and further refined it in 1990.
I don’t recall when I got my first Internet e-mail address and access to the Internet gateways after signing agreements that I wouldn’t distribute commercial information over NSFNet and only use the Internet responsibly, but it was only in 1994 when I took notice of the first Website, the now defunct Trojan Room Coffee Machine at the University of Cambridge, and another year before I had my first homepage and my own domain. As many Websites those days would read, “Welcome to the Internet”.
Happy 20th anniversary to the Internet in Austria!
Related links:
On August 10, 1990, Austria became connected to the Internet with a 64 Kbit/s leased line between Vienna University and CERN in Geneva. Having Internet connectivity at one university didn’t mean everything moved to the Internet immediately.The first online service I had used was CompuServe in 1985 while visiting friends in the UK. Watching the characters and occasional block graphics slowly trickle in over an acoustic coupler at 300 baud transfer rate was exciting (and expensive for my host). Back home, the post and telecom’s BTX service and Mupid decoders promised a colorful world of online content at “high speed”, relatively speaking, but most of the online conversations still happened on FidoNet, which was the easiest way to get connected. “His Master’s Voice” and “Cuckoo’s Nest” were my favorite nodes. At university our VAX terminals in the labs continued to run on DECNet, as did the university administration system. We learned the ISO/OSI reference model and RPC over Ethernet, but no word of TCP/IP. At work my 3279 terminal eventually gave way to an IBM PS/2 with a 3270 network card, and some foresighted folks in our network group Advantis and in IBM Research started putting gateways in place to link the mostly SNA connected mainframes with the Internet. The BITFTP service Melinda Varian provided at Princeton University opened another window to the Internet world (belatedly, Melinda, thank you!)
Meanwhile Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau made the first proposal for a system they modestly called the World Wide Web in 1989, and further refined it in 1990.
I don’t recall when I got my first Internet e-mail address and access to the Internet gateways after signing agreements that I wouldn’t distribute commercial information over NSFNet and only use the Internet responsibly, but it was only in 1994 when I took notice of the first Website, the now defunct Trojan Room Coffee Machine at the University of Cambridge, and another year before I had my first homepage and my own domain. As many Websites those days would read, “Welcome to the Internet”.
Happy 20th anniversary to the Internet in Austria!
Related links:
- 20 Jahre Internet in at – Die Revolution fraß ihre Kinder (derstandard.at)
- 20 Jahre Internet in Österreich (Futurezone interview with Austrian Internet pioneer Peter Rastl)
- 20 Years of Internet in Austria/20 Years of ACOnet Infrastructure
Labels: austria, technology
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Internet Summit Austria 2009
Today I attended the Internet Summit Austria 2009 held by the Internet Service Providers Austria association at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The motto of the event was “We are Internet”, referring to the fact that the Internet is created by people and used by people.
ISPA chairman Andreas Koman opened the session with statistics about Internet use in Austria and an overview of current developments and challenges.
Claudia Bandion-Ortner, minister of justice, admitted her preference for paper files and reminded the audience that the Internet is not an area unregulated by law. There are legal issues specific to information technology, such as data theft and violation of data privacy rights. While fraudsters and other criminals use the Internet, most crimes are media neutral. One area that is closely linked to the Internet, though, is child pornography. Bandion-Ortner referred to the controversial German pilot for blocking access to illegal sites. Needless to say, the same filter technology could be used for censoring access to legitimate information or enforcing intellectual property rights.
Volker Grassmuck delivered a keynote about the reformation of intellectual property law in the digital age. Established “common sense” can block creativity and innovation. Some ideas worked well although most people would have assumed they wouldn’t:
On net neutrality Grassmuck mentioned a speech by FCC chairman Julius Genachowski and a refined view on the issue, with net neutrality but with network management to handle congestion or spam and with provisions for law enforcement, and transparency which would allow blocking or throttling certain types of traffic as long as customers are made aware.
There is no one solution that satisfies the needs of content producers, consumers and intermediaries. Working models will require a combination of an agreement between creative professionals and society, markets, free licenses, public subsidies and a “cultural flat rate”.
One of the conference gifts was, ironically, a USB stick with a locked down installation of Firefox using the Tor network to ensure privacy.
The keynote was followed by a lively discussion about intellectual property rights, including but not limited to compensation for the creator of content. The composer Johanna Doderer and the author Gerhard Ruiss pointed out that they want to maintain control over what happens with their works and reminded the audience that creative professionals are typically paid by how often their works sell. Georg Hitzenberger of Play.fm and Bettina Kann of the Austrian National Library outlined some of the challenges with obtaining rights for use in digital media and making content available. For example, the digital Web archive maintained by the Austrian National Library has unreasonably strict access requirements in selected locations only, one person at a time. Franz Schmidbauer touched on legal aspects and the adequacy of intellectual property rights enforcement.
MEP Eva Lichtenberger made an interesting comment about giving young people the ability to purchase digital media without requiring a credit card, quoting the large amounts spent on ringtones where suitable payment solutions are offered by telecom providers.
After the lunch break, Peter A. Gloor gave an entertaining presentation about “Coolhunting by Swarm Creativity” (that’s a lot of buzzwords for a title), explaining how their system combines different inputs–the wisdom of the crowd in the form of the Web, the wisdom of the swarms in the dynamics of fora and blogs, the knowledge in news and Wikipedia–to understand networks, trends and content. “Experts are right – in 50% of the cases. You never know which 50% you have.” swarmcreativity.net and ickn.org have good information about the concepts and the Condor software for non-commercial use.
Two panel discussions about social networks and business on the Internet concluded the agenda.
Claudia Bandion-Ortner, minister of justice, admitted her preference for paper files and reminded the audience that the Internet is not an area unregulated by law. There are legal issues specific to information technology, such as data theft and violation of data privacy rights. While fraudsters and other criminals use the Internet, most crimes are media neutral. One area that is closely linked to the Internet, though, is child pornography. Bandion-Ortner referred to the controversial German pilot for blocking access to illegal sites. Needless to say, the same filter technology could be used for censoring access to legitimate information or enforcing intellectual property rights.
Volker Grassmuck delivered a keynote about the reformation of intellectual property law in the digital age. Established “common sense” can block creativity and innovation. Some ideas worked well although most people would have assumed they wouldn’t:
- Shared space pioneered by Hans Moderman–“If you treat people like idiots, they will behave like idiots.”
- Shared code with the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
- Shared profits with the micro-payments of the Grameen bank– “People behave in a trustworthy way when they are trusted.”
On net neutrality Grassmuck mentioned a speech by FCC chairman Julius Genachowski and a refined view on the issue, with net neutrality but with network management to handle congestion or spam and with provisions for law enforcement, and transparency which would allow blocking or throttling certain types of traffic as long as customers are made aware.
There is no one solution that satisfies the needs of content producers, consumers and intermediaries. Working models will require a combination of an agreement between creative professionals and society, markets, free licenses, public subsidies and a “cultural flat rate”.
One of the conference gifts was, ironically, a USB stick with a locked down installation of Firefox using the Tor network to ensure privacy.
The keynote was followed by a lively discussion about intellectual property rights, including but not limited to compensation for the creator of content. The composer Johanna Doderer and the author Gerhard Ruiss pointed out that they want to maintain control over what happens with their works and reminded the audience that creative professionals are typically paid by how often their works sell. Georg Hitzenberger of Play.fm and Bettina Kann of the Austrian National Library outlined some of the challenges with obtaining rights for use in digital media and making content available. For example, the digital Web archive maintained by the Austrian National Library has unreasonably strict access requirements in selected locations only, one person at a time. Franz Schmidbauer touched on legal aspects and the adequacy of intellectual property rights enforcement.
MEP Eva Lichtenberger made an interesting comment about giving young people the ability to purchase digital media without requiring a credit card, quoting the large amounts spent on ringtones where suitable payment solutions are offered by telecom providers.
After the lunch break, Peter A. Gloor gave an entertaining presentation about “Coolhunting by Swarm Creativity” (that’s a lot of buzzwords for a title), explaining how their system combines different inputs–the wisdom of the crowd in the form of the Web, the wisdom of the swarms in the dynamics of fora and blogs, the knowledge in news and Wikipedia–to understand networks, trends and content. “Experts are right – in 50% of the cases. You never know which 50% you have.” swarmcreativity.net and ickn.org have good information about the concepts and the Condor software for non-commercial use.
Two panel discussions about social networks and business on the Internet concluded the agenda.
Labels: austria, events, technology, web2.0
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Absentee voting and security
The disputed presidential elections in Iran reminded me of an observation a few weeks ago when the European Union held elections for the European Parliament.
Absentee voting, and mail voting in particular, present some interesting security and privacy challenges. For the European election, voters who wanted to cast their vote outside of their electoral district could request absentee ballots to vote in other districts or by mail. In a commendable effort to make voting as convenient as possible, the administration only required name, address and passport number for requesting absentee ballots and delivered them to voters by regular mail, leaving ample room for misuse already.
But I was unpleasantly surprised when I found a sticker(!) on my mailbox indicating that “important electoral mail” had been delivered:
Well intended for sure, but in my opinion the service orientation really went overboard here. With all the trust in the administration, the electoral process and the people in our neighborhood, privacy and security concerns should be considered.
Absentee voting, and mail voting in particular, present some interesting security and privacy challenges. For the European election, voters who wanted to cast their vote outside of their electoral district could request absentee ballots to vote in other districts or by mail. In a commendable effort to make voting as convenient as possible, the administration only required name, address and passport number for requesting absentee ballots and delivered them to voters by regular mail, leaving ample room for misuse already.
But I was unpleasantly surprised when I found a sticker(!) on my mailbox indicating that “important electoral mail” had been delivered:
Well intended for sure, but in my opinion the service orientation really went overboard here. With all the trust in the administration, the electoral process and the people in our neighborhood, privacy and security concerns should be considered.
Friday, June 6, 2008
EURO 2008 in Austria and Switzerland about to start
The EURO 2008 will start tomorrow night with the opening matches in Basel and Geneva, followed by matches in Vienna and Klagenfurt on Sunday, not that I am interested in soccer or suddenly became overly patriotic (which probably wouldn't be a good idea based on what I read about our soccer team :-))
The only reason I care really is that our apartments are close to one of the venues, the Ernst Happel stadium, and we expect to see and hear crowds of fans passing by.
One of the positive side effects of the event was an improvement to the already excellent public transport system. The U2 metro line was extended to the stadium and will be extended further in the coming years. The upcoming event certainly added a little pressure to complete the extension on time.
The most notable change, however, has been the plethora of cars decorated with national flags, mostly Austrian, some foreign, and a few mixed. Signs to the stadium and the fan zone in the city center have popped up everywhere over the last few days, all kinds of merchandise are offered (anyone care for a football shaped loaf of EURO 2008 bread?), additional waste bins have been installed, and even the sausage stand around the corner looks much more colorful and inviting than usual.
We had actually planned to leave Vienna for the duration of the event and go on vacation but had to change our plans, more on that later. Let's hope for some exciting matches to please the fans and most importantly for a peaceful event.
To probe further: Official UEFA EURO 2008 Website
The only reason I care really is that our apartments are close to one of the venues, the Ernst Happel stadium, and we expect to see and hear crowds of fans passing by.
One of the positive side effects of the event was an improvement to the already excellent public transport system. The U2 metro line was extended to the stadium and will be extended further in the coming years. The upcoming event certainly added a little pressure to complete the extension on time.
The most notable change, however, has been the plethora of cars decorated with national flags, mostly Austrian, some foreign, and a few mixed. Signs to the stadium and the fan zone in the city center have popped up everywhere over the last few days, all kinds of merchandise are offered (anyone care for a football shaped loaf of EURO 2008 bread?), additional waste bins have been installed, and even the sausage stand around the corner looks much more colorful and inviting than usual.
We had actually planned to leave Vienna for the duration of the event and go on vacation but had to change our plans, more on that later. Let's hope for some exciting matches to please the fans and most importantly for a peaceful event.
To probe further: Official UEFA EURO 2008 Website