EspañolAt first came the connection problems, then began the boom of e-commerce, later that of blogs and that of the called Web 2.0 with the emergence of social networks and the explosion of mobility almost at once. Today the challenge of the Internet goes beyond technology and applications: it is nothing but sustainable web spaces.
The Internet has been an absolute transformation of many sectors, for example digital content, generating many efficiencies but also opening up new challenges in terms of the business model.” Up Miguel Pérez Subías, president of the Association of Users of Internet (AUI) the evolution of the Internet.
Pérez Subías says that the rise of the network has also brought with it a whole globalization of business processes: “this has caused the market to open up to everyone for many companies that previously could only aspire to sell in their country of origin; however, it also implies fierce competition for them. Only a few, privileged ones, can compete globally.”
Towards the Web 4.4
If we thought that the latest version of the Internet market was the 2.0 domain or even 3.0 we were wrong. Pérez Subías is already talking about Web 4.4, which includes three main elements: “cooperation, collective intelligence and mobility in the broad sense, since we no longer refer only to mobile devices for use but to other types of accessories such as Google Glass, with internet connection”.
The next step of the network will therefore be the integration of this and the technology that makes it possible in people’s habitats. “Technology gets into our skin,” says the AUI President. “the Internet is entering a new dimension, characterized by an almost invisible use of technology. The future of the network lies in the integration of the devices, in the fact that the hardware becomes invisible.
Challenges
However, there are many challenges ahead for the network of networks. Apart from the sustainability of his business models, the expert also highlights another: “the improvement of food sources. Today they consume a lot of terminal energy. When these can last a month instead of a day, everything will change a lot.” And, of course, another challenge is to move forward in so-called collective intelligence, “which will not only be a challenge but an opportunity.”
As far as connection is concerned, the challenges right now are to make the 4G mobility connection technology and the deployment of optical fibre, which are halfway in Spain, universally possible.
Of course, not all are technological challenges: “legislation has to evolve a lot. We are used to territorial laws, but the Internet is global and regulation must be global. Of course, there is another subject for debate, according to Pérez Subías, which governs the Internet. In addition, because there are loopholes there are many people who try to take advantage of them and when they do something criminal on the web they are located in places where they are not persecuted.”
On the other hand, privacy is another of the aspects affected by the network and the rise of social networks, etc. “the fact that everything is currently accessible raises situations that did not exist before and issues arise that need to be resolved such as the right to forget, to privacy in the network, etc.”, he says.
