Internet

10 Oct 23

The Net Neutrality Debate Is Back!

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

On 7 September, the U.S. Senate confirmed Anna Gomez as the newest commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), by a vote of 55-43. The successful confirmation returned the FCC’s count of commissioners to its normal five, filling a seat that had remained empty ever since former chairman Ajit Pai…

05 Sep 23

Cory Doctorow: Interoperability Can Save the Open Web

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

In his new book The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation, author Cory Doctorow presents a strong case for disrupting Big Tech. While the dominance of Internet platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Amazon is often taken for granted, Doctorow argues that these walled gardens are fenced…

20 Jun 23

Bob Kahn on the Birth of “Inter-networking”

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

IEEE Spectrum recently published a profile of Vint Cerf, who together with Bob Kahn developed what later became known as TCP/IP, the suite of protocols that power the Internet. That article didn’t detail the events leading up to their influential technical collaboration, though. So IEEE Spectrum talked with Kahn to…

14 Jun 23

Vodafone/Three merger proposal sparks national security concerns

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Vodafone will own the majority of the business with 51 per cent, while CK Hutchison will own 49 per cent. The firms first announced they were in talks last October, but the finalised merger agreement will now trigger a lengthy review process by UK regulatory boards. In 2021, the Competition…

19 May 23

IEEE Celebrates Engineering Pioneers and Emerging Technologies

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

IEEE’s Vision, Innovation, and Challenges Summit and Honors Ceremony showcases emerging technologies and celebrates engineering pioneers who laid the groundwork for many of today’s electronic devices. I attended this year’s events, held on 4 and 5 May in Atlanta. Here are highlights of the sessions, which are available on IEEE.tv.…

07 May 23

Vint Cerf on 3 Mistakes He Made in TCP/IP

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Vint Cerf, the recipient of the 2023 IEEE Medal of Honor for “co-creating the Internet architecture and providing sustained leadership in its phenomenal growth in becoming society’s critical infrastructure,” didn’t have a perfect view of the Internet’s future. In hindsight, there are a few things he admits he got wrong.…

30 Apr 23

Meet Mr. Internet: Vint Cerf

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

It was June 1973. For the past three months, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn had been working together on a problem Kahn had been pondering for some time: how to connect ground-based military computers seamlessly to communications satellites and mobile radios. The ARPANET and the way it handled communications was…

21 Apr 23

This Harvard Law Professor is an Expert on Digital Technology

Metallurgy & Material Science

Jonathan L. Zittrain wears many hats. An expert on the Internet, digital technology, law, and public policy, he regularly contributes to public discussions about what digital tech is doing to us and what we should do about it—most recently around the governance of AI and the incentives that shape major…

30 Mar 23

Rural businesses struggle with local infrastructure, transport and skills

Civil, Structural & Architecture, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

According to a survey of more than 900 SMEs from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), 27 per cent expect their turnover to decrease over the next year, while only 30 per cent plan to increase investment in technology and R&D Almost two in three (64 per cent) believe they…

27 Mar 23

The Do-or-Die Moments That Determined the Fate of the Internet

Computer & Information Technology

New technologies often are introduced through spectacle: Think of the historic demonstrations carried out by Faraday, Edison, Morse, and Bell, or, more recently, by Steve Jobs onstage in his black turtleneck at Macworld 2007, holding the first iPhone. Indeed, hyped-up product announcements at industry events like the Consumer Electronics Show…