Communications of the ACM

have a highly automated house that doesn’t work when it’s not connected to the Internet. So, you need to have local capability independent of or in addition to interactions through the public Internet.

There are still more people in the world offline than on. How will connecting these individuals help neglected and underserved communities around the world?

MARTIN CASADO: I agree with the United Nations in the view that connectivity to the Internet is a basic human right. Beyond the intrinsic benefits of better communication within the community, it provides access to the grand marketplace that’s erupted within the Internet. In many ways, that can become a great equalizer. If it costs me less to produce a good or a service, and the distribution cost (in this case the Internet) is the same, then I have an advantage in an open market. Of course, it isn’t as simple as that, but it certainly does inject underserved communities directly into the economic nervous system in which they can participate.

GEORGE ROUSSOS: The two main factors limiting the ability of people to access the Internet are affordability and lack of literacy and language skills. While getting online can provide benefits, connectivity is not a panacea for all ills. Lifting these communities out of poverty and getting the basics right such as access to clean water, vaccinations, or in some cases a less corrupt government, would be a priority. Moreover, joining the connected world as a latecomer involves significant hazards as well as opportunities, so developing the appropriate skills and safeguards is a precondition.

There are already interesting cases highlighting how innovations can be created from the bottom up: for example, through microlending and using the mobile Internet to broaden access to financial services.

JENNIFER REXFORD: I think there is a lot of opportunity to collect data that can help people make better deci-

SINCE ITS INAUGURATION in 1966, the ACM A.M. Turing Award has recognized major contributions of lasting importance to computing. Through the years, it has become the most prestigious award in computing. To help celebrate 50 years of the ACM Turing Award and the visionaries who have received it, ACM has launched a campaign called “Panels in Print,” which takes the form of a collection of responses from Turing laureates, ACM award recipients and other ACM experts on a given topic or trend.

For our third Panel in Print, we invited 2009 ACM Prize recipient ERIC BREWER, 2004 ACM A.M. Turing Award co-recipient VINT CERF, 2016–2017 Athena Lecturer JENNIFER REXFORD, ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award recipient MARTIN CASADO, ACM Fellows NICK FEAMSTER and JIM KUROSE, and ACM member GEORGE ROUSSOS to discuss the Internet of Things (Io T).

What do you see as some of the biggest transformations that have been brought through the Internet and where do we go next?

ERIC BREWER: The most important transformation brought about by the Internet is the kind of self-empowerment it has caused. If you don’t know something, you can find it out. If you want to educate yourself on something, you can learn it fairly directly. People feel like they can learn anything, in any country now.

NICK FEAMSTER: The early Internet was a network of trusted research universities with very few stakeholders. There was no business aspect to it, there were no profits to be taken, and there was little to no concern over security. The chief goal was connectivity, and the primary challenges were technical in nature.

Today, the situation is much differ-
ent, with each of the previous points
having been turned completely on
their head. We see increasing tensions
between stakeholders, especially be-
tween Internet service providers and
content providers on to issues like
pricing of Internet access, network
neutrality, performance guarantees
and quality of experience. We also see
tremendous tension in cybersecurity
between attackers, businesses and
end users.

JENNIFER REXFORD: Recently, the Internet has become an amazing way to collect and analyze data about people and their behavior and the kinds of things they do online. This, in turn, has allowed the information we see on the Internet to be much more customized, like Google search and so on. Which brings us to the current evolution, the connecting of the Internet to the physical world, or Internet of Things. This is where we are actually effecting change in the physical world based on the information that gets collected over networks. .

VINT CERF: Projecting into the future, we can see much higher-speed access to the Net, more wireless access and increasing amounts of artificial intelligence and machine learning adding to our ability to accomplish our objectives. It’s a rich environment we are heading into.

There are reasons to be concerned— for example, about safety, security, privacy, resilience, and robustness. I am particularly concerned about what I’ll call “autonomy,” which stems from my concern that you don’t want to