Mark West

Sometimes, the future can just sneak up on you

In my case, this happened at a concert at the Bijou Theater in Knoxville, Tenn. Vieux Farka Toure from Mali was playing, and during the intermission we struck up a conversation with the couple next to us. The man taught at the University of Tennessee, where he was working on the next version of the Internet.

Our conversation, and some research afterwards, has led to a fascinating glimpse of what form will be taken by future computing. The Web, as we know it, is already showing its age.

Originally, the Internet was designed primarily for e-mail transmission, where brief text transmissions would be moved across a network of computers via a ìstore and forwardî system. The system was designed to be redundant, so that if any single computer dropped out, messages could be rerouted in some new direction, still with a guarantee that theyíd get to their intended recipient.

But, in the last few years, the uses to which weíve put the Internet have expanded hugely. Weíre now sharing huge video files and audio files online ó so much so that the recording industry is in a tailspin due to the online music business, and the Writerís Guild is willing to bring the broadcast industry to a virtual standstill to insure that new contracts guarantee writers their share of online revenues.

And, in perhaps the most significant development of all, software applications are starting to migrate from the desktop to the Internet.†

Iím writing this on ThinkFree Office, a set of Web applications that look a lot like Microsoft Office. But they donít reside on my hard disk; theyíre accessed via the Internet, and the files are stored on a remote server.

I can access the files from any location with Internet access, work on them using the web application, and have confidence that my files are snug on the server that ThinkFree maintains. Itís the easiest form of off-site backup of which Iím aware; and I never have to upgrade my software, since I donít have software on my computer.

But, as your television and your computer come to seem more alike, the Internet is going to be where both storage and processing power reside.

The experts seem to agree that the future of the Internet is ìcloud computing,î in which computing power is metered and sold to consumers via the Internet. Your computer terminal would still be where you work, but it would be cheap, perhaps even disposable; the Internet ó or its successor ó would be where programs, files and the real computing machinery resided.

And wouldnít that be a relief?

For most people, keeping a home computer operating and virus-free is a difficult task, especially when the latest upgrades from Microsoft seem determined to offer up the Blue Screen of Death at every turn.

Better that we have cheap terminals, and rent applications from whichever provider has the most interesting services, than try to play home computer wizard ó and fail in the process.

Easier, cheaper, more robust. Thatís probably the future of the successor to the Internet. For once, I get to make a pleasant prediction about the future.†

In this era of neoconservatism, thatís a nice change.†

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Mark West is a professor of mass communications at UNC Asheville.