[Music]
how many of you are fascinated with the
idea of secret groups and mystery
solving when I was a kid my friends and
I had formed a secret group called the
five hounds our group was majorly
inspired by any Blyton’s book series the
secret seven and its purpose was to
identify and solve school mysteries
things like who had scratched the math
teachers car or who had written bad
words on the board during school hours
we would gather evidence and then we
would meet after school and exchange
Intel oftentimes we would even pass
notes during class which of course would
land us into much trouble but we really
didn’t care we were really consumed by
our group and its mission we felt as if
we were part of something big of course
we would end up solving none of the
mysteries we had taken in fact we were
pretty awful at finding clues however
what was really cool about this whole
experience was our group and the way we
worked our group had no hierarchical
structure and had no assigned leader we
were all able to participate equally in
the decision-making process and we all
operated on the basis of what was good
for our group we were all equally
responsible for our successes and
equally responsible for our failures we
were all chiefs and we were all soldiers
our group had no single point of failure
now you must be wondering why I’m
telling you this story well what I just
described to you the way that our group
operated is the essence of
decentralization decentralized
structures are those where power and
responsibility are dispersed amongst
various different actors
decentralization means the ability of
everyone to participate equally it means
freedom it means choice fast forward
into the future I am now approximately
20 years old and I find myself somewhere
in Germany as part of an exchange
students program at the time unlike
Greece Germany’s already online
I remember rushing through registration
and running back to the library because
I wanted to experience how it was to be
online
I remember clicking on the Internet
Explorer browser and a curve colorful
world appearing before me it was a world
where video audio and text were all
combined and there was this abundance of
information I was immediately hooked I
wanted to learn more when it first
emerged in the 1970s the internet was a
small set of decentralized computers the
key word here is decentralized this
means that no single government business
or individual had any control over the
Internet
then came the personal computer which
built upon that foundation and created a
new wave of self-empowerment on behalf
of the future I ask you of the past to
leave us alone
you are not welcome among us you have no
sovereignty where we gather in this 1996
manifesto a declaration of independence
for cyberspace Grateful Dead lyricist
and activist John Perry Barlow describes
a digital utopia where netizens are able
to self-govern and traditional
institutions have no power back in those
days even though the internet was not
nearly as developed as it is today there
was a great sense of freedom freedom to
innovate freedom to participate freedom
to make choices freedom to create
the internet seemed like a world of
infinite opportunities
after almost half a century however the
internet is not nearly as free or or
decentralized as it once was a brave new
world has emerged that lacks kindness
and freedom it is a world where we as
users are increasingly becoming victims
of the tyranny of convenience as Tim Wu
has so accurately described now Bid
Whist catches by surprise I mean did we
not see this one coming
well to an extent engineers anticipated
this shift it was as early as 1967 when
Paul Baran a pioneer in the development
of computer networks predicted the rise
of a centralized computer utility that
would offer computing much in the same
way as power companies offer to us
electricity and he was right I mean
think about it how many of us are using
Google for mail storage search shopping
going to places entertaining ourselves
and the list goes on I think you start
seeing why I am so negative toward
centralization because ultimately
centralization means that the power to
command and shape people’s minds is
concentrated in the hands of a few
actors or even worse in the hands of one
actor centralization means no choice now
when it comes to the Internet
centralization currently takes the form
in majorly two ways first a handful of
big corporations are currently
controlling the majority of online
traffic and have become gatekeepers of
information and two we as users are
increasingly becoming victims of mass
surveillance by governments
who use the internet to monitor every
little detail of our lives as Wu and
Baron predicted we have exchanged
privacy for convenience day by day
used by use we lose important bits of
our internet freedom and this is partly
because decentralization is fading away
the Edward Snowden revelations in 2013
were perhaps the tipping point towards a
more centralized Internet what Snowden
did was to reveal how truth of
information may allow governments to
focus on key targets in order to monitor
large swathes of the world’s population
five years later and the parents of
centralization continued to persist as
we’re still trying to wrap our heads
around the real impact the misuse of our
data has by Cambridge analytical has had
we turned to Facebook and its
centralized services in order to explore
and understand how this could have
happened in today’s Internet we see
single points of failure emerging all
the time especially in the form of
website outages YouTube Goes Down and we
can no longer entertain ourselves
Twitter Goes Down and we don’t have the
ability to exchange information during
the Arab Spring the Mubarak regime cut
Egypt of the internet for five long days
depriving its population from
communicating within and outside of the
country and currently Internet shutdowns
the process of literally turning the
internet switch off are on the rise
around the world in places including
Turkey Ethiopia India and Pakistan
centralization is self-serving to those
who are in power so what can we do about
this how can we fight back well one
solution would be
to make the internet more like it used
to be less centralized and more
distributed but what does that mean well
let me start by saying what it does not
mean it does not mean blaming the
internet for every single thing that
currently is taking place from fake news
to propaganda to online extremism to the
erosion of our democracies you name it
the Internet and it’s decentralized
architecture are to be blamed but doing
that simply misses the point
because decentralization does not mean
Anarchy it does not mean that those who
are responsible should not be held
accountable it is not meant to protect
the powerful at the expense of the
weaker it is not meant to create
permanent favorites so what does it mean
well in a nutshell it means protecting
preserving and respecting the values
upon which the Internet was founded
because unlike other technologies the
internet was built on very basic and
fundamental values equality
non-discrimination openness freedom
liberty let me just give you an example
imagine an Internet where Google or
Twitter would have to ask for permission
before they were created imagine an
Internet where we as users have no other
choice but to shop our books from Amazon
or even worse imagine an Internet where
our governments are able to determine
whether we can use Skype Facebook
whatsapp in any other application to
communicate with our loved ones this is
the ugly face of centralization so when
you think of the centralization in the
Internet I want you to remember of eight
fundamental characteristics properties
if you may
to make the internet the unique
technology that it is today
let’s take them one by one one global
reach integrity the internet is to be
global it is also to be trusted and
durable to general purpose the Internet
has no limitations on what we can build
and create three permissionless
innovation the internet is welcoming to
anyone sitting in their garage to
innovate without having to ask for
permission for accessible the Internet
invite us to connect studied play with
it five based on interoperability and
mutual agreement the Internet needs
people to use and exchange information
six collaboration the Internet is at its
best when people come and work together
seven reusable building blocks the
internet feeds on technologies upon
other technologies and last but not
least eight no permanent favorites the
internet rejects bullies and autocrats
the Internet is a standing invitation to
all of us to gather connect communicate
exchange ideas it is meant to be a place
that is open free and safe it is a place
that rejects Kings presidents and voting
rights as the internet Engineering Task
Force has historically declared the
strength of the internet lies in its
ability to use the wisdom of all of us
of the crowd it encourages collaboration
and there is so much truth to that I
mean think about it isn’t it better when
all of us sit together and collaborate
to reach a decision
rather than having
a central authority making that decision
on our behalf
how can we broaden our horizons if we do
not learn from one another in how can we
make change happen if we have a central
authority always telling us what to do
when to do it and whether it is
permissible to do it now at this stage I
would like to make something very clear
I am not trying to suggest that the
centralization is going to solve all the
problems that we’re currently facing in
the internet or that we need to give
decentralization a free pass for
decentralization to work it needs
collaboration and collaboration requires
commitment it requires action it
requires a specific purpose it means
that success is measured in terms that
are way broader than the individual gain
unfortunately in today’s internet we
rarely see this level of collaboration
taking place in fact what we’re seeing
and observing is single actors acting
alone yet no single entity can solve the
complex problems that the Internet is
facing because eventually that entity
will become distracted and self-serving
I would like to tell you to share with
you the fate of the five hounds well we
were celebrating one year of
unsuccessful mystery-solving when one of
us had the idea of holding elections
despite some initial resistance by some
of us we ended up doing so suddenly we
had an assigned leader suddenly we had a
central authority that was responsible
for the group we had created a single
point of failure this was the beginning
of our end we couldn’t meet as often as
we used to because our lead
would not be available and we’ll be
canceling the meetings we wouldn’t be
sitting down for hours debating and
exchanging ideas trying to get to
consensus because our leader would
always come in and make the final
decision within a space of a month after
the elections we lost interest in our
group and eventually we lost interest in
one another we have a great amount of
responsibility to make sure that this
doesn’t happen in the internet because
the Internet is hope the Internet is
empowerment the Internet can take people
out of poverty it can educate them it
can give them a voice
when they lack one the Internet is
democracy so before I leave you and if
you are ever on a crossroad and you
don’t know what to do I would like you
to think and act in the same way that
the creator of the web Sir Tim
berners-lee has asked us of all of us to
do an act please fight for the internet
fight for it just first though [Applause]
how many of you are fascinated with the
idea of secret groups and mystery
solving when I was a kid my friends and
I had formed a secret group called the
five hounds our group was majorly
inspired by any Blyton’s book series the
secret seven and its purpose was to
identify and solve school mysteries
things like who had scratched the math
teachers car or who had written bad
words on the board during school hours
we would gather evidence and then we
would meet after school and exchange
Intel oftentimes we would even pass
notes during class which of course would
land us into much trouble but we really
didn’t care we were really consumed by
our group and its mission we felt as if
we were part of something big of course
we would end up solving none of the
mysteries we had taken in fact we were
pretty awful at finding clues however
what was really cool about this whole
experience was our group and the way we
worked our group had no hierarchical
structure and had no assigned leader we
were all able to participate equally in
the decision-making process and we all
operated on the basis of what was good
for our group we were all equally
responsible for our successes and
equally responsible for our failures we
were all chiefs and we were all soldiers
our group had no single point of failure
now you must be wondering why I’m
telling you this story well what I just
described to you the way that our group
operated is the essence of
decentralization decentralized
structures are those where power and
responsibility are dispersed amongst
various different actors
decentralization means the ability of
everyone to participate equally it means
freedom it means choice fast forward
into the future I am now approximately
20 years old and I find myself somewhere
in Germany as part of an exchange
students program at the time unlike
Greece Germany’s already online
I remember rushing through registration
and running back to the library because
I wanted to experience how it was to be
online
I remember clicking on the Internet
Explorer browser and a curve colorful
world appearing before me it was a world
where video audio and text were all
combined and there was this abundance of
information I was immediately hooked I
wanted to learn more when it first
emerged in the 1970s the internet was a
small set of decentralized computers the
key word here is decentralized this
means that no single government business
or individual had any control over the
Internet
then came the personal computer which
built upon that foundation and created a
new wave of self-empowerment on behalf
of the future I ask you of the past to
leave us alone
you are not welcome among us you have no
sovereignty where we gather in this 1996
manifesto a declaration of independence
for cyberspace Grateful Dead lyricist
and activist John Perry Barlow describes
a digital utopia where netizens are able
to self-govern and traditional
institutions have no power back in those
days even though the internet was not
nearly as developed as it is today there
was a great sense of freedom freedom to
innovate freedom to participate freedom
to make choices freedom to create
the internet seemed like a world of
infinite opportunities
after almost half a century however the
internet is not nearly as free or or
decentralized as it once was a brave new
world has emerged that lacks kindness
and freedom it is a world where we as
users are increasingly becoming victims
of the tyranny of convenience as Tim Wu
has so accurately described now Bid
Whist catches by surprise I mean did we
not see this one coming
well to an extent engineers anticipated
this shift it was as early as 1967 when
Paul Baran a pioneer in the development
of computer networks predicted the rise
of a centralized computer utility that
would offer computing much in the same
way as power companies offer to us
electricity and he was right I mean
think about it how many of us are using
Google for mail storage search shopping
going to places entertaining ourselves
and the list goes on I think you start
seeing why I am so negative toward
centralization because ultimately
centralization means that the power to
command and shape people’s minds is
concentrated in the hands of a few
actors or even worse in the hands of one
actor centralization means no choice now
when it comes to the Internet
centralization currently takes the form
in majorly two ways first a handful of
big corporations are currently
controlling the majority of online
traffic and have become gatekeepers of
information and two we as users are
increasingly becoming victims of mass
surveillance by governments
who use the internet to monitor every
little detail of our lives as Wu and
Baron predicted we have exchanged
privacy for convenience day by day
used by use we lose important bits of
our internet freedom and this is partly
because decentralization is fading away
the Edward Snowden revelations in 2013
were perhaps the tipping point towards a
more centralized Internet what Snowden
did was to reveal how truth of
information may allow governments to
focus on key targets in order to monitor
large swathes of the world’s population
five years later and the parents of
centralization continued to persist as
we’re still trying to wrap our heads
around the real impact the misuse of our
data has by Cambridge analytical has had
we turned to Facebook and its
centralized services in order to explore
and understand how this could have
happened in today’s Internet we see
single points of failure emerging all
the time especially in the form of
website outages YouTube Goes Down and we
can no longer entertain ourselves
Twitter Goes Down and we don’t have the
ability to exchange information during
the Arab Spring the Mubarak regime cut
Egypt of the internet for five long days
depriving its population from
communicating within and outside of the
country and currently Internet shutdowns
the process of literally turning the
internet switch off are on the rise
around the world in places including
Turkey Ethiopia India and Pakistan
centralization is self-serving to those
who are in power so what can we do about
this how can we fight back well one
solution would be
to make the internet more like it used
to be less centralized and more
distributed but what does that mean well
let me start by saying what it does not
mean it does not mean blaming the
internet for every single thing that
currently is taking place from fake news
to propaganda to online extremism to the
erosion of our democracies you name it
the Internet and it’s decentralized
architecture are to be blamed but doing
that simply misses the point
because decentralization does not mean
Anarchy it does not mean that those who
are responsible should not be held
accountable it is not meant to protect
the powerful at the expense of the
weaker it is not meant to create
permanent favorites so what does it mean
well in a nutshell it means protecting
preserving and respecting the values
upon which the Internet was founded
because unlike other technologies the
internet was built on very basic and
fundamental values equality
non-discrimination openness freedom
liberty let me just give you an example
imagine an Internet where Google or
Twitter would have to ask for permission
before they were created imagine an
Internet where we as users have no other
choice but to shop our books from Amazon
or even worse imagine an Internet where
our governments are able to determine
whether we can use Skype Facebook
whatsapp in any other application to
communicate with our loved ones this is
the ugly face of centralization so when
you think of the centralization in the
Internet I want you to remember of eight
fundamental characteristics properties
if you may
to make the internet the unique
technology that it is today
let’s take them one by one one global
reach integrity the internet is to be
global it is also to be trusted and
durable to general purpose the Internet
has no limitations on what we can build
and create three permissionless
innovation the internet is welcoming to
anyone sitting in their garage to
innovate without having to ask for
permission for accessible the Internet
invite us to connect studied play with
it five based on interoperability and
mutual agreement the Internet needs
people to use and exchange information
six collaboration the Internet is at its
best when people come and work together
seven reusable building blocks the
internet feeds on technologies upon
other technologies and last but not
least eight no permanent favorites the
internet rejects bullies and autocrats
the Internet is a standing invitation to
all of us to gather connect communicate
exchange ideas it is meant to be a place
that is open free and safe it is a place
that rejects Kings presidents and voting
rights as the internet Engineering Task
Force has historically declared the
strength of the internet lies in its
ability to use the wisdom of all of us
of the crowd it encourages collaboration
and there is so much truth to that I
mean think about it isn’t it better when
all of us sit together and collaborate
to reach a decision
rather than having
a central authority making that decision
on our behalf
how can we broaden our horizons if we do
not learn from one another in how can we
make change happen if we have a central
authority always telling us what to do
when to do it and whether it is
permissible to do it now at this stage I
would like to make something very clear
I am not trying to suggest that the
centralization is going to solve all the
problems that we’re currently facing in
the internet or that we need to give
decentralization a free pass for
decentralization to work it needs
collaboration and collaboration requires
commitment it requires action it
requires a specific purpose it means
that success is measured in terms that
are way broader than the individual gain
unfortunately in today’s internet we
rarely see this level of collaboration
taking place in fact what we’re seeing
and observing is single actors acting
alone yet no single entity can solve the
complex problems that the Internet is
facing because eventually that entity
will become distracted and self-serving
I would like to tell you to share with
you the fate of the five hounds well we
were celebrating one year of
unsuccessful mystery-solving when one of
us had the idea of holding elections
despite some initial resistance by some
of us we ended up doing so suddenly we
had an assigned leader suddenly we had a
central authority that was responsible
for the group we had created a single
point of failure this was the beginning
of our end we couldn’t meet as often as
we used to because our lead
would not be available and we’ll be
canceling the meetings we wouldn’t be
sitting down for hours debating and
exchanging ideas trying to get to
consensus because our leader would
always come in and make the final
decision within a space of a month after
the elections we lost interest in our
group and eventually we lost interest in
one another we have a great amount of
responsibility to make sure that this
doesn’t happen in the internet because
the Internet is hope the Internet is
empowerment the Internet can take people
out of poverty it can educate them it
can give them a voice
when they lack one the Internet is
democracy so before I leave you and if
you are ever on a crossroad and you
don’t know what to do I would like you
to think and act in the same way that
the creator of the web Sir Tim
berners-lee has asked us of all of us to
do an act please fight for the internet
fight for it just first though [Applause]
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