Architecture for Web 2.0 and beyond

From: S < s...m...@gmail.com>
Date: Sep 4, 2006 12:15 PM
Subject: First of a possible series of Papers on Internet NeXt: Unforeseen and unseen Ogre in today's Internet Architecture viewed from 500,000 feet above:
To: DWe < dj...@w3.org>, st...@w3.org, ti...@w3.org
Cc: S " s@in.name" 

(This was in 2004, though well meant, for want of sufficient understanding, the ideas expressed were unbalanced)

Internet NeXt: 

Paper One

Unforeseen and unseen Ogres in today's Internet Architecture viewed from 500,000 feet above:

This is a more presentable version of an email message that I sent to the Technical Architecture Group of the W3
consortium while my company is still not a member of W3C. This is the first of an emerging series of a non-technical
conceptual treatise on Internet NeXt, that would go on to point technical directions, so as to emerge as a blue print
for a far more advanced, but far less dangerous Internet.

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-tag/2006Nov/0095.html

Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web and a world of brilliant scientists and professionals have caused and
continue to cause this amazing wonder called world wide web happen. 

From 50, 000 feet above the complex architecture that has emerged in such a short time as 10 years amazes anyone.
This amazement is suspended with the purpose of telescoping on the unintended and uncontrollable critical flaws in
the foundation, structure, facade and interiors.

Sky way without air routes and ground control

From far higher above, from 500, 000 feet above, it looks like a million aeroplanes, all piloted by those who assert their
right to fly, no pilot's licence, no air traffic control, no air routes, aeroplanes not only made by Boeing, Airbus and
McDonnel Douglas, but made by anyone, even by garage mechanics, not under legislation to mark the planes with
an ID, no air speed limits, no ground clearance, no navigation laws, no ground crew, no X ray machines to enter or
leave the aircraft.... total and complete freedom to fly.

Or, is this New York city as an absolutely free port with no traffic lights?

Or it looks like New York city without an immigration authority, no FBI, no NYPD, citizens drive their unmarked cars
on the right, left, center, across, on pavements and lawns and sometimes inside the buildings, their own and every one's,
no traffic police, no traffic lights, no toll gates, no road blocks, no speed limits, no driving licence, no name plates, no
driver's age limits....Freedom to live in a house without a door number.  Someone unknown pings ceaselessly on the
door, someone scans the windows and pipe lines for gaps and holes. Seconds later a heap of garbage gets pumped up
the water pipe, clogs not only the water pipe but floods the entire house, spills over onto the streets, and still continues
to flow across the city... Who is doing this?  It looks like a school girl... no it is a boy.... No, no,  it is a grown up adult....
Or is it a robot?  He, She or It is here... Oh NO, gone, gone away without leaving a trace..

Privacy and Anonymity are not Synonymous

The West understands and values Freedom but not the concept of obligations as an essence of such freedom. ( There
is a Declaration of Human Rights, but is there a Declaration of Human Obligations to balance the rights? ) Privacy can
not exist in complete anonymity. There can be no freedom when essential controls are non-existent.

Rights can not exist without Obligations

Concerns for excessive freedom and privacy on the worldwide web caused the exact opposites to happen - a freeman
does not have to hide, but on the Internet most people hide. Amidst all the clamour for privacy anything that anyone
says on the Internet today is open for theft and abuse by anyone with advanced search skills or basic hacking skills.
So much for the results of the universal cries for freedom and privacy, flawed by the inherent narrow thinking that
stops short of the concept of obligations..

Life 30 years later is a millennium apart

Before the Internet, before Windows and Mac, people invited people to their homes; people trusted people. The bus
driver, door man, schoolmate, workplace colleague and neighbours recognized a person, knew his or her name and
he or she had no concerns about socializing. There was enough privacy when he or she chose to. But on the Internet
today everyone hides sometime, and some people hide all the time. It is not too abnormal to come across someone
who refuses to say if he is man or daemon. Often it is because the open Internet is becoming unworthy of openness.

Spam, Filters, More spam

Spam, Filters, more spam, Virus, antivirus and more virus, intrusions, firewalls and stealthier intrusions.... it is a never
ending battle on the Internet and the world is not winning on this battle within.

Worldwide web is not free as long as it is free, is not private as long as it permits total and complete anonymity (which
is sometimes desirable and sometimes necessary) and it is not productive enough unless there are some basic
safeguards.

Split Second Shut Down to Reboot

Newer standards and greater technical advances are emerging. But what needs to be done when new hardware and
software are installed on a PC?  Reboot the machine otherwise the new hardware and software does not work or cause
more chaos.

Is there a way or rebooting  the world wide web? (this is a notional expression, explained in the papers to follow)
Can we explore the possibility of an master re-design and concerted implementation of newer hardware, newer software,
newer protocols, a split second shut down, universal log off and an instant reboot?

There is a definite way, the world will like it, it can be smooth, can happen fast if not in a split second, it will make not
only the cyberspace less dangerous but also the  physical space and the effort can find its own funds, its results can
be commercially prolific, if so desired for common good...That would be Internet NeXt. 

The focus on this first paper has been largely on one of the fundamental aspects, namely authenticity. A lot more to
be written, (perhaps to be based on basic and advanced technical guidance from W3C, possible online and offline
interaction with W3C and later by interaction with experts from everywhere, on so many other aspects) before a
complete picture of a possible blueprint emerges.

(some of the) Conceptual Outlines to follow before a complete picture emerges

   - Costume Party Gateway.
   - URIs (Digital id)  in two levels, visible and invisible
   - Harmless Graphics
   - A re look at the NeXt browser for NeXt
   - Real Revenues from Virtual Space for the good of the people in general and for the Internet in particular.

Paper Two

Reconciling Society's Concern's for Privacy with the imperative of Authentication:
The Costume Party Model

This part of the paper deals with the issue of reconciling Privacy considerations with a need for authentication. To
propose a solution the Costume Party model is examined:

What happens in a costume party? People take part in costume parties to be there free and uninhibitted, unnoticed,
for whatever reason. Even in a perfectly anonymous costume party, shut out from law and order agencies, free of all
rules.... there are some UNDERLYING SAFEGUARDS AND RULES.

1. As the hostess of a costume party Jane from SmallTown is not in a position to match each of the costumed guest
with the real people she had INVITED, but she knows who she had invited. She knows that everyone present, beneath
their masks is legitimate. If there are 100 costumed guests, all 100 costumed guests were pre-approved by Jane at
some point of time in the past, she knew them all, so invited all those whom she knew or those whom she knew knew to the
costume party.

2. The real people changed into their costumes at the parlor at Jane's Doorway. The trusted parlor maid attended to
the guests, she knows that Cynthia went into the changing room and came out costumed as a White Rabbit. Likewise
she knows what costumes each of the guests took up. Parlor is isolated from Jane's house and the parlour maid is
not part of the costume party. Guests know that the Parlour maid wouldn't come to the party to interfere in their
anonymous adventures.

3. No guest present will know the real identifies of the other guests unless they mutually chose to disclose their
identities to each other. This is a rule that is always honored in all of Jane's costume parties.

4. If someone had spilt wine on the table by accident Jane barely noticed it. If someone deliberately broke a wine
bottle and splashed wine on the carpet Jane gently warned them in-costume. If any one of the costumed guest
behaved in a manner that was not even tolerated in a costume party, Jane sent that person out, in-costume. No
costumed guest is unmasked, almost never, ALMOST, unless it is noticed that one of the guests, say, the White
Rabbit was wearing a concealed weapon and that the person's movements were perceptibly malicious.... Then
Jane calls the parlor maid and finds out that the white rabbit is Cynthia.....Her Security staff makes some further
enquiries on Cynthia and discover a criminal background and suddenly Jane is alert and the White Rabbit aka Cynthia
is turned over to the police.

This RARE EXCEPTION of a call to the parlor maid is understood by all costumed guests who are otherwise secure
that Jane would never unmask a person unless the person becomes a dangereous threat or has committed a
dangerous act. All guests endorse this exception which is essential for their security.

Jane On the internet:

1. Gateway Master Authentication: A CENTRAL Internet Gateway master Authentication Server (IGMAS) where a person
authenticates with his real identiry on his very first entry into the Internet as a new Internet user. After registering with IGMAS
the new user takes his Authorization code and superficial and minimal personal particulars to the local ISP for a new internet
connection. The user gets an Internet Account and user name, which is all that is required for session authentication.
This gateway authentication by the ISP for every session is negotiated through IGMAS servers to permit / deny internet access
for  the session. The only way to get on the internet is through this gateway. The internet infrastructure is so modified of all
side doors. If Jane from SmallTown connects to her local ISP, the ISP communicates the LIMITED INFORMATION Jane
has provided to the central Internet Gateway master Authentication Server (IGMAS) or its ultra secure authentication
mirrors.  IGMAS stores in its info vault a MORE ELABORATE AUTHENTICATION RECORD of everyone who wants
to be on the Internet. IGMAS is perhaps owned by an internet governing authority, or owned and operated by the people
of the world represented by Internet Security Groups and Internet Privacy rights groups. IGMAS server stores such data
as Jane's age, sex, permanent physical address, nationality, employment data, biometrics, passport number, social
security number and all other particulars that may be necessary. The local ISP stores merely Jane's user name,
password and if implemented, biometrics.

( Jane signed up for the internet account with the ISP by first logging on to IGMAS with her IGMAS internet master
identity and on the IGMAS web interface Jane navigates to find the ISP named SmallT ISP, IGMAS gives Jane a
session through its web interface with the SmallT ISP and by this token the SmallT ISP knows that the person
attempting to sign up is a IGMAS authenticated person. SmallT ISP asks no further questions. Jane says she is Jane,
doesn't disclose age or sex or physical address, chooses a bandwidth plan, chooses a password and presents her
biometrics. This is how she signed up for the internet account. IGMAS in this earlier case acted like a one time
internet account sign up gateway )

2. IGMAS authenticates Jane without disclosing any further details about Jane to SmallT ISP and SmallT ISP connects
Jane to the Internet. Jane enters the internet gateway for her internet session. She goes into the chat room as Amidilla,
logs into her email account as Cityboy_123@anomail.com , logs into her employer's website LegitimateCorporation.com
as Jane.William, connects to an anonymous proxy server, masks her IP address and NIC address and browses
shopping sites or other sites that she chooses to. She interacts with groups with an altogether different id, says she is
from Midcity in South America and she maintains this identity with the groups. She does whatever she pleases.
Anomail required some quasi-authentication on the part of Jane before allowing her an email account, Jane authenticated
by identifying herself as the same person as the person with the email account Jane.William@LegitimateCorporation.com.
The chat room required very basic authentication, so Jane said she is Cityboy_123@anomail.com. Jane trusted the
chat room administrator not to reveal her cityboy email address and trusted anomail not to reveal her legitimate
corporation identity. The anonymous proxy server knows that Jane is Jane from SmallT ISP and beyond this it is
impossible for the proxy server or for the ISP to know the complete personal particulars of Jane.

3. SmallT ISP prompts to authenicate at intervals if Jane's session is too long or if timed out and mid session
authentication between SmallT ISP and IGMAS happens at the background and does not take the 10 seconds it took
at the beginning of the session.

Jane's multiple identies are legitimate, her concerns for privacy is legitimate, all the masks that she chose to wear are
agreeable. Jane might do a bit of mischief here and there and IGMAS would ignore such minor mischief if reported by
SmallT ISP or anomail. But if Jane becomes a serious threat to the internet infrastructure or to humanity in general,
Law and Order Agents with escalated responsibilites may approach IGMAS with an unmask request. The Authentication
server has a right to reject even those requests and when inclined to grant a request, requires a veto like internal
directive for release of authentication records. IGMAS server respects privacy rights and it would take an incident of 
very dangerous implications for IGMAS to pull up her records by a process that would require simultaneous multiple
approvals within IGMAS.

Law and Order agencies, commercial establishments may be tempted to approach IGMAS with an unmask request on
minor crimes, but the IGMAS data storage and retrieval system is to be so designed to be almost permanently locked
up, unless in a specific incident of extraordinary significance and even those extraordinary circumstances would require
veto like procedures within IGMAS administration. IGMAS would in a sense work like a global proxy server or as a
gateway level compulsive router.

Geographical Nationhood.

European Union has happened. When the idea was mooted to unite 12 states in Europe it was considered a bit far fetched at least, it happened after 10 or more years of diplomacy and another 10 years later it has stretched as far as the borders of Russia and would sooner or later embrace of all Russia.

United States announced NAFTA, NAFTA exists but beyond a free trade agreement and a free flow, the union is not progressing on the footsteps of Europe, but America seems to have a different model of embracing and expanding.. largely through trade. All other nations reach out to the world much the same way.

American money is not only in America, American businesses are not only in America, but all over the world. In America there isn't merely American money, but money from all over the world. The businesses, big and small are owned not only by Americans. Same can be said of India, Europe, Japan, China and Russia in varying degrees.

These are different tracks on which the world is becoming more and more borderless. There is a central spine that runs through the changing world of today: Internet. Intenet is the EFFECT of the early efforts on globalization and it is equally or more so, Internet is the CAUSE the rapid globalization.

What would the world be like, 30 years from now?

3000 years ago, the world was fiercely territorial. It has been so until 30 years ago.

The world is still territorial. I can take up residence elsewhere in the world if I want to, but there are procedures for approval that I need to go through.

30 years from now, the world would be far more cosmopolitan, at least half the world. More of American money in Japan, more of Japanese money in Europe, more European money in India and more Indian money in Pakistan.

More Indians and more Africans will work for European and American businesses and more Americans will live in Russia, China and India. Cross cultural, cross national residences would be far more accepted and resistence to immigration would become exceptional from being normal.

30 years from now the world would still be very much a world of Americans, Indians, Japanese, European and Tanzanian nationals, but there would be an increasingly visible distinction between nationality and residence.

Nationality or citizenship would have a lot less to do with residence.

What would national governements be doing ? National governments would be governing an international poplulation - not so geographically permananent as the population for the present times. The governement of Canada would govern not only Canadian citizens but rather Canadian residents of multiple nationalities, whose permanence and impermence would depend on how the governement of Canada compares in relation to the Government of France or the Reunion Island, perhaps even in comparison to England. For by then international migration would have become far less complicated and would be just about as difficult as moving from New Jersey to New Orleans.

In the first half of the twentieth centry, Prime Ministers and Presidents were warriors in spirit. Then they became diplomats. Today they are businessmen corporatising entire nations they are heading. The business leadership of a Head of Government is what is crucial for the nation to progress.

30 years from now Heads of Government will be hoteliers in spirit.

...

America, changing.

I am beginning to respect America more. A lot more. Earlier my respect for America was for the spirit of its receptiveness to the people of all geographic regions in its formative years, its benevolent consitution, the role that it had played in bringing the League of Nations into being, its participation to end Hilter's regime, its Marashal's plan... America had championed the concepts of freedom, equality and justice in all immensity, drew such practical philosophical ideals from various philosphers ancient and modern, made it a comprehensive doucment that it stood for and chamioned for.

Industrial Revultion began in Manchester, but it is America that expanded it. Cars, airtravel and computers have become common for the commonman largely because America had a climate that nurtured large scale production of wonderful goods and services and made it possible for the commonman to own and use them.

This is all that I admired about America and what bothered me was that it became a little self centered along the process - ten, twenty years ago and remained so for a long time. When it talked about Democracy or the absence of it in some other nation, it wasn't really worried about Democracy. When it talked about Free Trade, it meant American business interests. When it talked about Peace elsewhere it meant war, overt or covert with that nation.

And it appeared a little arrogant for a period of ten, twenty years... I have a feeling that this is all changing.

Recent history is dominated by its involvement in Iraq... Critics keep harping on the Intelligence goof up about the Weapons of Mass Destruction intelligence which was the public excuse of the American government to go to war, critics and others criticise the sporadic beatings that the troops take, even after three years of the recent Amercian presence in Iraq, kidnap incidents are blown out of proportion by the media, conspiracy theorits say it is all about oil... No, there is a larger design. It is taking time to take shape but it is happening. Slowly. The world is becoming a better place to live.

In taking such a larger view, I let go a few injustices that have occured. Abu Graf, the Iraq Musuem, the inevitable lies and propaganda that still has to go on, it is all part of the game, but in the end the world would be better balanced with yet another harmonious nation in its roll.

It is not what America did in Iraq that makes America more respectable. Its grand design on Iraq (with larger non-military geographic and economic implications in middle east) is still in progress, lot more work to be done, may be with another TWENTY years of its presece and involvement on a significant level, in some form or another. For now, what America has done and is doing in Iraq is not to be disapproved.

What has impressed me most is that it now appears genuine that America respects President Mushraff as an ally. If this happened ten, twenty years ago, it would have been nothing more than a trick, a deceptive posture, a game on a leader of a nation that the Administration would have discarded once the American purpose was served. It has been happening for the past four or five years, and America appears genuine.

With India, America's participation is amazing. America is embracing India and its embrace feels warm. Ok, we took your advice here and there about economic reforms, but we maintained our caution, we were not like the Latin American countries that rushed to reform and faced consequences. It probably took America a bit of time to understand why India was calculatedly slow in its reform progress, why India isn't all that drastic about the reform process as much as America would like it to be, but in the end it has become evident to America that India is progressing in a manner that the progress is sustained. And America has ceased to play one-up, has even made gestures of commendable humility that clearly characterise today's America as refined, more evloved and somewhat great. One little example is the reception hosted to our Union Minsiter recently at the White house, something that would have been conceptually impossible for America as a protocol exception ten, twenty years ago...

I dont know much about America's positive changes in how it handles diplomatic and trade relations with other nations, but how it handles Britain, India, Pakistan offer a glimpse of signs of a refined govenement...

I am a little reluctant to be a America Centric when I talked about the whole world, but it so happens that America has a considerable impact on the whold world.

America can take a few more simple steps, and a few far reaching steps to make the world a wonderful place.

One or two simple steps for now: Invite Fidel Castro to be the Chief Guest in the Foreign Policy Association Dinner. Offer him a cigar officially imported from Havana. Invite Colonel Muammer Guadaffi to lecture on the History of Libya at the John F Kennedy School of Governement, followed by a Dinner at 1600, Pennsylvania Avenue.....

America America

first posted in slate.com on April 8, 2003, comments earlier published as received during 2003 are REDACTED fully on May26, 2026 to avoid inadvertant indexing of phrases and ideas by those who commented in a manner that associate those comments with me, by A.I. error in crawling/indexing.

Published at blog-city on Monday, 2 June 2003

Subject: How did America became what it isn't?
From: shiva
Date: Apr 8 2003 9:03AM

How did America became what it is not ? When did it begin to lose its goodness?

In 1790 America was a nation of English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish and German nationals and a few others. Hundred years later, the nation had become a land that had the diversity of the whole world. Today it is a nation of people of the most diverse cultural origins. It is a microcosm of the culturally diverse Planet Earth.

Politically the nation emerged as a nation of a noble vision, founded on the principles of liberty, equality and justice, constructing its values of nationhood based on the thinking of John Locke, David Hume, Voltaire among other greatest thinkers known.

Earlier in this century it had been a peace loving nation that wouldn't go to war, and after it won a war that it was drawn into, it went on to reconstruct Europe with its Marshall's plan. To make the world a world without war it founded the United Nations.

The nation's political framework, its values such as Democracy, Equality and Social Justice and its overall benevolent spirit had set the nation apart as an example. Its people reflect the spirit of the nation as by and large the people of the United States are magnanimous in spirit. Americans have instituted more foundations than several other nations combined.

With what is happening in the recent past- its domineering attitude towards the rest of the world, the war in Iraq for instance, America appears to have become what it is not.

All that America was remains covered with dust today. Like a dusty mirror which distorts light, the light within America is more than blurred by simple misconceptions in political execution.

What happened?

America has been good, but it became self righteous about its own goodness. Wanted to impose its values such as Democracy in the rest of the world, championed human rights and free trade. Perfect. But somewhere along the process the values that America set out to advocate took a back seat and the power that the rhetoric brought about became the objective. The result was that the nation ended up being one-up over the rest of the world. What remains now is that high handed stance and not the values which America set out to advocate.

Immersed in its belief that its constitution and institutions are superior, America did not review its constitution and institutions periodically. The founding fathers of America wrote the most profound constitution when America became a nation, but periodic review would have made it more balanced.

After all, how old is democracy? ie., the democracy as it is in America? Set aside the ancient Roman senate, Democracy is 225 years old. In the time line of mankind 225 years of experience is not at all long enough. It is too little a time to understand the inherent flaws of the system (I am not a socialist, not a communist, not a monarchist, but someone thinking aloud). Monarchy is the most ancient institution and we don't have much of it left in its active form. My argument is that half the world believed that socialism was noble until it burst. Same may not happen with democracy, but in 225 years it is far from perfected.

The Judiciary, Executive and Congress were constituted as balanced branches, but then with changing times, the balance was hurt by various forces, such as the various lobbies that exercised their influence over the Congress, as also various branches of government such as Pentagon or CIA that emerged stronger than even the Office of the President in some instances. This may not exactly be what is really happening at this point of time, but part of the historical cause of how America became what it is not. What has America done to review its constitution? What has it done to debate on the need to keep the various organs balanced with changing times? What has America done to balance the lobby groups? What has it done to ensure press freedom in its true sense while keeping the press as an institution balanced? What has the nation done to examine if any of the Administrative organs have gained more than due influence over national affairs?

The World War era required America to spend on Defense and the cold war era required America to develop more powerful weapons. The cold war era required America to adopt various strategies, overt and covert and this behavior has left a lasting impression and a pattern in itself which ought to have been erased with the emergence of the new world order.

Today America doesn't seem to care about Democracy. It uses it as a doctrine to be advocated when a certain government does not suit its national interests. Same can be said of its championship of human rights. It funded the Taliban and it patronized Saddam Hussein when it suited America. This means that America could brook any abuse of human rights as long as its own national interests are not hurt. Free Trade? Free Trade became an unspoken slogan to make the rest of the world Buy American.

Somewhere along the time-line America set itself apart from the rest of the world. American life is precious: Come on, LIFE IS PRECIOUS, every life. The national interests of America as a World Power is important: Well, if you wish to be a global power, why place national interests paramount? National interests are fulfilled automatically when that isn't the only item in your agenda. When you are instrumental in making the world at large a better place to live your own national well-being is more than duly served.

What is now happening is that America is trying to assert itself as a world leader without placing the interests of the world paramount. It wants to lead the world while blatantly talking about its national interests. It prides in itself as a Super power. The reality is that it is an illusion that America is a superpower. If it indeed is, it wouldn't shout at the top of the voice that it is a superpower. Real power gives modesty and if America is really powerful it would have made UN look powerful.

American posture has always been domineering. What makes it worse is a basic phenomenon that no one in Diplomacy seems to have noticed: American English isn't the same as the English as the world knows it. Some American expressions convey an entirely wrong meaning. At other times the way the American government speaks is a reflection of its one-up, on-top attitude. And American protocol is so overbearing. Few heads of state and heads of government get past as equals of anyone above the rank of an Under Secretary in US Administration. American protocol is unwittingly designed to make it all burst one fine day.

American English sounds too casual. Everyone in the American Government including the American Press reporters call Iraqi President as Saddam on TV (outside America, it sounds so jarring). Other examples of what irritates some of those from the rest of the world are this: foreign nationals are "aliens" and "sanctions" are imposed on nations, big or small that did not fall in line.

It is with this attitude that America has been condescending towards its real and imagined enemies and in the process it has always underestimated its enemies. It has always thought that it could overthrow its enemies, in Libya, in Cuba and now in Iraq.

Even if America thinks it would overthrow Saddam Hussein, what great harm would befall America if it refers to the Iraqi President as the President of Iraq? Whatever be the degree or reasons for hatred for your enemies, if you make an effort to consider them respectable as strong individuals, then everything changes. Everything changes. It would be basic statesmanship to follow such a protocol. Who writes the President's speeches? The Psychological operations? Does the Psychological Operations know that there are other cultures existing elsewhere in the world that are at least slightly different from American?

Who is advising the American administration to adopt such a posture of a "bully" as America is began to be viewed as?

Why has America been one-up over the UN, which is all world, when it could at least pretend to be a part of it?

A little more modesty would make America far more greater. There are such simple reasons why America has made so many enemies.

How many enemies can America afford?

shiva ( dot ) madras (at) gmail ( dot ) com [ new email ] 

first posted in slate.com on April 8, 2003, comments earlier published as received during 2003 are REDACTED fully on May26, 2026 to avoid inadvertant indexing of phrases and ideas by those who commented in a manner that associate those comments with me, by A.I. error in crawling/indexing.