Forget About Internet As Systems Model!
Research Technology Management › Vol. 51 Nbr. 3, May 2008
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Summary
If all goes well over the next decade, the US will start an unprecedented range of supersized systems developments, introductions, and improvements. Among them are smart highways and intelligent vehicles, which will stress the electric utilities to acquire and distribute enough power. Some might be tempted to consider the Internet as a model for this and other massive-scale technological systems development. Recall that the Internet began as a Defense Department activity, then moved on to the National Science Foundation, which promoted it to the scientific community. Shortly thereafter, it burst on the rest of the world. Yet all of that creativity, marvelous technological development, and unprecedented commercial success was systematically unplanned -- its current shape not even conceived. Several interacting developments are responsible for the Internet's deficiencies. Commercialization quickly became a factor in developing both hardware and software, where short-term payoff and high ROI are the predominant goals in American business.
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Forget About Internet As Systems Model!
Looking Ahead
If all goes well over the next decade, the United States will start an unprecedented range of supersized systems developments, introductions, and improvements. Among them are smart highways and intelligent vehicles, which will stress the electric utilities to acquire and distribute enough power.Some might be tempted to consider the Internet as a model for this and other massive-scale technological systems development. But contrary to that implied expectation-that anything can be the model for these gigantic systems-I believe the Internet would be a totally inappropriate model because of its history of failure and shortfalls, followed by poor accommodation and dubious improvement.Recall that the Int...See the full content of this document
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