Keynote Talk

                              Internet of Ideas

                                Jon Crowcroft
                           The Computer Laboratory
                           University of Cambridge
                         jon.crowcroft@cl.cam.ac.uk

      Abstract
      As  researchers  we  have  a  duty  to  communicate  our   ideas.   As
      communications researchers, we are privileged to study the  technology
      and phenomena that are so  transforming  human  society.  We  seek  to
      understand and enhance the very tools with which  we  can  convey  our
      contributions to human knowledge.
      In Japan there is a mode of presentation called,  Pecha  Kucha,  where
      speakers present 20 images for 20 seconds each, as a way to convey new
      experimental thoughts effectively. I am going  to  present  12  ideas,
      each one in that spirit. Rather than a retrospective of my work, or  a
      vision for a possible future Internet Architectures, I want to  engage
      in what I do in my daily work  with  graduate  students,  thinking  of
      problems that need solving  in  existing  communications  systems,  or
      simply new ways to build communications systems.
      I do not expect more than one or two of these ideas to  make  it  past
      first base, but there is value in learning how to apply one's critical
      faculties even when filtering out bad ideas. Metcalfe's  law  is  that
      the value of the network is the square of the number  of  participants
      since  each  participant  contributes  new   input   for   all   other
      participants. In an Internet  of  ideas,  then,  this  value  is  only
      achieved if we contribute our ideas freely.
      Researchers censor ideas for various reasons,  including  that  a  new
      communications system must have a business case. The  Internet  itself
      (the Web, Facebook and Twitter) was created without any business case.
      Many startups end up in a business that is nothing to do with the one-
      pager or elevator pitch they presented to the venture capitalists.  We
      have no business filtering out ideas except if they are simply bad.
      So here are my twelve research elevator pitches.