The Internet has been a massively integrating force, unifying communications, information sharing, and business ecologies while breaking down boundaries and distinctions. Factors that continue to affect the future of our networks include the Internet of Things, ubiquitous mobile, spectrum sharing, bandwidth availability, and ramped-up cloud-based capabilities. We are now seeing many emerging integrations: language and meaning, cultural standards, and interaction at the very local level. It's time to probe deeper into the impact of those developments.
At this conference, we will focus on two main areas for future network development: the infrastructure itself and the architecture. We'll look at network layers going forward and consider what role might be played by software-defined networks, network virtualization, DIY configurations, cloud architectures, new radio architectures, big data, streaming and synchronous communications, machine-to-machine communications, and network design. Will we see networks that allow peer-to-peer collaboration with minimal reliance on a central system? To what extent will users be able to customize choices about the features and services they wish to use?
Is the structure of the Internet as robust as it used to be? The deep penetration of the Internet presents significant legacy issues that cannot be avoided; we are constrained by the dilemma of wanting to upgrade the Net while being almost totally locked into architectures and protocols that are in many cases decades years old. Will entrenched legacy systems impede new developments? Will we see trends toward disintegration and new limits leading to specialization and balkanization? If so, how should we cope with those trends? Certainly, future architectures will need to include higher levels of security.
Can information-centric networking combine enough data management functions into a coherent architecture that will allow us to effectively manage geographically dispersed, shared data? With so many options, what are our net futures?
ANNENBERG INNOVATION LAB, University of Southern California
The Annenberg Innovation Lab focuses on media, culture, and society as a basis for innovation at the intersection of art, science, design, and engineering. Researchers from academia, private and public-sector firms, and nonprofit organizations collectively work to define, create, and distribute culturally relevant applications, platforms, media genres, and practices.
During our visit, we'll hear about and see demonstrations of:
- PLAYground, an open-content, open-knowledge online system that engages both adults and youth alike to discover, learn, and teach each other. PLAYground is designed to facilitate co-learning through two-way participation.
- D-book, a tool that encourages children to make up their own stories and share their discoveries with other children.
- Beta developments using Gimbal, a context-awareness platform for the delivery of timely, relevant, personalized content to mobile devices.
- Twitter sentiment analysis based on work from movies and politics.
We'll also tour the following labs:
- Signals Analysis and Interpretation Lab (SAIL)
SAIL conducts fundamental and applied research in human-centered information processing, with applications and systems development focused on domains with direct societal relevance. These areas include human health and wellbeing, education, and defense. Additional research areas cover speech, audio, language, biomedical and multi-modal signal processing, machine learning, and pattern recognition. - Interactive Media Division Lab (IMD)
IMD's research concentrates on the design and development of innovative content for interactive media and the invention of new genres of interactive experience.