“Through the Looking Glass” The Infrastructure of Information
| Published date | 28 August 2019 |
| Pages | 5-7 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-05-2019-0036 |
| Date | 28 August 2019 |
| Author | Peter Fernandez |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
“Through the Looking Glass” The Infrastructure
of Information
Peter Fernandez
Introduction
When an internet service provider
intentionally slows the speed of their
service, it is called “throttling.” That
term evokes the idea of partially cutting
off access to a vital resource and has
clear negative connotations. Although
the villain is less clear, the reality is that
policy, business models, and technical
limitations constantly exert a throttling
effect on our internet infrastructure.
This column explores the importance of
access to high-speed internet for the
transmission of information, as well as
its role in sparking other technological
innovations. It will explore the concept
of the internet as a basic utility and use
the examples of 5G, gigabyte-speed
internet, and steaming video games to
illuminate how future access to
increasingly high speeds of internet
could be transformational
This topic is of particular importance to
information professionals and anyone who
interacts with technology. Libraries have
their roots in storing and transmitting
physical objects, but the internet has
already transformed how information
moves through the world. As users (and
often explainers) of technology, moreover,
mass-market access to high-speed internet
in libraries is likely to spur innovation
across the technology spectrum.
Internet as utility
The internet has become so intertwined
with everyday life that many of its basic
features are easily taken for granted by
consumers. Many people and companies
experience the internet more as a utility
than an innovative technology. It is the
platform on which other technologies are
built, not a place where innovation takes
place
That is not to say that there are not
important variables in how people use the
internet or that there are not innovations
taking place to expand access. Indeed, the
largest tech companies continue to develop
new technologies designed to expand
access to the internet, allowing these
companies to establish dominance in
emerging markets. These efforts require
non-trivial investment and innovation.
Even in regions with relatively robust
access to the internet, places exist where,
for a variety of reasons, access is far from
universal or equally distributed.
In many ways, the need for universally
available internet access is not that
different from providing clean drinking
water or reliable electricity. Although
these “solved” problems are not provided
for every individual, they are basic
services provided to many people, who
often form the baseline for innovators
creating new products. Inventors looking
to bring a technology to market look at
their target audience’s current internet
speeds and use them as the baseline
assumption on which they build their
product. If they could assume had faster
speeds, they would be developing
different products from the ground up.
Looking forward, as new artificial
intelligence programs are designed and
new social media applications are
envisioned, these new technologies will
be made to work within the parameters of
the internet infrastructure as it exists (or is
projected to exist). The ability to take
internet access for granted is precisely
whathasallowedittobecomesucha
powerful tool. It is integrated into
everything from smart refrigerators, ride-
sharing services, and over-the-air updates
for next-generation cars. It is the basis for
every social media platform, phone app,
podcast and website. It defines how
information is shared, even for people
who do not directly interact with it.
A test case: streaming video games
Google recently announced a new
video-gaming service, Stradia, promising
users access to video games in high
definition without the need for a powerful
local computer. Instead, users will be able
to stream games, with the majority of the
computing power happening elsewhere.
The concept of streaming video games
promises to democratize computer
gaming, allowing anyone with an internet
connection to access the best of modern
video games without investing in the
hardware or technical knowledge that
often served as a barrier for competitive
playing.
If Google’s technology works, its
innovation could significantly change
the video game industry. In fact,
Microsoft and other tech companies are
working on their own similar services.
The promise of streaming video games
was made to skeptical audiences a decade
ago in 2009 with the announcement of
OnLive, a service with a similar model as
Google’s Stradia. OnLive was met with
profound skepticism when it launched,
with many in the industry declaring that it
was impossible to reliably stream that
much data. By using the then-
revolutionary encoding techniques and
custom hardware, including a separate off-
site computer for each player, the OnLive
made the technology work far better than
expected (Hollister, 2012). Still, they faced
many barriers, specifically the limitations
of current internet speeds. If someone
simultaneously streamed a YouTube video
while another played a video game on the
same internet connection, the quality of the
gaming experience was potentially
impacted, which deterred many early
adaptors from embracing the technology.
Now Google and others, including
Microsoft, which is soon launching
their xCloud service, have invested
heavily to make the same concept more
obtainable. To do this, Google has
partnered with AMD to create a custom
graphics chip designed to complete 10.7
trillion operations per second, and
Google intends to leverage their
LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 6 2019, pp. 5-7, V
CEmerald Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/LHTN-05-2019-0036 5
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