Internet principles and how to apply to self-organizing habitats

1. Internet as a
self-organizing system
Artur Serra
Self-sufficient Systems Theory
Class
IAAC, Oct. 21, 2008

2. How an anthropologist does see
the Knowledge Society?
• Anthropology studies cultures as
“shared knowledge systems”.
• ICT is conforming the so-called
“knowledge society”.
• Internet is an ICT and the backbone of
the knowledge society.
• At the same time, Internet is living lab,
selfsystem-organizing system.

3. I. First Generation Internet
A network for everyone
(ISOC, “Internet is for everyone”).

7. Internet Global Routes (2005)

8. The Internet community
• ISOC, Internet Society
• IETF, Internet Engineering Task Force
• ICANN,
• WWW Consortium.

10. The IETF Motto:
“Rough consensus and running code”
• David Clark,MIT, “We reject kings,
presidents and voting. We believe in rough
consensus and running code.” 1992. Moto
of IETF.
• Self-government culture started by
computer science researchers working for
ARPA in the US.

11. The Internet principles
• Goal: To avoid the enemy to take control
over the network.
• Principles:
– Decentralizing structure:
• End to End principle.
– Experimental network
• Computer networking innovation cycle.

12. The “end-to-end principle
• New networking model without central
authority. Not hierarchical principle.
• The control of the network is in the hands
of the extrems, the users: the “end-to-end
principle”.
• New architectures: Peer to Peer networks,
ad-hoc networks, ....

13. The experimental network
principle
• Internet is an environment of permanent
innovation.
– Open network
– Permanent version Beta.
• Current GENI project: Global Networking
for Network Innovation.

14. “Internet governance”?
• The Internet community doesn't like the
term “governement”, even “governance”.
• The preferable term is “self-regulation”.
Not government by minorities (aristocracy),
not government of majorities, (democracy),
but self-government
• Anybody knows what kind of government
is self-government?

15. II. Web 2.0,
The Internet by the People

16. Internet by the people
• Community networks. Freenets.
– Barcelona, 2000. 1er.Congress Global
• Open Source communities.
– Linux community of programmers.
• Social networks.
– Facebook
• Wikis, Wikipedia.
• Living Labs.
– European network of Living Labs.
• Fablabs....Find more examples....

21. III. Can we apply self-organizing
principles of Internet to
architecture?

22. Can we build habitats
as living labs,
user-driven innovation
environments?
An architecture for the knowledge
society.

23. An architecture for
a knowledge society
• Habitats as Living Labs:
– Organizing a user-driven new architecture.
– Open the architectural community to users.
• End-to-end architecture
– Experimental architecture
• The habitat as a living lab for creating and sharing
knowledge.
• A Noosphere Habitat.

24. How architecture can
develop new habitats?
• What is a living lab habitat?
– A knowledge-based habitat.
– A self-organizing environment, built by users,
architects, builders, public administrations, and
its natural environments for creating and sharing
knowledge.

26. Noosphere ,
a new term for
Knowledge society
• Noosphere concept: The knowledge society.
• What kind of habitat for the Noosphere era?
• A noosphera habitat

27. The Noosphere Habitats
• Evolution in the human habitat:
– Living in Geosphere:
• Still we are living in caves.
– Living in Biosphere:
• Increasingly, sapiens is willing to live in a Biosphere.
Looking for paradise (paradeisos, gardens).
– Living in Noosphere:
• Can we live in a knowledge society? How to do it?