MIT Media Lab

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Carrierless Communications

• MIT Media Lab
• lip_at_mit.edu
• December, 2005

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Open Organization
Open Source
Linux
Wiki
Skype
Open Comms
Open Knowledge
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Open Organization
Open Source
Linux
Wiki
Skype
Open Comms
Open Knowledge
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Viral Innovation
Scalable Incremental Contributory
Viral systems are innovative through modularity
and distribution of capability -- the
intelligence is at the ends e.g. Internet, (fa
x machines)
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Viral Growth
Viral radio is scalable, incremental, and
value-adding. Intelligence is at the edges, cos
ts are low, systems are agile.
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Viral Examples
Spreadsheet More users more applications
Napster More users more music Skype Mo
re users bigger exchange
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Viral Possibilities
Education The learners are the innovators,
infrastructure makes the system rigid
Communications The intelligence is now in the
phones, will the carriers be marginalized?
Healthcare Patients as a group already are mor
e up-to-date than their physician the average
psychologist reads no more than one journal per
month
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Cells Without Towers
How far can we go with no infrastructure?
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Past Mesh
Inherent Broadcast
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Propagation
The world is not free space
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Cooperative Propagation
Access
M2
M1
M3
??
M4
R2
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Digital Radio Intelligent Radio
Interference is a legal idea, not a physical one
More radios means more communications, not less
More radios mean less power, not more
Buildings and barriers help, rather than hurt
Transmitting costs less than receiving Function
costs is near-zero
Digital radio reverses 85 years of engineering
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Viral Growth
Viral radio is scalable, incremental, and
value-adding. Intelligence is at the edges, cos
ts are low, systems are agile.
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Radio Magic
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Radio Magic
Podcasting
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Vid-Torrent
2004 Peers Protocol 2005 Expat TV
Lippman, Reed, Bletsas, Christakos, Vyzovitis,
Cooley, Li
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Vid-Torrent
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Being Digital (1995)
HDTV Digital Broadcast DBS
Same Things Better vs Utterly New
TiVo Scalable Video Metadata
Open Arch breeds changes
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Being Wireless (2002)
PCS Satellite Radio 802.11
Same Things Better vs Utterly New
M2M Open Services P2P
Pentland, Maes
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Being Viral (2005)
Centralized Vertical (Rigid) Slow
Same Things Better vs Utterly New
Scalable Incremental Value-adding
Transparent
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Going Legitimate
Viral InnovativeLow riskAgility
Legitimate EconomicCentralized(Scalable)
Charles Fine, 2001
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Going Legitimate
When?Base Techs
Viral InnovativeLow riskAgility
Legitimate EconomicCentralized(Scalable)
The magic is when technology is in sync with
society
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Licensed v Unlicensed
Golf courses rather than beachfront
Favors property owner over license holder Com
es online quickly
Grows organically
We could do it right!
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Growth of the Tail
Number of Viewers
Number of programs
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Skype

• Peer-to-peer VoIP application
• First released October 2003
• 7 million users after one year, 25 million today
• IM, Conferencing, voice-mail, etc
• Open API viral operation
• Skype-out, 2004 Skype-in, 2005,
• 2.5/4.1 Billion acquisition by Ebay (9/05)

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X
Viral, but closed
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Wiki

• Contributory encyclopedia, Jimmy Wales, 2001
• 726K articles in English, 2.3million globally
• 180 languages, 75 with 1000 entries
• Wiktionary, news, etc.
• Hierarchical yet open
• non-profit

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Wiki updates
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Mashups
Kosher Food in Boston NYTimes Oct 21, 2005
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Looking deeper
Open Hardware
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