November 2012

The U.S. and Canada have proposed that the upcoming telecom treaty conference in Dubai deal first with proposals to change the definition of telecommunications or who the treaties apply to before getting down to the details of any revisions. Dealing with those "threshold questions" about the scope of the treaties is a crucial first step, they told the International Telecommunications Union in a joint filing.

Both countries are concerned about proposals by countries including Russia, China and Syria, that would expand the treaties to include broadband, an effort they see as opening the door to more government control of content and new taxes on Internet traffic. They propose that there be a plenary session to deal with any changes to the preamble or Article 1 of the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs). "If we can resolve those threshold, definitional issues first, it will clarify the terms of the negotiations for the rest of the conference," said Ambassador Terry Kramer, head of the U.S. Delegation.

The real opportunity for change is still ahead of us, surpassing the magnitude of the development and adoption of the consumer internet. It is what we call the “Industrial Internet,” an open, global network that connects people, data and machines.

The Industrial Internet is aimed at advancing the critical industries that power, move and treat the world. There are now many millions of machines across the world, ranging from simple electric motors to highly advanced MRI machines. There are tens of thousands of fleets of sophisticated machinery, ranging from power plants that produce electricity to aircraft that move people and cargo around the world. There are thousands of complex networks ranging from power grids to railroad systems, which tie machines and fleets together. This vast physical world of machines, facilities, fleets and networks can more deeply merge with the connectivity, big data and analytics of the digital world. This is what the Industrial Internet Revolution is all about. The Industrial Internet era has already begun. And during a time when the global economy is recovering but remains volatile and where resources are constrained for people, governments, and companies, what we need most is to not lose sight of a real opportunity to create meaningful change around the world. After all, this is what revolutions are all about.

[Immelt is the chairman and CEO of GE]

Most people view the internet as a place of free-flowing information where people go to learn, develop their business opportunities and can share scientific discoveries. It’s a place where passwords can be shared among family and friends and people don’t use services to cloak their identity, yet it is also where almost half of us lie about relevant personal information. All of this and some other contradictions have emerged from the Internet Society’s Global Internet User Survey. The Internet Society is an organization that tracks the use and influence of the web and releases policy recommendations associated with online access. For its annual survey it asked more than 10,000 people in 20 countries their thoughts on a series of questions. The results in some cases were surprising.

Although the intricacies of human psychology may never be fully explained, Internet companies seem to have some parts of it figured out. By tracking millions of users, Google, Facebook, and the gaming company Zynga have learned how to position every “I agree” button, text box, and virtual cow to entice people to click. A company called Knewton, in New York City, is now trying to use similar techniques in service of an arguably more laudable goal—helping students learn faster.

The startup, founded in 2008, offers courses like SAT preparation and remedial math that are mostly aimed at people about to start or return to college. They are offered online by schools including Arizona State University. Last November, Knewton signed a deal to use its technology in digital classes being produced by the educational giant Pearson. “When a student takes a course powered by Knewton, we are continuously evaluating their performance, what others have done with that material before, and what [they] know,” says David Kuntz, VP of research at Knewton. He is a veteran of the education business who pioneered the introduction of computer algorithms to the design of standardized tests, like the LSAT. Knewton calls its approach “adaptive learning,” and tracking which questions a student gets right or wrong is just the starting point. Knewton, which has raised $54 million in investments, says its software also monitors how long students take to answer a question and whether they revisit it, and even draws clues from a student’s mouse movements. “We know if they are waving their mouse around trying to decide between option A and C,” says Kuntz.