Jared Hardy’s DataRoads Foundation advocates a radical change in how data are routed on the internet. Instead of a central naming system, Hardy says, we could have user-centric addresses which, combined with a geographic component, could do the job as well as or even better than today’s global IP numbers. The concept is explained in a post titled ‘When Global Agreements Aren’t Necessary’.

In another post – ‘Flipping The Internet Upside-Down’ – the revolutionary impact of such a new addressing and routing system becomes clear. Hardy says we need “a new, bottom-up, “first mile” version of the Internet. This new vision for the Internet can exploit these existing institutions, yet it does not require any of them. I think we can build something even better than Network Neutrality into this new design. Instead, we can build a people-centered network.”

He’s also made an illustration that shows how the net will change. It depicts the internet of today, where we depend on content providers and access providers and shows, in the bottom half of the design, what the relative importances will be in a future net where we the users are the owners of that last mile and its immediate connectivity.

Hardy also says we shouldn’t be talking about lines and pipes when describing the internet. The terminology should be that of a network of nodes that talk to each other. Roads would be a great analogy.

“The top-down nature of the Internet today is reflected and enforced by the analogies we use. Network connections are not like “pipes,” where resources come down from some central reservoir. They are not like electrical “lines” either, where energy is created and distributed from a set of far-away generation plants. Modern networks aren’t even like old telephone connections, where some central switching-station routes all regional calls.”

“IP packet networks are much more like the “roads” we navigate every day. Everyone should be able to have a driveway connection from their personal property onto the shared road system. Everyone can provide their own “vehicle” (device) for utilizing these roads. Every “trip” has a unique start and destination. Vehicles obey regulatory requirements, and drivers obey the rules of the road, yet everyone is considered to be “free” in their travel plans and methods.”

“Data roads have parallels to transportation roads, but are much more flexible.”

To get a more detailed view of this new conception of the net, please go see the DataRoads Foundation website.