Introduction

The internet, as we have known it for almost three decades, is changing and the Next Internet may do more to disrupt the world than its older sibling. The Next Internet is far from fully formed and still bears some of the characteristics of the original. But it is growing rapidly and is already challenging the vision of a democratic, decentralized, and pluralistic digital world.

The Next Internet brings together three interconnected systems: cloud computing, big data analytics, and the Internet of Things. It promises centralized data storage and services in vast digital factories that process and build algorithms from the massive streams of information gathered by networked sensors stored in every possible consumer, industrial, and office device, as well as in living bodies. In doing so, it is creating major social challenges, including for the workplace. This chapter explores the technological foundations, labour implications, and socio-economic consequences of the Next Internet.

Technology

The brilliance of the original internet was figuring out how to get a decentralized, distributed world of servers to talk to one another and thereby connect users through simple, universal software standards. This began to change with the growth of cloud computing, symbolized best by the enormous data centres that have sprung up, seemingly overnight, all over the world. The cloud is a system for storing, processing, and distributing data, applications, and software using remote computers that provide IT services on demand for a fee. Familiar examples include Google's Cloud Platform, Apple's iCloud, Microsoft's Office 365, and the largest cloud computing company in the world, Amazon Web Services.

The cloud enables businesses, government agencies, and individuals to move their data from onsite IT departments and personal computers to large data centres located all over the world.