Who said the internet changes everything

What's interesting and powerful about the mobile environment is that it's connected to services on the Internet. This augments both platforms. The advent of the Internet exposed the fact that the old business model for newspapers was broken.

The world wide web fundamentally changed the media eco-system, challenging established journalistic practice in what is known as the mainstream media: radio, television, newspapers and magazines.

The rise of broadband and growing ubiquity of Internet access excites me the most. The world changes a lot when, no matter where you are - in the middle of a deserted highway or in a bustling city - you can get high speed broadband access.

In education, technology can be a life-changer, a game changer, for kids who are both in school and out of school.

Technology can bring textbooks to life. The Internet can connect students to their peers in other parts of the world. It can bridge the quality gaps. Even the most brilliant accomplishments on the Internet are essentially cold. Google has changed the world, but you don't snuggle up to it. YouTube is a giant carnival, filled with freaks and mountebanks, a place to gawk and laugh and get bored.

Certainly not a place to feel anything. We are at a crossroads in the music business: with the rise of the internet, the world we live in has changed, and the past is not coming back. But I see the glass as half-full: the internet and social networking are new avenues for the next Bob Dylan to be born on. That's one reason the stock price has fallen since last summer, from historic highs in the 40s to the mids. To get an idea of what Ellison and Oracle are up to, you have to understand what the man means by "Internet computing" and how it differs from the "client server" approach championed for the past decade by Microsoft and, until recently, Oracle too.

Then you'll see why Ellison suddenly is so engaged in his job. Oracle's main product is database software, which corporations use to store in piecemeal form all the salient information about their operations: customer lists, inventory data, personnel details, financial records, transaction histories, correspondence, legal documents, and much more. Oracle also makes "enterprise applications" software--elaborate programs that historically have run on desktop "client" computers such as PCs.

They, in turn, tap into database servers to get the raw information to track and manage accounting, manufacturing, human resources, sales leads, customer relations, and just about every other corporate activity. Although client-server software has become extremely popular, it has drawbacks--it is costly and complex for big companies to implement, requires ongoing maintenance by highly paid specialists, and scatters fragments of corporate data among dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of computers, making it difficult to pull together a comprehensive picture of a company's business.

A perfect example of this, says Ellison, is Oracle's own human resources information system. That information is scattered among more than 70 databases around the world, and my PC doesn't have the software or the access to pull it all together.

And I'm the CEO, for crying out loud. This is where Internet computing comes in. Even Ellison's bitterest competitors in the database business agree that the Internet, with its potential to connect virtually every computer in the world, will make database technology more crucial than ever.

Says Informix CEO Bob Finnochio: "The Internet is a gift from heaven to the database business, because as more and more people and companies get connected, everyone will need bigger, better, and faster databases. As the Internet expands the universe of devices that can tap into databases, Ellison contends, it makes sense to have those clients find data, crunch numbers, or manage business processes via simple standardized Internet browsers, rather than by specific and complex application software.

If the actual data crunching is confined to the servers, and merely controlled and displayed by browsers, he reasons, much of the cost and complexity of managing enterprise software can be dispensed with. Data can be concentrated in fewer, bigger systems, saving money and cutting the number of geeks needed to run a company. Just as important, it will be easier for corporate officers to get instant snapshots of their businesses.

Ellison had this epiphany nearly four years ago, after playing around with Netscape Navigator on his PC for a month.

After mulling it over and consulting with his pal Steve Jobs, among others, he mandated that every Oracle enterprise-software product be converted to work as an Internet application that can be viewed and manipulated on a PC or other "network appliance" via a browser. He also pulled the plug on further development of client-server products, and instructed the sales force to tell customers that Oracle would phase out those products by He set all this in motion by the spring of Then, as was his wont, Larry took the summer off.

Upon returning to work that fall, however, Ellison realized that the jobs weren't getting done. His software developers were only paying lip service to his goal of "Internetizing" the product line. Money needs to change hands. The Internet spreads faster when content is free, some said, but others argued vociferously that creators need to be paid. This was an oft-repeated tension, unresolved at e-G8.

Even copyright laws were controversial when sharing of content is a social experience which was a main theme of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. For all the freedom and ease of the virtual world, people still need to earn a living from what they produce. Government and business still talk past one another.

Christine Lagarde argued that the winner-take-all nature of Internet businesses poses risks of new monopolies controlling everything. That was one of many reasons that government officials want to protect citizens from Internet risks, from piracy to child pornography.

Schmidt felt that governments are not ready for the huge shift of power to individuals in the Internet age. For every problem — piracy, bandwidth, security — he argued that a private sector technology solution would be better, faster than a government solution. But if Internet proponents want credibility with the public as well as the public sector, then those solutions must come quickly, along with many social responsibility efforts. People no longer spend hours gazing at a computer screen after work or class; instead, they use their mobile devices to stay online everywhere, all the time.

The Internet has become embedded in every aspect of our day-to-day lives, changing the way we interact with others. This insight struck me when I started out in the world of social media.

I created my first social network in , when I was finishing college in the United States—it had a political theme. I could already see that social media were on the verge of changing our way of communicating, helping us to share information by opening up a new channel that cuts across conventional ones. That first attempt did not work out, but I learned from the experience.

I get the feeling that in many countries failure is punished too harshly—but the fact is, the only surefire way of avoiding failure is to do nothing at all. I firmly believe that mistakes help you improve; getting it wrong teaches you how to get it right. Creativity, hard work, and a positive attitude will let you achieve any goal. In , after I moved to Spain, I created Tuenti.

From the outset, the idea was to keep it simple, relevant, and private. I think the real value of social media is that you can stay in touch from moment to moment with the people who really matter to you.

Social media let you share experiences and information; they get people and ideas in touch instantly, without frontiers. Camaraderie, friendship, and solidarity—social phenomena that have been around for as long as humanity itself—have been freed from the conventional restrictions of space and time and can now thrive in a rich variety of ways.

Out of all the plethora of communication opportunities that the Internet has opened up, I would highlight the emergence of social media and the way they have intricately melded into our daily lives.

Social media have changed our personal space, altering the way we interact with our loved ones, our friends, and our sexual partners; they have forced us to rethink even basic daily processes like studying and shopping; they have affected the economy by nurturing the business startup culture and electronic commerce; they have even given us new ways to form broad-based political movements. The Internet has clearly impacted all levels of education by providing unbounded possibilities for learning.

I believe the future of education is a networked future. By connecting and empowering students and educators, we can speed up economic growth and enhance the well-being of society throughout the world. We should work together, over a network, to build the global learning society. The network of networks is an inexhaustible source of information.

The information recipient even decides whether or not they want to stay informed. We have moved on from scattergun mass communication to a pattern where the user proactively selects the information they need.

Students can work interactively with one another, unrestricted by physical or time constraints. Today, you can use the Internet to access libraries, encyclopedias, art galleries, news archives, and other information sources from anywhere in the world: I believe this is a key advantage in the education field.

The web is a formidable resource for enhancing the process of building knowledge. I also believe the Internet is a wonderful tool for learning and practicing other languages—this continues to be a critical issue in many countries, including Spain, and, in a globalized world, calls for special efforts to improve. The Internet, in addition to its communicative purposes, has become a vital tool for exchanging knowledge and education; it is not just an information source, or a locus where results can be published, it is also a channel for cooperating with other people and groups who are working on related research topics.

Another key issue surrounding Internet use is privacy. Internet users are becoming more sensitive to the insight that privacy is a must-have in our lives. Privacy has risen near the top of the agenda in step with an increasing awareness of the implications of using social media.

Much of the time, people started to use social media with no real idea of the dangers, and have wised up only through trial and error—sheer accident, snafus, and mistakes. Lately, inappropriate use of social media seems to hit the headlines every day.

Celebrities posting inappropriate comments to their profiles, private pictures and tapes leaked to the Internet at large, companies displaying arrogance toward users, and even criminal activities involving private-data trafficking or social media exploitation.

All this shows that—contrary to what many people seem to have assumed—online security and privacy are critical, and, I believe, will become even more important going forward. And, although every user needs privacy, the issue is particularly sensitive for minors—despite attempts to raise their awareness, children still behave recklessly online.

I have always been highly concerned about privacy. On Tuenti, the default privacy setting on every user account is the highest available level of data protection. This means that, by default, user information is not accessible to third parties.

In addition, users are supported by procedures for reporting abuse. Any user can report a profile or photograph that is abusive, inappropriate, or violates the terms of use: action is taken immediately. Security and privacy queries are resolved within 24 hours. We need to be aware that different Internet platforms provide widely different privacy experiences. Some of them are entirely open and public; no steps whatsoever are taken to protect personal information, and all profiles are indexable by Internet search engines.

On the other hand, I think the debate about whether social media use should be subject to an age requirement is somewhat pointless, given that most globally active platforms operate without age restrictions.

The European regulatory framework is quite different from the United States and Asian codes. Companies based in Europe are bound by rigorous policies on privacy and underage use of social media. This can become a competitive drawback when the ground rules do not apply equally to all players—our American and Japanese competitors, for instance, are not required to place any kind of age constraint on access.

Outside the scope of what the industry or regulators can do, it is vital that users themselves look after the privacy of their data. Everything should be a lot simpler and more transparent. Social networks should continue to devote intense efforts to developing self-regulation mechanisms and guidelines for this new environment of online coexistence to ensure that user information is safe: the Internet should be a space for freedom, but also for trust.

The main way of ensuring that social media are used appropriately is awareness.