In his book Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web author David Weinberger argues that Web or the Internet (the words are used interchangebly) is by its nature imperfect and thus cannot be controlled. The Internet is decentralized as opposed to government or traditional management that built on centralization. The Internet in itself does not seek perfection. Perfection is sought by the users at the fringes. Conversely, government seeks control to perfect its system. But Weinberger maintaind that the success of the Internet in fact stems from this imperfection: The web works because it is broken!

In direct opposition to Weinberger’s views that the staying power of the Internet depends on its brokeness and thus uncontrollability is the view of Eugene Kaspersky, head of antivirus research at Kaspersky Labs Ltd. of Moscow who argues that governments of the world have to take control of the Internet to saveit from buckling under the increasing pressure of worms, viruses and other cyberattacks

Governments should control the Internet in the same way other public networks, such as electricity and traffic information networks, are controlled, Kaspersky said in a meeting with journalists at the CeBIT trade show in Hanover, Germany, on 13 March 2003.

Rules for usage of the network should be enforced by Internet police with users licensed to use the ‘Net, he said. “If we want to have a big public network like the Internet in the future, there must be very strict usage rules. If we don’t have those, the Internet will just die,” Kaspersky said. “The Internet today is like a road without policemen and driving licenses.”

Kaspersky warned of a “new era” of global Internet attacks in which antivirus companies won’t be able to protect users. The advent of fast-spreading Internet worms has decreased the time vendors have to provide protection to a day or two, according to Kaspersky. Smarter worms will propagate even faster.

“In the future antivirus companies won’t be able to deliver protection on time,” Kaspersky said. “We have to prepare for a scenario one day this year or next year that will visibly slowdown the global Internet.”

Kaspersky is quoted from http://www.idg.net/go.cgi?id=791234.