Subject: Features vs benefits

From: "Hallam-Baker, Phillip" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:12:22 -0700

The discussion on IPv4/IPv6 is going round in circles. One clear cause is that there are folk who have a set of unspoken goals. We are not going to get anywhere if they remain unspoken.
 
Part of the Internet 2.0 concept is to create a brand that would clearly identify products that were guaranteed to work together and provide a certain level of functionality. If a consumer buys an Internet 2.0 compliant hub and plugs it into their Internet 2.0 compliant ISP service and runs an Internet 2.0 compliant application it should all work as expected.
 
In order to achieve this all I2.0 gadgets will of course have to support a common set of technical features. But what is important as far as the consumer is concerned is not the features but the benefits.

IPv6 is a feature, ability to use a Web browser to connect to a Web site is a benefit. The IPv4/6 discussion is focused on features, we need to discuss benefits.
 
What I hear consumers asking for is for benefits such as:
 
* The ability to connect to any Web site that they choose.
* The ability to send and receive email and other asynchronous messaging applications.
* The ability to initiate and respond to IM, VOIP, Video, games and other synchronous messaging applications.
* The ability to filter inbound communications to select only those that they wish to receive
* The ability to know with confidence who they are dealing with online and whether they can be trusted
* The ability to connect as many devices as they chose to their home network 
 
Equally important is what they want to reject:
 
* Consumers do not want to have to learn how the technology works
* Consumers do not want to have to troubleshoot their network
* Consumers do not want to allow a supplier to use their position to establish an artificial dependency relationship
* Consumers do not want to have their bank account looted or to reveal information that might enable a burglar or stalker
* Consumers do not want to be told that their equipment no longer works and must be replaced
* Consumers do not want their computers to be trashed by a network borne virus or work

Looking at the list of benefits consumers are looking for I note
 
1) The list of benefits that consumers are looking for are essentially the same as those sought by enterprises.
2) While ISPs objectives may differ on the revenue side, there is a much greater area of common interest in reducing the need for customer support.
3) These objectives are all eminently achievable.

Clearly there are differences of opinion as to the best way of achieving these goals but can we at least agree on them as common goals?
 
On the meta-political side, yes there are larger political agendas that some people here are looking to pursue. Some people see the Web as a political instrument, a means of counterbalancing the power of press barons such as Rupert Murdoch, Robert Maxwell and Conrad Black, or of undermining autocratic regimes by ensuring the free and confidential flow of information. There are even people who might propose designing the Web in a fashion that made it uniquely resistant to censorship so as to flood countries such as Saudi Arabia with vast quantities of porn so as to undermine what passes for social values.
 
While such larger political agendas make for interesting discussion, at this point they are for better or worse already a fait acompli. Unless someone can propose a plausible method of putting the toothpaste back in the tube we need not discuss it further.
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