Gadgets kill the InternetBoffin bemoans lack of tinkeringBy Nick Farrell: Friday, 09 May 2008, 8:13 AMGADGETS SUCH AS Apple’s iPhone, RIM’S Blackberry and Vole’s Xbox are killing the creativity that created the Internet according to a top boffin.Professor Jonathan Zittrain scribbles in his new book that the latest gizmos, which are sealed, "sterile" boxes do not allow the sort of tinkering that leads to technological advances.He said that people should be able to get into their gadgets and muck around with them so that they can develop new ideas.Zittrain also said that the mix of gadgets, over-regulation and Internet security fears could destroy the system where new ideas came because people did random things to the software and hardware they used.Speaking to Reuters he said that there was a two-tier world developing where experts survived but ordinary punters were stuck between something they don't understand and something that limits them.Zittrain, who is professor of Internet governance and regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University, says the World Wide Wibble had done so well because it was simple, open and flawed. This meant that amateurs have come up with scores of new ideas just by tinkering around with it.He was particularly scathing of the iPhone which he said was too easy for vendors to change from afar and a world away from the open, creative, innovative approach that built the web
