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How the Hourglass Won

The Internet's architecture is viewed as an hourglass: broad application support at the top, narrow waist (IP), wide choice of links below IP

The view was that digitization and other technological advances would allow the cable network to deliver hundreds of channels, with limited upstream data enabling including some interactive and on-demand services. This was arguably true in 1994 but turned out to be irrelevant as faster links became available and a combination of new router designs and Moore’s law enabled high-speed routing to flourish. To reiterate a point from Larry’s post, if we can teach students that they have the power to change the Internet, and give them the tools to do so, that is more valuable than just telling them how it works today.

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