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Distributed consensus is fundamental in distributed systems for achieving fault-tolerance. The Paxos algorithm has long dominated this domain, although it has been recently challenged by algorithms such as Raft and Viewstamped Replication Revisited. These algorithms rely on Paxos's original assumptions, unfortunately these assumptions are now at odds with the reality of the modern internet. Our insight is that current consensus algorithms have significant availability issues when deployed outside the well defined context of the datacenter.

"The Internet is for everyone" claims Vint Cerf, the father of the Internet via RFC 3271. The Internet Society's recent global Internet survey reveals that the Internet should be considered as a basic human birth right. We strongly agree with these and believe that basic access to the Internet should be made free, at least to access the essential services. However the current Internet access model, which is governed by market economics makes it practically infeasible for enabling universal access especially for those with socio-economic barriers.

The Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge hosted a workshop on "Internet on the Move" on September 22, 2012. The objective of the workshop was to bring academia, industry and regulators to discuss the challenges in realizing the notion of ubiquitous mobile Internet. The editorial summarises a general overview of the issues discussed on enabling universal mobile coverage and some of the solutions that have been proposed to alleviate the problem of having ubiquitous mobile connectivity.

In all seriousness, Differential Privacy is a new technique and set of tools for managing responses to statistical queries over secured data, in such a way that the user cannot reconstruct more precise identification of principles in the dataset beyond a formally well-specified bound. This means that personally sensitive data such as Internet packet traces or social network measurements can be shared between researchers without invading personal privacy, and that assurances can be made with accuracy.

The Internet is not a Universal service, but then neither is democracy. So should the Internet be viewed as a right? It's certainly sometimes wrong. In this brief article, we depend on the Internet to reach our readers, and we hope that they don't object our doing that.

Electronic social networks are a relatively new pervasive phenomenon that has changed the way in which we communicate and interact. They are now supporting new applications, leading to new trends and posing new challenges. The workshop titled ”Future of Social Networking: Experts from Industry and Academia” took place in Cambridge on November 18, 2010 to expose how the future of social networking may develop and be exploited in new technologies and systems. We provide a summary of this event and some observations on the key outcomes.

I’m so Bored of the Future Internet (FI). There are so many initiatives to look at the Internet’s Future1, anyone would think that there was some tremendous threat like global warming, about to bring about its immediate demise, and that this would bring civilisation crashing down around our ears.

On numerous occasions, trips to the facilities coincide with an important mobile phone call. Due to the sleek and polished nature of modern phones, attempting to promptly deal with such calls can occasionally lead to the phone sliding through the owner’s hands, surrendering to the force of gravity and flying down the hole. This is a disaster, and often an expensive incident. It can also be a health and safety hazard, with the owner desperately attempting to retrieve their phone and re-using it.