"I would like to see a mashup that can create a value index that people can use to understand how their identity is negotiated, traded, and assigned across multiple web spaces."

Joaquin Alvarado is a NetSquared Advocate, and the Founding Director of the Institute for Next Generation Internet at San Francisco State University. In this e-interview, he talks about the Institute's work, Web 2.0 and the "digital divide", and the kind of mashup he'd like to see developed for the NetSquared Mashup Challenge.

BB: The Institute for Next Generation Internet provides leadership in the evolution of Next Generation Internet focusing on issues of public policy, industry collaboration, research and development, and community engagement. What project is the Institute working on right now that involves the social web?

JA: INGI is focused on developing semantic web tools for creating persistent user experiences across the network. The amount of data on the web in an overwhelming number of sites and services is marginalizing people. We want people to be the creative core of the network.

BB: One of the Institute's goals is to break down barriers to digital literacy for underserved communities. How do social web tools enforce the "digital divide," and how do they bridge it?

JA: Social web tools are designed by narrow communities and then distributed via a well-defined pipeline to the larger community. When we open access to the development environments, the metaphors start to change. We need to think of tools as extensions of the structures that created them and then challenge the dynamic to see where it can breathe life into the community.

BB: This year's NetSquared Conference (N2Y3) will feature user-created mashups with social impact. What is a mashup of data you'd like to see that would make people more aware of the barriers to digital literacy?

JA: We have a concept we refer to as "Transactional Identity" which describes the monetization and valuation of the individual across communities and markets. I would like to see a mashup that can create a value index that people can use to understand how their identity is negotiated, traded, and assigned across multiple web spaces. This would be a veritable NYSE for a person to begin to track just how pervasive network activity is in their social, political, and economic lives.

BB: During the 2nd NetSquared Conference (N2Y2), you were one of the experts who grilled the Featured Projects in the Social Impact track. One of the projects, YouthAssets, said in an interview that you asked some of the toughest questions. How has your relationship with YouthAssets developed since the Conference?

Since the Conference I have served as an advisor to Youth Assets. It has been a tremendously rewarding experience and really given me a chance to learn more about a critical issue in the world today. They have done a great job of bootstrapping the organization.

BB: What is your big vision of what the Next Generation Internet would look like in an ideal world?

We need a national high speed networking infrastructure that delivers 1-10 gigabit connectivity to all Americans. This is critical to our future economic success as a diverse nation committed to the values of fairness and access. The first Internet was commercialized without a defined public interest-something we had for Television (PBS) and Radio (NPR). We have defined this in our National Pubic Lightpath initiative. NPL converges universities, industry, communities and public broadcasting to collaborate on the creation of a national high speed network infrastructure