Testfolio Omega, by Daniela BERNDT • Externet+

Restoring the Balance

Considering that the core issue of this second step, which is critical to the development of our user experience, is no less but the choice of the right Internet Service Provider, the present article is intended both for people who are about to buy their first modem or to replace their existing one, and for such internet users who simply need to reconsider their current configuration.

Knowing further that national laws regulating internet access vary from one country to another, the only way to build a common ground intelligible to all users regardless of nationality issues is to redefine the whole experience in terms of economic intelligence, conceptual rather than geopolitical. In other words: as a cyber-citizen (i.e. a consumer of web services), and a master franchisor (i.e. a producer of web services), what I need as much as my future franchisees is the insurance that the internet as a market is locked upwards, i.e. secured so as to leave me no other option but the right choice, in order to enable me to consume and produce at my own sustainably optimized point of normative-adaptative equilibrium.

Taking into account that in terms of intellectual property, the responsibilities are to be equally shared between the legitimate author and owner of digital contents, and the provider of the containing equipment, whereby the quality of a purchase decision depends first and foremost on the knowledge available to the user at the time of subscription, the permanent conceptual assessment of the user experience at the ISP level will have to graft upon the normative + adaptative = evolving qualities of the equipment to be supplied, so as to ensure that the user is enabled to safeguard and restore his·her (meta)data at each new step: the ISP will therefore have to provide for a safe capitalization process along the value chain, in order to guarantee that the user's data does not get compromised during a change of equipment.

As already announced, the objective is not to set up yet another comparative table of all ISP packages flooding the existing internet market, which remains a perfectly technocentric red ocean on both sides of a balance sheet that aggregates into nothing but digital divide. I will therefore focus on the weaknesses common to most offers:

ASSETS
LIABILITIES

Major weaknesses of OVH's professional production packages (the unique French reference in terms of web hosting solutions):

Bridled supply of ascending broadband capacities (there should be one single as complete as scalable a package, instead of up to four ill-conceived ones);
The packaging of web hosting packages puts the emphasis on the technological infrastructures, instead of promoting practical (show)case studies;
As a consequence, the overall user experience (reference manuals included) is dominated by technical considerations, which undermine the more quality-oriented possibilities.

Major weaknesses of existing ISP packages supposed to be best suited for personal consumption:

The packaging of such web products and services is technocentric, rather than adapted to specific uses arising from well assessed needs;
Due to the market domination of mobile devices, hoarding data is more encouraged than securing transmission;
As a consequence, the cloud-based storage capacities supplied by default are plethoric, in consideration of the still prevailing lack of guarantees.

Since we are all both content consumers and producers, here is what both types of ISP packages should have in common:

An user experience conditioned by the applicant's initial declaration of intended use, which, by enabling less intrusive surveillance, would provide for a progressive change of habits away from the current practices of "blind-testing-around" rooted in a catalogue of technical specifications.
By default, an "IPv6+Ultra®" address providing a registration number which would be both anonymous and retraceable to the user (whose identity must remain authenticatable), i.e. constituted of a variable part (enabling safe navigation protected from speculative practices), and a static part for all subscription services which require it.
Broadband and storage capacities which adapt to the user's consumption (i.e. to the progressive evolution of his·her needs), both downwards and upwards.
A customer service dedicated both to technical support and reciprocal feedback, enhanced with a forum providing a richer and user-friendlier environment for the quality-oriented sharing of experiences.
A comprehensive webmail solution (both online- and app-based), upgradeable to group-level discussion boards (my benchmark of reference - for demo purposes - remains "Yahoo! Mail" and "Yahoo! Groups").
A "personal pages" option made of two complementary modules: one reserved for the internal referencing of the user's individual webmail profile, and another provided for the internal and/or external referencing of the user's group profile.
The compulsory and optional profile referencing settings arising from all this: the ones which are internal to the ISP, and the others, external, providing for registration with one or more search engines such as Qwant.

Isolating the technical issues which condition the access to the internet market of web products and services, in order to rethink the whole user experience towards sustainable self-development, enables us to lay the groundwork for the emergence of a self-cleanable digital economy, capable of reprocessing itself out of its current technocratic dead-ends. With this in mind, let us now reset the Net starting from the initial idea of a pilot's licence for everyone: the modem is the toll station providing home-based access to your national information highways, which will lead you to the global network, and comes with an IP-based pilot's registration number. Your national email identifier helps you to manage and optimize your user experience all along the value chain, whereas your user profiles, as level indicators of subject matter expertise, constitute the first building blocks of the digital pilot's licence which will enable you to take part in the construction. I wish you a safe and pleasant trip!