Choosing a single most important development is incredibly hard to do because a lot of different things had to happen before the Internet could be deployed in the fashion it is today.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I think most of the important stuff on the Internet has been built. There will be continued innovation, for sure, but the great problems of the Internet have essentially been solved.
I think a lot of developments start with the desire of the developer to get what he really wants so that he can use it. It's not just the technical fascination or the business opportunity.
The big deal about the Internet design was you could have an arbitrary large number of networks so that they would all work together.
One of the biggest problems that software developers face is that technology changes rapidly. It is very hard to stay current.
Compared even to the development of the phone or TV, the Web developed very quickly.
Technological transformations give you the chance to set up new and ambitious ventures. That's what I did with FastWeb and that is what we are doing with Babelgum. This is much more than TV because we are making the content available all across the world and you have an open platform with freedom of choice.
When I was born, the Internet was barely two years old. It was the preserve of academics, used to connect dozens rather than billions of users. There weren't many who predicted it would transform our world.
It's difficult for any single company to develop all the applications and services.
In software, it's easy to understand what people want, and it's hard to build. Internet stuff is super easy to build, but it's hard to know what people want.
The silly question is the first intimation of some totally new development.