INTERNET -[OF THINGS]- INTERVAL

PROFESSOR JONATHAN ZITTRAIN / Harvard.............  THE UNUSUAL PROBLEMS  of  'the  Internet of things' calls for unusual solutions, as matter of fact some very, very unusual solutions.

The first confronts the life-cycle problem........

Companies making a critical mass of internet-enabled products should be required to post "a networked safety bond " to be cashed in if they abandon maintenance for a product or fold entirely.

Insurers can price bonds according to companies security practices. There's an example of such a system for coal mining, to provide for reclamation and cleanup should be mining company leave behind a wasteland.

For Internet connected appliances. '' reclamation '' can entail work by nonprofit foundations to maintain the code for abandoned products, creating an "island of misfit toys," in the parlance of  famed 1964 Rankin / Bass  stop-motion Christmas  special.

Proceeds from redeemed bonds would go to these foundations to maintain the  products, like the way the Mozilla Foundation has transformed the 1998 Netscape browser long after its  originators  left the  scene.

A second  intervention would require networked products  modeled after analog counterparts to work even without connectivity.

A smart coffee  maker  shouldn't be so clever  that it  can't  make  coffee  without  Internet  access.

Switchover to  non-connectivity  mode will not merely help prevent things from becoming useless when the  Internet  goes down, or  if the  original vendor  disappears or  jacks up service prices.

The Honor and Serving of the latest Global Operational Research continues. The World Students  Society  thanks Professor Jonathan Zittrain of  International Law  and of computer science at  Harvard-

A co-founder of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and the author of  ''The Future of the Internet - And How to Stop it."