In 1997, David S. Isenberg wrote an essay entitled, “The Rise of the Stupid Network: Why the Intelligent Network Was a Good Idea Once But Isn’t Anymore.” In it, Dr. Isenberg, then a distinguished member of technical staff at AT&T Laboratories, examined the technological bases of the existing telecom business model, laid out how the communications business would be changed by new technologies, foresaw today’s cataclysms, and imagined tomorrow’s new network.
The essay was released onto the Internet and found its way into the hands of The Wall Street Journal, Network World, and George Gilder’s Technology Report. Of the essay, The Wall Street Journal said, “it may soon assume cult status among the tech mavens that roam the World Wide Web.” Communications Week International said that the essay, “packed power [and] challenged the most sacred assumptions of the telecom world.” Inevitably, the essay found wider acceptance outside of AT&T than within it, and David Isenberg left AT&T to start the company isen.com, Inc., whose mission was to help telecommunications companies navigate from business models based on scarcity, towards new models formed by the abundance of communications infrastructure.
David S. Isenberg’s public delivery of the “Stupid Network” message is passionate and personal. He has spoken to over 100 audiences on three continents, and has been cited in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, Fortune, Wired, Business 2.0, Communications Week International, Network World, Release 1.0, Gilder Technology Report, TheStreet.com, Nikkei Communications, and numerous other publications. He has authored articles for Fortune, USA Today, IEEE Spectrum, MSNBC, Communications Week International, Light Reading, Business 2.0, America’s Network, VON Magazine, and ACM Networker.
Dr. Isenberg holds a Ph.D. in biology from Caltech, and is a Fellow of Glocom, the Institute for Global Communications of the International University of Japan. He is a founding advisor of the World Technology Network, and was a judge for the World Communications Awards in 1999 and 2001.
