This past week, rich guy Mark Cuban (currently owner of the Dallas Mavericks and founder of HDNet) said that the intarwebs are “dead and boring”. Basically, he says that the internet in its current form has reached a point of diminishing returns. Broadband speeds won’t increase much over the next few years—there just won’t be enough resources for everything that people want.

He’s right about at least one thing. As consumers, our voracious appetite for media will likely choke the infrastructure of the web as it is now, if something isn’t done about it. When we’re online, we’re playing games, running blogs, uploading and downloading video, and even talking to and seeing each other. As these activities become even more and more mainstream, things could get tricky. In addition, consumers are increasingly savvy to HD content and will require it.

To combat this issue, the infrastructure will need an overhaul and/or new technologies developed that will bring the kinds of content that people want with a less stressing impact on the “tubes”. We rely on the internet so much and many don’t realize that we are one failure away from disaster.

Now, the thing about which I disagree. The internet is a lot of things, but not boring…or even dead. Cuban probably thinks of himself as something of a prophet on this matter. Admittedly, he’s lucky and probably smart too. He made his fortune on this “boring and dead” internet and now he’s jaded. We also shouldn’t expect any less from someone with toys like a high-definition television network to be ’so completely over’ our decrepit internet.

That said, we do need to figure out how to strengthen what is arguably the backbone of our economy. Today’s kids may not remember or have ever known an existence without the internet, but hopefully they are smart enough to know that it gives them the ability to do things that no average person has been able to do on their own so economically. It has been and still is a game-changer.

written by JM