They work silently without us noticing, but they are critical to the functioning of the Internet. They are the IXPs, the interchange points of the network. In Italy we have a dozen, but more would be needed. Because the amount of terabytes (one trillion bytes) of data that travels on these networks every day is constantly increasing.
The Internet is a large network of interconnected networks that intersect at these interchange nodes. Their role has been and remains to facilitate and speed up the exchange of data between the so-called Autonomous Systems, the local network systems that form the Internet.
IXPs are physical places that host hundreds of network devices necessary to sort and speed up the data traffic generated by our browsing and Internet services. After all, the IXPs are a small paradox. They are the concrete, physical, tangible part of the Internet, of the digital, a place perceived as virtual, ephemeral, in which data travels in the form of bytes that we share and exploit but never really possess.
New meanings of the data, new responsibilities for IXPs
Over the years, their role as simple data propagators has changed. Because as the value of the data itself changes, the responsibilities of those who transmit it also change. This is how IXPs evolve towards a new model of neutral intermediary, which expands its functionality from the level of connectivity to that of managing services and data, also in terms of security and ethics.
The TOP-IX is the TOrino Piemonte Internet eXchange, one of the six Italian network interchange points, born in 2002 as a non-profit consortium in the Piedmontese capital. Like other IXPs in the world, TOP-IX has also become aware of its own maturation, rebuilding its identity over the years.
Today the TOP-IX consortium, in addition to providing the typical services of an Internet Exchange, promotes and supports impactful technological and business innovation projects, based on the use of broadband Internet, through its Development Program (DP). From 2010 he started dealing with data, first Open, then Big. After having given life to nine editions of Big Dive, a training course for data scientists, TOP-IX is today one of the souls of Impact Deal, a data-driven accelerator for impact companies on a European scale. Not only that, TOP-IX also makes its own streaming platform available to companies.
A great event to celebrate the twenty years of TOP-IX
TOP-IX turns twenty this year and celebrates with Connections, a great event that will take place on 6 October at OGR Torino. The collaboration is certainly not accidental: what better place than a 35 thousand square meter hub with an international dimension, dedicated to contemporary culture, innovation and business acceleration. Because Connections wants to be an opportunity to understand how data, connections and algorithms play a crucial role in shaping the experience of reality. Connections will be a major international event in which to talk about the impact of technology on society, through talks and performing arts.
The program consists of a mix of performance and lectio magistralis and includes the intervention of high-level guests who will measure themselves against the data by proposing five dissemination paths. We will talk about privacy, public health, data sovereignty, up to the evolution of the idea of citizenship. All with the common goal of working so that the future of data can be fairer and more democratic. To do the honors, Massimo Temporelli, physicist, writer and science writer, who will take the public by the hand along a journey into the world of innovation and the nuances of digital data.
Together with him, Jer Thorp, North American data-artist, among the first to deal with research and data visualization at the New York Times. Vittoria Colizza, research director at INSERM (French National Institute for Health and Medical Research) and specialist in data modeling of infectious diseases and epidemics and Eleni Diamanti, CNRS researcher at the Sorbonne University who deals with quantum computing. Up to Francesco Bonfiglio Chief Executive Officer of GAIA-X, the European project that works to create an open and federated digital ecosystem for data sharing.
At the end of the day, the performance of the artistic collective SPIME.IM presenting ZERO, an audio-video experience that explores – from micro to macro – the aesthetics of languages derived from the affirmation of digital reality. Connections is organized by TOP-IX, in collaboration with OGR, and is free.
To participate you must register at this link.