What should NESSI do?

On Monday afternoon I followed the NESSI session of the parallel track. I found the overview way too general and “buzzwordy” (you know what I mean even if there is no such word). Besides stating several times that the NESSI roadmap will define the “coolest” network ever (see also self-* properties of SOA or the “Internet of things” concept), not much was said. The discussion that followed the presentation was way more interesting– not from a technical, rather from a philosophical point of view:

• A member of the audience stated that the barrier of adoption for many of the listed network properties is not the lack of technology, or the lack of security solutions, but the lack of proper political/licensing/legal regulations. Being provocative, he proposed that the NESSI consortium should focus on political regulations, because results on this front would be more valuable for future networked applications. Good point!
• He received a similarly provocative answer: even if a researcher sees that his results cannot be deployed in practice due to a missing element (in this case the political/licensing/legal regulations), he cannot turn his focus onto a different topic, he can only highlight the issue and continue working on his own subject. I am not so sure about that. This mentality seems more like the “ivory tower research attitude” to me.

So, what do you think NESSI should do? You can provide input for the roadmap before the end of the year. The first draft will be available on the NESSI webpage sometimes in December, and will be open for public comments for one or two months...