Walled garden (technology)

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A walled garden, with regard to media content, refers to a closed set or exclusive set of information services provided for users (a method of creating a monopoly or securing an information system). This is in contrast to providing consumers access to the open Internet for content and e-commerce. The term is often used to describe offerings from interactive television providers or mobile phone operators which provide custom content, and not common carrier functions.^[1] Another use of the term refers to quarantining malware-infected computers which exhibit symptoms of botnet activity in a way that the user can still access tools to disinfect the machine, usually with a Web browser.^[2] Yet another example is where an unauthenticated user is given access to a limited environment for the purpose of setting up an account - after they have done so they are allowed out of the walled garden. Some walled gardens are created and maintained by the use of firmware upgrades that wall-out alternatives (eg. Apple iPhone hacks).

Alternatively, a walled garden can be information that has few authors, rich interlinkage, but a paucity of links to and from the rest of the information network.^[3]

[edit] Examples

Some examples of walled gardens:

• NTT DoCoMo's i-mode is a wireless Internet service popular in Japan and elsewhere.
• America Online. AOL started its business with revenue-sharing agreements with certain information providers in their subscriber-only space, but later offered general Internet access.
• Full Service Network. A pilot project from Time Warner in the early 1990s, this was an early interactive television system that provided residents of Orlando, Florida, access to online shopping, grocery order and US Mail Service.
• Infovía, a Spain-wide Intranet established by Telefónica in the 1990s. It connected content providers and modem users. Telefonica provided the connection between modems and server over its telephone and data networks.
• Minitel, a pioneering Internet-like service established in France in the 1980s.
• Most WAP services were originally set up as walled gardens.
• Apple didn't allow 3rd-party software development for the 1st generation iPhone released in 2007. Instead, Apple encouraged the development of web applications which are not hosted locally. In 2008, the Apple opened up the iPhone, permitting the installation of 3rd-party applications contingent on Apple's approval.
• Comcast technicians use the term Walled Garden when cable modems are not registered on the Comcast network.
• Optimum Online technicians use the term Walled Garden when cable modems are not registered in the OOL Cablevision network.
• Virgin Media Technicians use the term walled garden to refer to the MAC Addresses of unactivated Cable Modems and set top boxes
• SezamPro BBS in Serbia, which provided selected content (downloading files, messaging board...) only to paid subscribers later began offering full Internet access

[edit] References