Date and time: Tuesday 13 January 2026, 10:15 (SHARP) – 11:15 CET
Speaker: Jon Crowcroft, University of Cambridge
Title: Re-decentralization
Where: NSE seminar room, Teknikringen 33, KTH campus
or
Zoom: https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/67430420436
Host: Carlo Fischione carlofi@kth.se
Bio: Jonathan Andrew “Jon” Crowcroft is the Marconi Professor of Communications Systems at the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory. He has held this professorship since 2001 and is also a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and has served as Chair of the Programme Committee at the Alan Turing Institute. Prof. Crowcroft studied Physics (BA) at Trinity College, Cambridge (graduating in 1979), then completed an MSc in Computing (1981) and a PhD (1993) at University College London.
His early research helped shape key aspects of Internet technology, particularly in network protocols, multimedia communications, and multicast routing. Over more than four decades, his work has spanned core Internet systems, opportunistic and decentralized network designs, and scalable distributed communications. He has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), ACM Fellow, Fellow of the IEEE, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He also received the ACM SIGCOMM Award for lifetime contributions to multimedia and group communications.
In addition to his academic roles, Crowcroft has authored influential books and numerous research publications, and he continues to influence research in large-scale computing systems, social network algorithms, privacy-preserving analytics, and infrastructure-free communication paradigms.
Abstract: Redecentralization has emerged as a growing trend in response to concerns about model’s control, privacy, and sustainability. However, hyperscale cloud platforms continue to outperform decentralized alternatives on dimensions that most users prioritize, including usability, availability, and operational resilience.
Conversely, centralized systems may underperform with respect to privacy and environmental sustainability—dimensions that, to date, appear to have limited influence on user adoption. This tension raises a central question: can decentralized systems close the gap on user-centric performance metrics, or can centralized systems be redesigned to better address privacy and sustainability concerns?
