[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [interesting-people Home]
Subject: ip: Networked Economy Conference -- Day 1
Posted-Date: Tue, 12 Sep 1995 19:14:04 -0400
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 1995 18:16:45 -0500
From: shaynes@research.westlaw.com (Steve Haynes)
To: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu
Subject: Networked Economy Conference -- Day 1
Dave -
As was the case last year, I'm once again attending the Networked
Economy Conference. And again, I'm taking the liberty of
uploading to you for the IP list my notes, such as they are. For
those who read my versions of their own (purported) quotations,
my apologies for any mangling that occurred between your delivery
and my inscribing.
I've divided the notes into a section of _bon_mots_, trying to
capture individual speakers' witticisms, and then a record of
statements of interest during their presentations.
Steve Haynes
* Stephen L. Haynes Internet: shaynes@research.westlaw.com
* Manager, WESTLAW Research MCI Mail: 221-3969
* & Development Compuserve: 76236,3547
* West Publishing Company Phone: 612/687-5770
* 610 Opperman Drive Fax: 612/687-7907
* Eagan, MN 55123
--------------------------------------
MEETING: Networked Economy Conference
DATE: Tuesday, September 12, 1995
LOCATION: Mayflower Hotel, Washington, DC
-------------------------------------
Bon Mots:
Reed Hundt
"Some say that my sitting next to Al Gore in 9th
Grade English, or next to Bill Clinton in
Admiralty in law school are examples of being 'in
the right place at the right time.'"
Robert Frankenberg:
"Finding information on the Internet is like
putting all the volumes in the Library of Congress
in a single room, turning off the lights, and then
telling the user 'All the information you need is
in that room; go ahead and find it.'"
John Perry Barlow:
[Barlow demonstrated once again his facility with
glib one-liners.]
[He was standing in at the last minute for Newt
Gingrich]: "To ask an unrepentant acid-head,
lyricist for the Grateful Dead, to sub for Newt
Gingrich, is an indication of how far we've left
the rails."
"Bandwidth is like money, sex and power: the more
you have the less it feels."
"If anyone else comes up to me with a wink and
says he doesn't want to be road kill on the
information superhighway, there will be an act of
justifiable homicide."
"Content: Where is the container?"
"The concept that there is a direct relationship
between scarcity and wealth does not work in the
information age."
"Everyone is likely to be freer than they want to
be in a short period of time."
"Cyberporn is like the Yogi Berra line: 'No one
goes there anymore because it got too crowded.'"
"The Senate in trying to govern cyberspace is
analogous to King George believing he could still
govern the colonies even though he had never been
there."
"Local government is the only effective government
-- it actually provides services we need."
"You must be able to expand your mind to include
these possibilities [e.g., demise of the nation
state], because if you don't they will expand to
include you."
"The small furry things may win out against the
large scaly things [a reference to the analogy of
evolution], but if you're small and furry but
locked in a closet with a dying dinosaur, you will
be the worse for it."
"I'm a 'presentist': I predict the present, which
puts me far ahead of those who are predicting the
past."
Al Gore:
"One of the things I enjoy as Vice President is
the opportunity to vote [as President of the
Senate]. And one of the things I like most about
it is that every time I vote, we win."
Jim Clark:
"I am still amazed at the number of people who
come up to me and ask, 'But how can you make money
on the Internet?'"
Thomas Dolby:
"Jim Clark told us about Netscape, and it seemed
like he was telling us of a hobby he cooked up to
keep from getting bored in the post-Silicon
Graphics days."
Marc Canter made a joke:
"[With hand held over mouth]
'Mumblemumblemumblemumble': that's real audio."
[Dave, I tried your speech on RealAudio;
characterizing it (RealAudio, not your speech) as
an AM station with bad reception is giving it more
credit than it is due.]
Remarks:
Robert Allen -- keynote:
It's time to open up the regional bell systems markets.
Their monopolies are as entrenched today as they ever
were. The proposed Telecommunications Bill does not
solve the problem.
The law must require real competition in the local
exchange market. The law must designate an impartial
body that uses a standard to determine when the local
market is no longer a monopoly.
Competition has been a dazzling success in the long
distance market: lower prices and improved services
and technology.
Reed Hundt -- keynote:
Right now here in DC is the "right place and right
time" to select policies for the telecommunications
revolution.
Three technologies upon which will be based the next
successful telecommunications companies:
Local Multipoint Distribution System -- provides
interactive video, etc.
NII Band -- highspeed unlicensed band for data
Millimeter Wave Technology -- not yet
technologically viable, but computer industry says
can be used for intraoffice LANs and can be
designed for.
As to public policy:
Axioms:
10) The combination of communications and
cheap PCs will affect government policies
9) The curse of the modern age is that people
do not feel they are in charge of their own
lives; but networks will provide each person
with "topsight", dealing with the
complexities of the modern world.
8) In this country the mass media threaten
the viability of representational democracy
because of the need to buy TV time.
7) We need to admit that modern
communications threatens jobs; we must help
those caught in the middle.
6) The communications revolution will
permanently alter the powers and performance
of governments at all levels; repudiation of
positive government would be shortsighted
just now.
Reforms (for next 12 months):
5) FCC should reform the access charge
schemes in this country; need tight focus for
universal service; need to treat basic cable
as a universal service.
4) Move spectrum auctions as paradigm for use
of airwaves.
3) Deregulate business paradigm of the
airwaves; explain public interest dimension
of the communications revolution as duties of
industry in the sector.
2) Internationally, need to press for
harmonious use of foreign regulation.
1) Communications must revolutionize
education in America. Need government as
catalyst to build model schools in
partnership with industry. Government must
jump-start building of the infrastructure.
Now is right time and right place to lay
foundation for a networked society, so all can be
winners.
Panel:
Hundt: There is a misperception that spectrum auctions
somehow add costs to provision of services over the
spectrum. But the government neither adds to nor takes
away from value. It is the market that puts a value on
spectrum. For example, CBS's spectrum would appear to
be valued by the market at about $5 billion.
John Perry Barlow -- keynote:
The speakers on the first panel narcotized me. It was
less because they were speaking for themselves, but
rather institutionally.
The Internet is not the information superhighway, and
because of it there will not be an information
superhighway because of all the rebellious, small,
dynamic companies that will turn out to dominate the
behemoths that presently think they are king of the
hill.
We are creating an ecosystem where brand new lifeforms
can evolve.
We are looking at the end of the nation state.
"There are a number of small, island nations that are
preparing to be what pirate communities have always
been: havens for pirated goods; in their case, they
are preparing to be data havens [cf. Bruce Sterling's
Islands in the Net]. But the problem with small island
communities is that they can be taken out by one
gunboat, and rest assured that there will be gunboats
in this before it's over." [Over two years ago I gave
a presentation on the mythical island of "Nullexia,"
which was one of those island pirate data havens. I
ended with the remark that Nullexias might exist on any
street in the U.S., what with the advent of Pentium-
level PCs, with gigabyte storage, and anonymous
remailers. They would be very difficult to find and
stop.]
Al Gore -- keynote:
[It felt like a White House cyberspace rump session:
Mike Nelson in the audience, Tom Kalil walking entering
in advance of the V.P.; then Larry Irving -- I was
thinking, if Ron Brown shows up, we'll know it's a
major policy address.]
"Emergence of Information as the Central Organizing
Force in Our World."
"As information becomes an abundant rather than a
scarce resource, nations are disassembling the
telecommunications monopolies that previously existed."
"The proper role of government in development of the
GII is to promote ... social well-being for all
citizens."
Two areas where US can demonstrate its commitments:
One, reform of the 1934 Telecommunications Act.
Two, spending our national resources to promote
our values at home and abroad.
Jim Clark -- keynote:
"Imagine a spreadsheet that when you place your cursor
in a particular cell, it opens a connection to the
Internet and queries your account information at all
your banks and brokerage houses."
Panel:
[Who is Marc Canter? President of Canter Technology,
but what's that?]
[With this panel, it began to feel more like the
Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference than a $1,300
per head Networked Economy affair.]
Clark: we are able to sell advertising on the net.
Hits keep increasing the presence of ads
notwithstanding. We are able to increase our rates
because of the demonstrated increase in hits.
Major diatribe by several panelists against lawyers and
their restrictive activities contrary to interests of
the technologists. Credo: the lawyers will never keep
up with the technologists.
Barlow: encouraged audience to read the IITF
Intellectual Property Working Group's White Paper.
Characterized it as a major mistake and doomed to
failure. Encouraged a revolt against its protections
for the entrenched content forces and media.
[Your reporter resists the temptation to offer a few
pithy comments in rebuttal.]
Bert Roberts -- keynote:
Introduced (?) concept of the "virtual company": where
each task takes place at different venue, but all tied
together over the network.
Heavy emphasis on "intelligent networks" and
partnership with British Telecom.
Panel:
Steve Case:
"The market today for consumer Internet access is
smaller than most people acknowledge."
By making the service more interesting and fun, we
hope to reach more of the 98.5% of the US
population that has not yet signed up with AOL.
[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [interesting-people Home]
Powered by eList eXpress LLC