IP: Networked Economy Conference - Day 2

[David Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 20:37:42 -0500
From: shaynes@research.westlaw.com (Steve Haynes)
To: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu


Dave -


Second day's installment.  Not as much recorded, partly because I
spent some pleasant time chatting with John Gage, partly because
I had to leave early, and partly because it just wasn't as
interesting today (with a few exceptions).


Steve Haynes


* Stephen L. Haynes            Internet:  shaynes@research.westlaw.com
* Manager, WESTLAW Research    MCI Mail:  221-3969
*   & Development              Compuserve:  76236,3547
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MEETING:        Networked Economy Conference


DATE:           Wednesday, September 13, 1995


LOCATION:       Mayflower Hotel, Washington DC


          -------------------------------------


Bon Mots:


     Ed McCracken:


          [On personality tests] many of us in the computer
          industry turn out to be "head-centered," but we
          need to deal with the 2/3s of the world that are
          "heart-centered."


     Russell Daggatt:


          "There are more phones in Manhattan than in all of
          Africa." [?]


     Diana Dougan:


          "If there was an Information Revolution, it's
          over:  information won."


          "We speak of telemedicine, but I can't tell you
          the number of countries -- starting with Japan --
          for which it is illegal for a doctor to be
          compensated unless he personally meets with the
          patient."


     Mike Nelson:


          "I have this vision of a future legislative
          system, using hypermedia, where you can click on
          each line, and it will say, 'This legislative
          provision brought to you by ....'"


          "In the year 2000, I hope the Vice President has
          won the election -- I can't think of a better
          President for the year 2000."


     Richard Stern (Director, Industry and Energy
     Department, The World Bank):


          "Let me first tell you my qualifications [in
          answering a question about the Year 2000]:  I've
          spent all my life trying to predict the future,
          and I've invariably gotten it wrong."










Remarks:


Lester Alberthal (EDS):


     The government's proper role is to assure the
     protection for intellectual property.


Ed McCracken:


     The roots of technology of the future will lie in the
     video game world.


     Commented on TAFIES [?]:  Technologically Advantaged
     FamilIES.  The class in the US best positioned to
     succeed in the next generation.


Panel:


     Gage:  Gilder in Forbes article says 1990-95 belongs to
     Bill Gates, but a shift occurs in 1995 that will change
     the paradigm.  That shift comes from Mark Andreesen and
     the change of focus from a local, isolated PC to Web
     content delivered dynamically, in small aplets.


     Horowitz:  Lauds the IPWG White Paper on Intellectual
     Property.  McCracken seconded.  Gilhooly (moderator)
     notes contrast with Barlow comments from previous day.


     McCracken was noncommittal on whether he and SGI would
     take the lead in pressuring government to change its
     encryption policies.  Gage pointed out the wide variety
     of encryption technologies available to anyone on the
     Web.  He commented that Sun has been offered fully-
     encrypted data storage facilities by at least three
     offshore data havens.  [John, if you are listening,
     what were those havens?][John later mentioned efforts
     involving various Caribbean island tax havens;
     apparently individuals named Joichi Ito and Eric Hughes
     are involved; Ito has a Web page (?).]


     Gage was his usual erudite self describing the
     challenges the Net poses to broadcasters, the tax man,
     autocratic governments, publishers, etc.


     Gage:  "I have two homework assignments for you:
     First, to understand where the next [human] generation
     is headed, download Doom from the Net and play it;
     second, go to your kid's school, and pull a wire from
     the telephone junction box to the library, to
     understand what it takes to wire a single school
     installation."


Diana Dougan:


     We need to look beyond teledensity [telephones per
     1,000 citizens] in developing countries.  The
     measurement should include pagers, PCs, etc.


Panel ("Toward the Global Information Infrastructure 2000"):


     Peter Cowhey (FCC):


          To the extent the Internet becomes a medium for
          broadcast, many countries will find a concern with
          this in that they are more interested in
          regulating the content of broadcast than in
          regulating its spectrum.


[My apologies, but I had to leave early, so if there were pithy
comments offered after my departure, they are lost to these
readers.]




MEETING NOTES