Themes:
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Private and Public Roles

[Theme Questions]
[Essays]
[Articles and Reports]
[News Stories]
[Online Resources]

Please send in your submissions.

The primary theme for Wednesday, May 13 and Thursday, May 14, 1998.

The Internet is fundamentally changing how we experience the world. It is as much a technical and social phenomenon as it is an economic and political sea change. Institutions', groups', and individuals' demand for Internet connectivity, information, and applications are being supplied by an array of providers. We increasingly find ourselves as both producers and users on the Internet.

The growth of the network through open standards has placed us on the same "online stage," but the script has yet to be written. Internet governance battles and different views of what makes the Internet "work" become more complicated and heated daily. The "Private and Public Roles" theme places important issues on the table for further consideration. Please send your questions in via our comment form.

1. How will private sector competition connect more people to the Internet? It is argued that the value of the Internet grows as each additional person is connected. Will electronic commerce and advertising make basic Internet connectivity a free or nearly free commodity? To whom? And for how long? Or will the cost of home access remain an increasingly powerful computer and evolve from a monthly flat-rate toward measured fees?



2. The "intranet" resulted from largely corporate information infrastructure needs. What can we learn from the "intranet experience" that can be leveraged for a broader social/economic application beyond institutions? What might an "intranet" for local non-profits, a neighborhood, or a city look like? Universities are some of the most "wired" places on earth; with the present U.S. governmental support for Internet2, will their role broaden access to a faster and more universal Internet?



3. Setting regulation of the Internet aside, governmental organizations at local, state, national, and supra-national levels contribute to the Internet through connectivity, content, and services. In some cases, like U.S. federal support, they provide extensive funding for advanced R & D. Should different levels of government support "public goods" on the Internet? Which ones? Where should they obtain their resources? Should governments' own Internet needs be leveraged for broader community connectivity?



4. Internet standards processes are both difficult to explain and increasingly important. How do these processes work? How do standards groups like the World-Wide-Web Consortium and the Internet Engineering Task Force decide which technical challenges need to be met? How can one influence these process? Are economic, social, and political factors affecting these processes today? Which emerging standards will have the most fundamental impact on Internet users and producers?

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Essays

Essays on this theme are available in the E-Mail for All Archive.

• Reality and Opportunity - Julia Johnson.
• Dwelling in a Digital World - Randy Sparkman.
• Critical Components of Universal Access - Jahn Peter.
• Public E-mail Booths? - Zoe Baird.

Comments & Notes

• Private and Public Roles Host Note--Important - Steven Clift.
• Private and Public Roles Comments 1.
• Private and Public Roles Comments 2.

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Articles and Reports

Links to articles and reports will be added throughout the event.

• Please use the submission form to nominate the best reports and articles.
• U.S. Government Electronic Commerce Policy - Access to reports.
• Internet Stanards - Background from the Internet Society's All About the Internet.
• The Last Mile - Papers for a course at NYU.
• CNET special feature: Ten Net laws - Interesting article and poll on Internet policy issues.
• Good Intentions: the Effects of Telecoms Pricing Policies on the European Internet - EuroISPA.
• Government Related IT Reports - From OECD.
• Kellogg Graduate School of Management - Computer Industry working papers, particularly Universal Service in the Digital Age: The Commericalization and Geography of US Internet access.

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News Stories

Links to recent news stories.

• Coming soon. Use the submission form to help us establish links.
• The Constitutional Convention of the Internet: the IETF - Web Review.
• U.S. Appears Likely To Pass On Major Domain Decisions - CMP TechWeb.
• White House's Magaziner says Internet should stay unregulated - InfoWorld Electric.
• Magaziner: Industry Efforts To Protect Online Privacy Falling Short - Inter@ctive Week.
• Online privacy rules proposed to ease threat to e-commerce - AdvertisingAge.
• Internet 2: Can the commercial Net benefit? - Inter@ctive Week Online
.

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Online Resources

We won't recreate the wheel. Visit these "best of" sites for extensive information and background on this theme.

• Telecom Information Resources on the Internet - The motherlode from the University of Michigan.
• U.S. Congressional Internet Caucus.
• Internet Society and the Internet Engineering Task Force.
• World Wide Web Consortium - W3C.
• ISP Organizations - From the Commercial Internet Exchange.
• Harvard Information Infrastructure Project.
• Virtual Institute of Information - From the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information.
• Internet2 - Higher Education.
• Next Generation Internet Initiative - U.S. Federal Government.
• Internet Law and Policy Forum - University of Washington.
• National Science Foundation's Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering.
• Libraries for the Future Telecommunications Advocacy Project.
• Open Source - Internet technical cultures and software development.

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