Wednesday March 3, 0900-0945:
David Farber: "Information Technology in the 21st Century"

On 27 January 1999, US Vice President Gore announced a new initiative, known as IT2 (Information Technology for the Twenty-First Century). This inititive is based on and supported by the new report from the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee. It calls for long-term information technology research that will lead to fundamental advances in computing and communications; advanced computing for science, engineering and the Nation that will lead to breakthroughs such as reducing the time required to develop life-saving drugs; designing cleaner, more efficient engines; and more accurately predicting tornadoes; and research on the economic and social implications of the Information Revolution, and efforts to help train additional IT workers at our universities.

Professor Farber, a member of the PITAC will review the report and the initiaive and how it will effect the future of IT in the global context.

David J. Farber is the Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunication Systems at the University of Pennsylvania, holding appointments in the both the Departments of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. He was responsible for the design of the Distributed Computer System (DCS), one of the first operational message-based fully distributed systems and is also one of the authors of the SNOBOL programming language. He was one of the principals in the creation and implementation of CSNet, NSFNet, and NREN. He was instrumental in the creation of the NSF/DARPA-funded Gigabit Network Testbed Initiative and served as the Chairman of the Gigabit Testbed Coordinating Committee. His background includes positions at the Bell Labs, the Rand Corp, Xerox Data Systems, UC Irvine and the University of Delaware. In addition, he is a Fellow of the IEEE and serves on the Board of Directors of both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Internet Society. He has just completed ten years of service to US National Research Council's Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB).

This talk offers a historical perspective on the rise of the Internet from a loosely organized, non-profit network to the most lucrative commerce platform now available. It will discuss how and why Internet "clearinghouses", similar to settlement tools used in banking (Cirrus, Plus, etc.), cellular (APEX, CBIS, etc.) and transaction clearing (VISA, Mastercard, American Express), have emerged not only to unify the Internet but to enable both vital new services such as virtual private networks (VPNs) and emerging technologies such as IP telephony, fax and e-commerce.

Chris Moore is co-founder, president and CEO of iPass, the premier settlement and clearinghouse service for the Internet. He has more than 17 years of sales, marketing and development experience in the software industry with companies such as International Messaging Associates, General Magic, Touch Communications (now Worldtalk) and The Wollongong Group (acquired by Attachmate).

Most of the last decade was spent building the Internet. Now that we have every land mass on the planet connected, the focus is shifting toward how to use what we've built. The next decade might see most of the world's traditional voice, entertainment video and mission-critical business traffic move from telco lines to the Internet. This talk will offer random thoughts on what we might do to make this happen and, if it does, help ISPs and the Internet survive it.

Van Jacobson spent the last 25 years as a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, most recently as a senior staff scientist heading the Network Research Group. In October, 1998, he left LBNL to become Chief Scientist at Cisco Systems.

Mr. Leong Keng Thai is the Director-General of the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore (TAS). He is also the Chairman of TeleTech Park Pte Ltd, a joint venture company set up to develop an advanced telecommunication research and development complex in Singapore. Mr. Leong graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) from the University of Singapore and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Southern California, USA.

The Asia-Pacific Region is at the threshold of the Information age. The Information Highway has been conceptualised by the APEC Communication and Information Industry Ministers as the Asia-Pacific Information Infrastructure (APII). The Internet is one vital layer of the APII. However, not enough is known about the Internet in the Asia-Pacific Region, its constituents, its growth patterns, its traffic flows. Businesses need this information. Hence, the importance of the Study of Compatible and Sustainable International Charging Arrangements for Internet Services (ICAIS), which is underway at the APEC Telecommunications Working Group.

Esther Dyson is interim chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). She is also chairman of EDventure Holdings and sits on the boards of a number of Internet-related companies, including Telesystem, Poland Online, Uproar.com and Medscape. She is the author of the book Release 2.0: A design for living in the digital age.

Dyson will give a brief status report on ICANN activities and will then answer audience questions.