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http://www.SJMercury.com/today/biz/057048.htm
- To: fairmaster@radio.com
- Subject: http://www.SJMercury.com/today/biz/057048.htm
- From: Hsinjyh Peng <hpeng@tpts1.seed.net.tw>
- Date: Wed, 15 Mar 95 14:50:30 -800
Hi, I need more information about the Internet 1996 World Exposition. Hsinjyh Peng
> '96 expo to show off Internet Fair's legacy could be parks in
> cyberspace
>
> By David Bank
>
> Mercury News Staff Writer
>
> The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 world's fair in Paris.
> Chicago's Columbian Exposition in 1893 introduced George Ferris'
> amusement park wheel. And San Francisco's majestic Palace of Fine Arts
> dates to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915.
>
> The legacy of the Internet 1996 World Exposition could be enduring,
> spacious and well-designed public parks at the center of cyberspace.
>
> Organizers of the ambitious project, which will be formally launched
> at the end of this month, are planning a yearlong extravaganza of
> cultural, educational and gee-whiz multimedia attractions from around
> the world that they hope will draw millions of new visitors to the
> Internet.
>
> To accommodate the expected crowds and minimize delays, they're
> engineering a huge increase in the Internet's global capacity --
> creating something that will live on long after the yearlong fair is
> over. They plan to house interactive exhibits on huge data storehouses
> linked by a new high-speed ``Internet Railroad'' that can haul the
> data around the world at record speeds.
>
> ``We're going to try to create the global village for a year,'' said
> Carl Malamud, the peripatetic non-profit entrepreneur who came up with
> the idea for the world's fair and is now on a round-the-world tour to
> line up support.
>
> As founder of the Internet Multicasting Society in Washington, Malamud
> has made a specialty of ``liberating'' government data bases to
> provide the public with what he calls the fuel of the information
> economy. By the time of the fair's ribbon-cutting next January, he
> plans to expand the offerings to include the government's complete
> patent and trademark records, as well as corporate financial reports
> filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
>
> Now, Malamud's role is to convince profit-conscious corporations that
> the provision of public facilities is essential to the economic health
> of any community, even a virtual one. There is no charge to
> exhibitors, but sponsors and organizers are paying up to $100,000 in
> cash or in-kind equipment donations, with the proceeds being used to
> cover expenses or help create the infrastructure to make the fair
> possible.
>
> ``We think the global village should have parks,'' Malamud said during
> a recent stop in San Jose before he flew off to Tokyo, Bangkok, London
> and Amsterdam. ``We think our city will be a more prosperous city that
> way. But parks don't just happen. People have to say, `We want to do
> it.' ''
>
> Gore's support
>
> In the United States, Malamud has secured the support of Vice
> President Al Gore, who praised the fair as an ``innovative,
> grass-roots approach to demonstrating the power of the emerging global
> information infrastructure.''
>
> In Dallas, the Infomart is creating a ``cyberspace planetarium'' -- a
> room full of public access terminals for visiting the fair. The
> Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will put performances -- from
> Handel's Messiah to Billy Taylor's jazz -- on the Internet. Former
> Sen. Gaylord Nelson will lead ``town hall'' meetings on environmental
> issues. Rep. Ed Markey is organizing exhibitors in the Boston area.
>
> ``We're going to set up this showcase, and it's going to be this
> really neat place for these applications,'' said Eric Schmidt, chief
> technology officer at Sun Microsystems Inc. ``The thing the Net can
> do, which you just can't do with broadcast technology, is
> interactivity.''
>
> In the Bay Area, former newspaper publisher Will Hearst is soliciting
> ideas for using the 100 gigabytes of disk storage space set aside for
> regional projects.
>
> ``I remember going to the World's Fair in New York and visiting
> pavilions of countries I had never heard of,'' said Hearst, now a
> partner in the Menlo Park venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins
> Caufield & Byers. ``In this one, people in the Bay Area will look and
> see what people are putting on the Net in Nigeria and people in Oman
> will see what's happening in Sunnyvale.''
>
> Heading the Japanese effort is Jun Murai, a professor at Keio
> University, who effectively runs the Japanese Internet through the
> WIDE project, a coalition of 70 major corporations. Among the
> exhibitors will be the environmentally conscious model city of Huis
> Ten Bosch near Nagasaki.
>
> From Thailand, Aw Taw Kah, the huge outdoor food market, will be
> on-line with exhibits of Thai cuisine hosted by Ung Ang Talay,
> restaurant critic of The Bangkok Post.
>
> Huge storage space
>
> To house the exhibits, Malamud has secured a terrabyte of computer
> disk storage space. Now he's working on the plan to circle the globe
> with high-speed T-3 telecommunication links to enable international
> communication to move as fast as domestic traffic.
>
> Terms such as ``terrabyte'' and ``T-3'' are still unfamiliar to many,
> but so was the telephone when Alexander Graham Bell displayed it in
> 1876 at Philadelphia's Centennial Exposition.
>
> A century from now, it is likely to be common knowledge that a
> terrabyte of data storage represents roughly the equivalent of a
> million computer floppy disks. That's a lot of disk space.
>
> ``This will be one of the largest collections of hard disk drives in
> the world,'' said Barbara Fagan-Smith of Quantum Corp. in Milpitas,
> which donated the drives valued at $500,000. ``This is saying,
> `Cyberspace is real now. It's not just a cliche. It exists.' ''
>
> T-3 may be slow in future
>
> And in time, a global T-3 line, which can move data at 45 million bits
> per second and make possible interactive voice and video, may be
> considered slow. Right now, many countries are linked to the Internet
> at a fraction of that speed.
>
> Vinton Cerf, a fair organizer who wears two hats as president of the
> Internet Society and a senior vice president at MCI, said he is trying
> to persuade global telecommunications carriers to dedicate more
> capacity to the Internet.
>
> ``It's essential if we're going to have the global business network we
> talk about,'' he said.
>
> Cerf said the resources being gathered for the fair would help
> complete the Internet's transformation from a storehouse for
> information into a truly interactive medium.
>
> ``I want to go from browsing to directly interacting with people,''
> Cerf said. ``We know we can do that.''
>
> IF YOU'RE INTERESTED
>
> For more information about the Internet 1996 World Exposition, send
> e-mail to fairmaster@radio.com. The Internet Multicasting Service can
> be found on the World Wide Web at http://town.hall.org .
>
> Mercury Center
>
> INSTRUCTIONS ON PAGE 2A
>
> --What do you think this venture will mean for the future of the Net?
> Voice your opinion. Use keyword: MC Talk, select Browse Boards, then
> Tech Talk, then Internet / Online Services folder. Or, choose Letters
> for Publication in the scrolling window.
>
> Published 3/14/95 in the San Jose Mercury News.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> This material is copyrighted and may not be republished without
> permission of the originating newspaper or wire service. Mercury
> Center Web is a service of the San Jose Mercury News. For more
> information, write to feedback@sjmercury.com
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