Danny Amor's Online Library/Danny Amor's Online Library - Volume 1.iso/bbs/society/society.lha/CHARTS/PRESENT/SURFNET.TXT

Text File | 1995-07-23 | 32KB | 428 lines

Keynote Address

Wij geven kennis
by Anthony-Michael Rutkowski
Executive Director, Internet Society

The  theme  of this conference - wij geven kennis - captures perfectly both
the  Internet as a means of fostering and sharing knowledge, as well as the
role  of  SURFNet as one of the Netherland's most valuable strategic assets
today.    The  value  of  the  Internet  and  SURFNET  are  underscored  by
development  occuring  so  quickly,  we  get  the  surreal feeling of being
networking observers watching our own evolution unfold before our eyes with
each  passing hour.  I offer a few examples.  At the Supercomputer'94 Panel
on  the  future  of  the  Internet last Friday, all the panelists from very
diverse  backgrounds  and  positions  were asked to succinctly speak to the
future  of  the  Internet.  The agreement on the directions of the Internet
and  the  implications  was  really  quite remarkable.  The basic facts are
fairly  obvious - the network and its major applications are now growing at
exponential rates.  By the year 2000, present projections indicate that 187
million computers will be connected to an Internet constituting 4.1 million
networks  dispersed  around the globe.  World Wide Web traffic growth is so
stunning  that  if it were to continue, in the year 1996 it will exceed the
world's  telephone  traffic  and  by  the  year  2000,  there would be 4000
PetaBytes of traffic - enough to fill 10,000 1.2 Gigabit/sec digital pipes!
Panelist  Larry  Smarr, Director of a leading supercomputing center - noted
we  don't  have  much  experience  living  in  such  exponential  worlds  -
particularly  with  a  technology that is also dramatically altering how we
and  most  of  our  institutions function.  Others noted that humankind has
never  before  enjoyed  the  benefit  of an open electronic mesh of so many
millions  of  information  systems and people - and indeed it is people who
are  the  Internet's  most  valuable  resource.   In fact, it's argued that
currently,  80  percent  of  all  the  scientists  who  ever  lived are now
reachable  on  the  Internet.   The  consensus  of  the  panel was that the
Internet  was  bringing  about  multiple  profound changes that will ripple
through  global  society.   Perhaps  it  was the scientific aspect that led
UNESCO  Director  General  Mayor  a  few  weeks  ago  to circulate a Report
prepared  by  Nobel  lauriate  Joshua  Lederberg  and  a  team  of  eminent
scientists who told UNESCO that the single most important action that could
be  taken  to  enhance  science  today  was  to  assure that all scientists
everywhere   had  effective  Internet  connectivity.   But  it  isn't  just
international   science   organizations   that   are  realizing  Internet's
potential.   Three  weeks  ago UNCTAD's held a world trade summit where the
U.N.   Secretary General called for Internet connectivity to enhance trade.
And  several weeks prior to that, the world's international organization of
legislatures  -  the  InterParliamentary Union - called for linking all the
lawmakers of the world together through the Internet in a document known as
the  Tokyo  Compact.  The Internet is also a paradigm change for opening up
public  insitututions.   The  Japan  Prime  Minister put up a WWW server in
August - followed several weeks later by the USA White House's unveiling of
a  major  Web portal to the entire federal government.  Indeed, the WWW has
become so popular, that when the attendance at the second international Web
conference  in  Chicago a month ago was limited by the building capacity to
1000  people,  some  people began selling their registrations for twice the
price  on  the  street  outside  the  building.   Scalping  has come to the
Internet  showbusiness.   Speaking of showbusiness, even the Rolling Stones
last  week  did a MBONE multicast of their landmark concert from the VooDoo
Lounge.   It's  not  surprising that the staid telecom and business carrier
world  is increasingly joining the Internet revolution.  In August, Fujitsu
announced  it  was  leveraging  its  global Enterprise Internet backbone to
offer  worldwide  access  to  the Internet.  IBM four weeks ago announced a
similar  but  more  ambitious  offering by bundling it's new OS/2 operating
system with user-friendly access to IBM Internet service using its Advantis
high  speed  backbone from up to 92 different countries.  And just two days
ago  on  Monday,  MCI  Communications  Corporation  on Monday announced the
largest-scale  suit  of  Internet  services  of any major carrier to date -
something  characterized by the press as the 600 pound gorilla jumping into
the  middle  of  the Internet business.  And then there is Microsoft's Bill
Gates who promises to help reach that 187 million Internet host figure even
sooner than December 1999 by bundling no-brainer Internet access with every
new  copy of Windows95.  It is all rather incredible - if not breathtaking.
Having  worked in almost every segment of the broadcast, telecommunications
and  information  networking  business  in many different institutional and
professional  capacities,  I frequently get jaded.  But not in the Internet
environment,  for  what is taking place is a dynamic so far beyond anything
else,  that  it  defies  comparison.   Facets  of  Internet These different
experiences  over  the  past  few  weeks  symbolize  what I call "facets of
Internet."  Internet  is  much  more  than  just  a new kind of network for
transporting  data.   Rather it is a broad "redefining paradigm" - in other
words, a fundamental transformation that encompasses:  building information
infrastructure  from  the  bottom-up;  a  robust  global  mesh for directly
linking  billions  of  computers  and  thousands  of  computer processes on
whatever telecom and computer platforms that exist anywhere in the world; a
means  for open collaboration in the hyper development and evolution of new
technologies  and  applications;  transforming  the structure, methods, and
individual  skills within enterprises, institutions, and professions of all
kinds;  a huge, rapidly growing market sector for internet-related products
and services.  1.  Bottom-up Information Infrastructure The last decade had
profoundly  transformed  the  way  we  conceptualize and create information
infrastructure.   The  "old  world"  was oriented exclusively around highly
structured  monoliths  of  the  telco  and  early computer worlds that were
planned  and  operated by big government and corporations.  The basic plans
flowed  "top-down"  from  millions  of  hours  of  huge formal meetings and
literal  mountains  of  paper  which  purported  to  chart  the  future  of
information  infrastructure  for decades to come.  They provided a plethora
of  abstractions  and standards that no one quite understood or was able to
effectively  implement.   Enormous  directed monies were to flow into these
projects  pursued  by  national  monoliths,  and  trickle-down  information
infrastructure  would  eventually settle into place.  There is no intent to
denigrate  these  top-down  efforts  or  the many people who were involved.
Indeed,  several  years  of my own career and those of many colleagues were
invested  in  these  efforts.   However,  top-down  just  did not happen as
planned.   Instead,  a  combination  of VLSI, PCs, workstations, Local Area
Networks,  routers,  and  elegant  user friendly software found an enormous
marketplace  that  motivated individual initiative and investments.  At the
same  time,  long  haul  transport  technology  offered  increasingly cheap
bandwidth,  and  national  governments allowed facilities-based competition
among  telecoms  and  deregulated  value-added  services.   Under  combined
pressures  from rapid technological change, competition, and affordable new
systems,   the   world   of   information  infrastructure  began  a  speedy
transformation.   At  just  the right time, robust TCP/IP technologies were
available  to serve as the universal intelligent interface among computers.
As  a  result,  enterprise  networks,  distributed  network  management and
applications,  and  the  global  Internet  became  universally implemented.
Massive bottom-up infrastructure happened, proliferated, and a new paradigm
prevails.  This has been a remarkable decade-long learning experience about
what  information  infrastructure  is  all  about,  and  in  nurturing  its
development.   It's  discovery  time  in  cyberspace, and we are constantly
learning  about  what  works and what doesn't.  This is not to say that all
top-down  activities are frivolous - no more than asserting that all bottom
up  activity  will produce meaningful infrastructure.  Similarly there is a
lot more to information infrastructure than just the Internet.  This "facet
of  the  Internet"  provides  some  invaluable models and lessons about key
components  of  national and global information infrastructure and where we
are  heading  in  the  future.  The most prominent of these lessons is that
bottom-up  infrastructure  succeeds most efficiently and spectacularly, and
for  these reasons is becoming understood and is being embraced by national
administrations.   2.   The Internet Global Mesh Constant Evolution:  Three
Stages.  The Internet and internet technology has been growing and evolving
constantly  since  its  inception  in  Vint  Cerf's  imagination  and first
articulation  more  than  20  years  ago  on the back of an envelope in San
Francisco.   At  the  outset,  it  had  multiple facets that addressed real
needs:   a  means  to  share  information  system resources across multiple
diverse  platforms, a highly robust self-healing network that could operate
across  almost  any medium to survive nuclear holocaust, and a way to bring
together  experts  spread  across the world in "collaboratories" to create,
innovate,  improve and produce in many different research areas.  It is now
into  the  third  stage  of  that evolution.  The first stage was the early
years  under  the aegis of the US DOD ARPA and the province of a relatively
small  closed  community.   Those people not only developed the technology,
but  the  cooperative  mechanisms and institutions that allowed it to scale
and  for  further  innovation  to occur.  The genius of it all can still be
appreciated  at  major  Internet  meetings which typically bring together a
significant  cross-section  of world's most highly motivated and innovative
computer networking communities in every country.

Following  DARPA's  divestiture  of the network and the technologies in the
mid-80s,  the  second  stage  unfolded.   It  represented a period of major
development  by:   1)  vendors for a growing enterprise internet market, 2)
the  USA science agencies, HEPNet, SURFNet, and their counterparts in other
countries  who  scaled  the  network  to  support  open global academic and
research  activities,  and  3)  early innovators in the business sector who
began providing public access services and using the capabilities.  Interop
itself  was  a  key  part  of  this  second  stage  as  it fostered massive
investment  in private open systems infrastructure.  The third stage is now
unfolding  as  almost everyone, everywhere who provides, uses, promotes, or
funds information systems and infrastructure becomes involved in the growth
and  use of the Internet, its technologies, and applications.  If the first
stage  took us to 2000 hosts over the first ten years, and the second state
scaled  the connectivity from 2000 to 1 million over eight years, the third
state  of  Internet  growth  is  now marked by host counts that will likely
proceed from 1 million to 100 million over the next five years.  The growth
of the attached networks is now publicly announced every three days, and we
are  literally watching it grow before our eyes.  Dimensioning Internet The
Internet  is  generally  dimensioned  two different ways.  The core portion
consists  of  the subset of registered internetworks that are known to have
IP connectivity among themselves; while the larger Matrix Internet consists
of  the  core Internet plus all the networks known to be connected to it by
some  lowest  common  denominator  application  like  messaging.   The Core
Internet  and  its metrics.  As of the end of September, there were 440,000
allocated  network  addresses,  50,000  registered  at  the  global Network
Information Center.  As of last week, there were about 43,000 known to have
connectivity among themselves.  For the last several years, the most widely
used  backbone network - the NSFNet - has provided a useful reference point
for  making  consistent measurements.  Total networks increased at the rate
of  160  percent  last  year; 183 percent outside the USA.  As of 1 Nov, IP
traffic  is  being  routed to networks in 90 different nations.  It's known
that  the  CERN backbone usually sees more reachable networks, and with the
emergence   of   commercial  public  Internet  backbones  as  well  as  the
termination  of  NSFNet  next  year, the total number is likely to increase
even  faster.   Another  major trend - in addition to globalization and the
rapid  increases  -  is  revealed  in  analyzing  the kinds of new networks
attaching  or  domains  being  registered.  The developments here are quite
amazing.   Beginning  about  six months ago, commercial concerns in the USA
and Canada began registering .com global domains at an increasing pace.  As
a  result,  there are now 27,000 registered .com domains versus about 2,000
.edu  domains.   .com  registrations continue at a rate of around 3,000 per
month.   This has also begun to show on host counts, and there are now more
.com hosts shown attached to the network than any other domain.  It's quite
apparent  that  nearly  every  country is experiencing exponential Internet
growth  -  with  sharp  upturns  in  growth  within the past 12 months.  In
Europe, the number of connected networks in most of the larger countries is
now  about  1500.   In  addition  to  dimensioning the Internet in terms of
networks,  it is also possible to do so by computer hosts reachable.  Since
the  earliest  days  of  the  Internet,  Mark Lottor has been attempting to
measure potentially reachable machines.  The results are generally released
every  three  months.   As  of  the end of October, the number of hosts was
nearly  4  million  and  getting more steeply exponential with each passing
quarter.   The  figures  are  also  a  bit on the low side, as the RIPE NCC
consistently  counts  several  percent more European hosts tha Lottor does.
The Matrix Internet The core Internet's massive size, high performance, and
open  connectivity  has  proved  a  magnet  to  nearly  every other kind of
computer  network.   As  a  result, many other large and extensive networks
have  attached  themselves to the core Internet's periphery.  This includes
networks  based  on  specific  platforms  like  BITNET, FidoNet, AppleLink,
Minitel,  and  UUCP  networks, as well as specific application networks for
Email  -  for  which  there  are  numerous  examples like X.400, AT&T mail,
MCIMail,  SprintMail,  CompuServe, etc.  These peripheral networks create a
larger  Matrix  Internet that currently reaches an estimated 170 countries,
and  provide  many  millions of people with lowest common denominator Email
connectivity.   In  this  capacity,  the  Internet  is  truly  the  world's
universal  electronic  messaging  backbone.   3.   Open  Collaboration  and
Development.   Just  as  the  Internet  is technologically a virtual matrix
among  up  to 4 billion computers and 64,000 process ports on each of those
computers,  so  is  it  also  a  matrix  among 20-30 million people who are
directly  or  indirectly  using  those computers and processes.  This is an
enormously  empowering  capability  that  allows almost instant creation of
workgroups,  discussion groups, and audiences of all kinds.  The capability
transcends  time  zones, national and organizational boundaries, and in the
near  future  even  language.   In  its  ultimate  extrapolation, it is the
ultimate  open  society  where  anyone, anywhere can provide or receive any
information to anyone within seconds.  From its inception, the Internet was
intended  as  more  than  just  a  computer  network,  but  as  a  means of
facilitating  collaboration  and  development  at  great  speed - sometimes
described  as  technology  transfer  among  disparate groups with different
strengths like academics, industry researchers, and business entrepreneurs.
In  short  -  "to  give  knowledge." This activity has taken two forms:  1)
research   and  development  of  new  distributed  network  techniques  and
applications,  and  2)  innumerable user populations employing the Internet
and  its  technologies  as  tools  to  significantly enhance their specific
professional  activity  or pursuit.  An entire new engineering and research
discipline  has  been  cut  out  of  whole  cloth  - distributed autonomous
networking  -  complete  with  its  own  development  dynamics and methods.
Almost  all  new open networking applications and products have come out of
the  Internet  innovation  "soup."  With  amazing rapidity, ideas for a new
application  or  service get vetted on a discussion group or at IETF "BOFs"
and  proceed through a standards working group.  At the same time, the code
is  placed  on  a network server.  In the process, innumerable users employ
the  code,  grow the market, refine the code, and a large commercial market
emerges  in  a  matter of months that is finely tailored to end user needs.
This  process of developing running, standardized code through the Internet
has  been  highly  successful.   It  is  the more general user populations,
however,  who  are  embracing  the tools in vast numbers across the planet.
The  enormity of the implications are just beginning to be understood.  And
in  each of these fields, the people "networked" constitute the majority of
early adopters and innovators.  4.  Transforming Enterprises, Institutions,
and  Professions.   The  effects  of large-scale networking of enterprises,
institutions,  and  people  are  now being realized.  Certainly traditional
barriers  whether  they are reporting hierarchies, institutions, country or
geography  are  being  obliterated.   There  is also a certain "compelling"
effect  that  beyond a certain point promotes ever larger numbers of people
to  become networked.  Not having an Internet mail address today has become
a  major liability in many businesses and professions.  The result has been
to  transform  old  institutions, create new network based enterprises, and
bring  about programmes to implement these transformations.  The best known
of  the  latter  is  the  Clinton  Administration's  Reinventing Government
initiative.   However,  on  a  smaller  scale,  efforts are now underway in
Canada,   Chile,   Argentina,   France,  and  Poland  -  as  well  as  many
international  organizations.   Some  major older corporations like IBM and
Chrysler  have  embarked on well-known efforts to get Internet technologies
introduced  among their employees to purposely break down both internal and
external  barriers.   In  an  increasingly competitive environment, lacking
network  connectivity  and  employees  with skill sets to effective use the
network  tools,  is  a  major  liability that's quickly reflected in either
diminishing  market  share  or  lost  opportunities.   An  entirely new and
potentially  massive  new  field  is  now  emerging around the Internet and
distributed  networking.  Getting connectivity is only one component.  More
significant (and perhaps more difficult) is obtaining and retraining people
to  effectively  use  these  tools  in  many  different  enterprises.  This
daunting  task  involves  not  only  equipment, but cultures and attitudes.
And,  it  also  pervades every office in a corporation or institution, from
the  CEO to the average staff member in every department.  Not suprisingly,
there  is  a  focus  on  developing  these skills now at the elementary and
secondary  school  levels  so  that  children  at  an early age are able to
comfortably  use  and create information on computers, to discover and make
available  networked  information  resources, and to collaborate seamlessly
across networks with their peers.  These are the survival skills of rapidly
emerging global internetworked environment.  5.  A Huge Market Sector.  The
estimated  20-30  million users on the Internet constitute an ideal market.
The  users  are predominantly young, middle to upper class, well- educated,
and  highly  motivated.   As the number of Internet users grows another two
orders  of  magnitude,  these  characteristics  are  likely  to  remain, in
addition   to   becoming  ever  more  global.   The  Internet  provides  an
exceptionally  low cost mechanism for interacting with this audience.  This
interaction not only includes public relations and advertising, but testing
of  target  audiences,  sales,  and  customer support.  The principal major
caveat  concerns  the strong traditions for propriety and privacy that rule
out  mass  mailing  or  other  intrusive  techniques.   Such  misconduct or
fraudulent  behavior  can  also  propagate  very quickly.  The Future These
different  facets  of  Internet  will  assure  an  exciting  and constantly
evolving  future.  But where is it taking us?  It seems meaningless to talk
about  "what's  after the Internet" anymore than to talk about what's after
the  telephone.   As  long as we have computers speaking to other computers
via  distributed networks, we will have internets.  The next few years will
surely  witness  a sizable fraction of the worlds computers linked together
via  the  Internet.   Indeed,  a  hundred  years from now, history may well
record  the  emergence  and  implementation  of  an  Internet protocol as a
profound  turning  point  in the evolution of human communication - of much
greater  significance  than  the  creation of the printing press.  No other
form  of  human  communication  other  than actual meetings allow people to
actually interact with each other in a collaborative fashion in short time-
scales.  It is this capability of rapid, large scale, low- cost interaction
of  people and sharing of information that are unique Internet properties -
which   have  profound  implications  across  a  broad  spectrum  of  human
activities.   Business  on  the  net.  Certainly the many initiatives using
applied  encryption  technologies  and  dove-tailing with pre- existing EDI
work,  points  to  all kinds of business- related activity on the Internet.
The  announcement  at  the 2nd WWW conference a few weeks ago of Cybercash,
Digicash,  E-cash, First Virtual, and NetBill as low-overhead, secure forms
of payment - represent giant steps toward dramatic scaling of Internet as a
means  for  business transactions.  However, this is not likely to displace
"free  information" given the ever increasing use of the Internet by public
institutions,  for  commercial  public relations, or just the propensity of
human  beings  to  share  their  own information.  I know this is a special
concern  of  the SURFNet community, but is seems highly unlikely there will
be  any diminishment of freely available information - indeed there will be
more.   As very inexpensive Internet access becomes available worldwide, we
will  continue to see bountiful information that is already producing needs
for  new services of information discovery and filtering.  Ubiquity.  Other
major  indicators  include  both the ubiquity of the access, as well as the
ease of setup and use by ordinary people.  Access involves the diversity of
the  media  being  employed  (such  as local dialup, freephone dialup, CATV
LANs,  N-ISDN,  and  VSATs),  and  the  ever-expanding  number  of  service
providers  -  especially major carriers and local resellers.  Resellers are
especially  important  in  this  phase of internet evolution because of the
frequent  significant  level  of  interaction  with  customers in using the
technology.    However,   some  of  the  newly  emerging  software  for  PC
environments  is  so object oriented and self configuring that only minimal
computer skills are required.  Here also, we will see major churn as almost
every  kind  of  provider  imaginable  competes  for providing a variety of
Internet  services.   The market is expanding so fast, there is undoubtedly
room  for  most  of  them  in  the  near  future.   Over time, they will be
differentiated  with  some growing, others merging, and others going out of
business.   What  Modulates Internet Development?  In the face of all these
positive  indicators,  however,  it  is  useful  to  consider what kinds of
conditions result in the growth or stifling of internet developments.  Over
the  past  few  years,  some specific information on Internet diffusion has
become  evident.  Plainly, many external conditions modulate implementation
and  use.   For example, available capital for investment is always a major
factor  with  any  new  technology.  Even with basic telephone systems, the
correlation  of  telephone  lines  versus national GNP is almost a straight
line.   However,  the diffusion of internet technologies, networks, and use
require  conditions  that  are really rather unique and go well beyond just
capital  investment  to  a  host of factors that collectively are sometimes
called  "culture."  A  threshold  condition  is  the  freedom introduce and
operate   Internets   without  significant  governmental  or  institutional
impediments.  The Internet consists almost entirely of tens of thousands of
private   networks   all   constructed  and  operated  by  largely  private
initiative.   The  Internet  functions  very  effectively on a global scale
through  a  number  of multilateral and bilateral agreements among backbone
service providers and end-user networks.  The Internet is a creature of the
unregulated, highly dynamic computer networking field - not the traditional
regulated  monopoly  telecom environment.  The Internet does best where the
environments  are subject to little or no regulation of any kind.  Internet
monopoly environments are invariably the worse kind - being antithetical to
the  very concept of what the Internet is all about.  Such environments are
also  contrary  to  the  Annex  on  Telecommunications  in  the new General
Agreement  on  Trade  in  Services  (GATS)  and  the  appended schedules of
specific  commitments  by  96  signatory countries plus the European Union.
These  provisions  elaborate on some of the desirable conditions needed for
Internet  fertility,  namely access to markets and cost-oriented underlying
transport  circuits.   However,  even  in  competitive  environments,  some
regulatory  authorities  have  a  penchant  for  becoming  involved  in the
operations  of  Internet  providers  -  either  reviewing business plans or
operational  agreements.   Given  the  incredibly fast changing operational
dynamics  of  the  Internet  scene, such intrusive regulation is inevitably
stifling,  as backbone providers increase in number and move from bilateral
to  multilateral  arrangements  among themselves to lessen the complexities
and enhance ubiquitous connectivity.  Other major diffusion factors include
the  cost  of  underlying  transport  bandwidth  and the ability to acquire
current-technology  computers  and  software at low-cost.  These factors go
both  to the national competitive conditions for basic telecom services and
oversight of the pricing practices of dominant carriers.  Dominant carriers
in  most  countries  often  attempt to charge prices for underlying circuit
capacity  that  are  orders  of  magnitude  greater than the actual costs -
principally  in a misguided attempt to force customers to use the carrier's
own value added networks and technologies, and to prevent competition.  The
great  circuit  price  disparities between Europe and the USA, for example,
prompted  the  European  Nuclear  Research  Center  (CERN) two years ago to
publicly document these practices and plead for a change.  Because end user
computers  and  peripheral  hardware  are  such  a fundamental component of
Internet  growth  and development, national practices which heavily tax and
restrict  computer  imports  and  use,  also have a major adverse effect on
Internet  diffusion.   Restrictions  or  taxes  on  the  use of modems, for
example,  have widespread negative effects.  The Challenges and Promises No
electronic network mesh has consistently grown on the scale at the speed of
the  Internet.   As a result, it has throughout its history been constantly
challenged  to  develop  new  technologies,  standards,  and administrative
techniques  to  provide  greater  bandwidth and additional services to more
users  through  ever  more  complex  architectures.  However, each order of
magnitude   scaling  becomes  more  difficult.   Problems  associated  with
addressing  and  security  seem  largely transitory - with a combination of
technology,   new   standards,   and   administration  providing  effective
solutions.  The next few years will likely witness nearly every computer in
the  world  being  potentially  connected  to an internet.  This seems well
within  the  realm  of  feasibility.   However,  what  numbers are actually
connected  to the Internet or accessible - through the Internet and at what
bandwidths  or  time  periods - depends largely on the available underlying
infrastructure  and  cost  of  service.   Bandwidth  seems  destined in the
long-term  to approach zero within and among most metropolitan areas of the
world,  but  the increasing complexities of managing ever larger numbers of
Internet  networks  is  going  to drive operation and maintenance costs up.
The  result  for  end  users  may  mirror  the  computer  world  where  the
performance just keeps on increasing at relatively constant cost.  In fact,
the evolution of computers and computer networks is sure to proceed hand in
hand.   And  collective innovative Internet genius will doubtlessly produce
an  endless  stream  of imaginative applications and tools.  I believe that
Europe will play a major role in this development.  The statistics indicate
that  the  growth  curves  in  most European countries are just as steep as
anywhere else.  Unfortunately regulatory, policy, and pricing barriers have
prevented  those  curves  being a much larger magnitude.  However, the good
news  is that many positive changes seem underway.  These matters will be a
centerpiece  of  the  G7 Information Society Conference at Brussels in late
February,  and  you  all  can  help by making sure your national government
participants  are  sufficiently aware of your concerns.  In closing, let me
comment  that  it  is  at  the  human  and  institutional levels that major
unknowns  arise  -  but  also  offer the greatest promise.  The autonomous,
heterogeneous,  flat  model of the Internet seems intrinsically a good one.
It  will  be  constant  discovery time in Cyberspace, but a world of shared
minds that transcends the accidental boundaries of history, the distance of
geography,   the   machinations   of  institutions,  and  the  mischief  of
manipulation,  is  potentially  one  filled with discovery, fulfillment and
fascination  for  all peoples - individually and collectively.  SURFNet has
been   playing   a  remark  role  not  only  in  providing  the  underlying
infrastructure,  but  also  in  educating and bringing about major cultural
changes  as  well.   "Wij  geven kennis" is a motto for everyone to follow.
The  Internet  Society as the international organization for the Internet -
working together with SURFNet - is dedicated to help make this happen.