Apple Technology Review, Fall 1997: Conference Report: INET '97

Web Maven/Librarian Travels to Malaysia for the INET '97 and Finds...

Global Frontiers: The Power of the Internet Converges in Kuala Lumpur!

As the conference title suggests, the Malaysian government and the Internet Society had great plans for generating excitement about the Internet from the Pacific Rim in 1997 as well as drawing attention toward Malaysia's plans for the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), to be completed by 2020.

Internet Society Annual Conference, INET '97, provided some excellent preconference workshops on School Networking (K-12), Workshops for Developing Countries, as well as Tutorials covering mobile IP, cryptography, intranet planning, distance learning, Web proxies, and so forth.

As Apple's representative this year (Apple is an organizational member of ISOC), I made the journey to Kuala Lumpur to gather information about global Internet projects that might have relevance to Apple research. I was interested in K-12 projects (especially network based, disability related); digital collections and libraries, community networking, and privacy. I was also interested in the Internet Society itself and planned to meet members of the Board of Trustees and the Advisory Council. Finally, I wanted to learn more about how people in Malaysia use the Internet and to satisfy my curiosity about the new Multimedia Super Corridor project.

As my first experience at INET, I was pleased to meet many participants from the Pacific Rim. I was also encouraged by the strong attendance by colleagues from Brazil, Russia, the United Stateseven Slovakia. I will try to give a brief view of INET '97 and Malaysia in the next few pages. If you are interested in finding out more, visit your favorite Net search engine for the most current links available. I have included links when I am fairly sure they will not expire too quickly.

What Is the Internet Society?

The Internet Society, a "nongovernmental international organization," was established to encourage global cooperation and coordination for the Internet and Internetworking technologies and applications. The Internet Society was formed in 1992 by individual and institutional members worldwide who were interested in maintaining the viability and global scaling of the Internet. As one of the founding members, Apple shares many of the same concerns, and goals that Internet Society works to address through their varied activities.

INET '97

Before INET '97 officially opened, I stopped by the Board of Trustee and Advisory Council meetings, listening to a review of lessons learned from INET '97, plans under way for INET '98 in Geneva, and the debate over the location for INET '99. It is difficult to maintain a balance between the desire to hold meetings in developing nations, moving the conference location evenly around the world, choosing a location where attendance will be strong, and main taining ISOC principles. I also listened to reports from one of the Internet Society's most beneficial efforts (in my humble opinion) their Workshops in developing countries, such as the upcoming workshop in the Middle East this fall.

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