Excerpts from the publisher's overview:

Stephen Arnold?s latest book provides a clear statement of the new uses of the Internet and how to take advantage of these remarkable developments. The central argument of the book is that the Internet is not a function, like electronic mail, but a new architecture. This structure can enable functions and data on legacy systems and new peer-to-peer architectures.

This study places equal emphasis on technology and business strategy. [...]

This book provides a balanced view of portals, personalisation, intranets, knowledge management and content management, among other trends.

Search and retrieval has become a ubiquitous service. However, the search-and-retrieval function often disappoints more than it satisfies. Important new developments in indexing, searching and displaying information are moving from test centres to the mainstream. [...]

Pricing services is a key component of a successful business model. As the economic environment undergoes rapid change, online users need guidelines for assembling pricing models. [...]

A wealth of tables, illustrations, examples, a glossary, and pointers to useful Web resources make this a must-have study [...]

The book's table of contents and a sample chapter are available in PDF at the publisher's web site.

New Trajectories of the Internet: Umbrellas, Traction, Lift and Other Phenomena

SXSW -- basically a new media meet-and-greet networking event. Find work, food, fun, and maybe some money for your projects-to-be.

Larry Lessig (author/lawyer/professor), Steven Levy (author), Jeff Veen (Webmonkey), Bruce Sterling (author, etc.), Cory Doctorow (author/OpenCola/BoingBoing), and numerous others are on the list of speakers.

Here's a promo quote from the web site:

"I was overly impressed with the SXSW conference last year, as in the past I had mostly gone to large conferences with sessions that focused on VPs of companies who were trying to sell their products. At SXSW the sharing of experiences and knowledge by people actually doing the development, design, and/or project management was a blessing."

For the keynote, Doctorow and Sterling will discuss "the death of scarcity."

SXSW Interactive Festival - March 8-12 2002, Austin, TX

From a Stanford symposium on the Web, a brief report on that rare, (lucky?) Valley dweller with an upbeat outlook. Choice excerpts:

"We need to work to ensure that the original values of the Web endure." ... Paul Saffo (here he is again!) says: "There's never been a better time to think about where the Web is going, and everybody has a lot of time to think about it. ... Most ideas in Silicon Valley take 20 years to become an overnight success."

Nathaniel Borenstein (remember him, c'punks?) says, "from the burned fields left behind by the Web's wildfire, will the pre-Web Internet reemerge? ... Once, the Net was a genuine commons. ... we have to acknowledge that the commons has been destroyed. That doesn't mean that we can't rebuild it."

The net, a commons? Borenstein's been reading some Lessig lately, maybe?

Internet optimism lives!

Dean Kamen finally announces his new product today. Looks pretty cool, and it will be even more so once it has a Stirling engine. Paul Saffo complains: "I don't want to sound like a Ginger-slammer, but it's about $2,000 too expensive and 40 pounds too heavy." (Initially it will cost $3,000 and weigh 65 pounds.)

Some of the first field trials are going to be held in Atlanta.

Earlier this year, Kamen brought the Ibot and his Stirling engines where I work for a talk and demonstration; ... very cool stuff. When this new scooter gets the Stirling engine, look out!

An Inventor Unveils His Mysterious Personal Transportation Device

Officially, the title is "Final Report for the 10 to 100 Gigabit/Second Networking Laboratory Directed Research and Development Project". Published in April 2001 and authored by Sandia employees from various groups: advanced networking, RF and opto microsystems, networked systems survivability and assurance.

From the abstract: next major plateau is 10 Gbps. Distributed processing applications already require 10-100 Gbps. Visualization apps already require 1-10 Gbps. This project examined building blocks for a 10-100 Gbps network architecture: OS bypass, DWDM, IP switching and routing, optical amps, encryption, compression, ATM and OI forums, prototypes, ...

Along the way, this 84-page report also highlights the current state of the art in high-performance long-haul networking for distributed applications.

Roadmap to 100 Gbps

A new 256-page book, edited by Peter Denning, published in October by McGraw-Hill in cooperation with the ACM.

"Today's leading visionaries discuss the future of information technology"

The Invisible Future assembles an elite group of 17 business and academic leaders to answer [...] fascinating, strategically critical questions. The original essays they provide are as provocative and as powerful as the topics they discuss.

This wide-ranging collection offers tactical insights into the future of technology and computing. The Invisible Future includes never-before published essays by:

John Seely Brown, Michael Dertouzos, Alan Kay, Ray Kurzweil, Bob Metcalfe, Rodney Brooks, Rita Colwell, and more.

The Invisible Future: The Seamless Integration of Technology into Everyday Life

When even the world's best search engine can't turn a profit ...

Google is considering creating subscription versions of its popular search engine that could target academic and corporate clients, a source said Thursday.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company is evaluating new "vertical markets" as a means of increasing revenues, according to a source within the company. Among the considerations are new niche searches for periodicals, medical information or technology that Web surfers or companies would pay to use.

Google evaluates subscription options

In the November issue of MIT Technology Review, Mark Fraunfelder talks with Tim Berners-Lee and others about the companies on the leading edge of the Semantic Web development effort.

Technology Review - A Smarter Web

Bill Pohlman, founder of Intel-backed startup Primarion, reports on the progress toward 10 GHz microprocessors within the next four years. A 27-slide presentation (converted here to PDF, sans multimedia) given as the keynote speech to the Microprocessor Forum on October 16.

Outline:
* The 10 GHz Processor
* Power for 10 GHz Processors
* I/O for 10 GHz Processors
* The Encapsulated Processor

Challenges for 10 GHz Processors (from Microprocessor Forum) [PDF]