Content and Conduits: Is There a Public Interest in Competition
Tuesday, October 10
8:30am - 9:30am

Exciting but controversial partnerships, particularly among various media magnates, have dominated the airwaves, the net bandwidth, and even the printed page. Policy makers are re-thinking what might previously have been considered unfair advantage in the communications marketplace. Current ideas about privacy, entertainment and personal security are fast being challenged. New technologies are creating tremendous opportunities for enhanced information transport and interpersonal communication capabilities. Will vertical integration and various intercorporate alliances create efficiencies that stimulate these developments? Or will they retard competition, consequently raising costs and lowering innovation and quality? What role should public policy play in promoting competition? Will the increasing convergence of technologies ensure competition regardless of the choices made by business and government decision makers?

Michael Katz, Chief Economist of the Federal Communications Commission, is on detail from the University of California at Berkeley, where he is Professor of Economics and Business.

The Trouble with Groupware
Wednesday, October 11
8:45am - 9:45am

This presentation will discuss, particularly from an information science point of view, some of the benefits and problems with groupware products. One of the principal benefits of groupware is that it enables the members of a group to electronically create, distribute, and manage information for other members of the group. Most groupware products on the market today allow individuals with no information science background to create information systems. Unfortunately, this leads to many problems, some of which will be discussed and illustrated in this presentation.

Where there are problems there are also opportunities. This presentation will also discuss some of the opportunities groupware provides for information science professionals. For example, the proliferation of groupware provides a need for cross-discipline information science education. In addition, compared to many professionally-managed information systems, most groupware products are immature and would benefit from the experience and knowledge of information scientists.

Len Kawell has been designing and developing what is now called groupware for the last 19 years. He received his B.S. in Computer Science at University of Illinois where he worked on the Plato project. Len designed and developed VMS Mail and the original versions of VAX Notes at Digital Equipment. Len has been working on the design and implementation of Lotus Notes for the last 10 years at Iris (now a subsidiary of IBM Corp) where he is the founder and Vice President.