Contact: June Howlett for Technology Review, 781/237-2347
TECHNOLOGY REVIEW TAKES FIRST CRITICAL LOOK AT WORLD WIDE WEB CONSORTIUM
Special Issue on "The Unknown Internet" Reports on Global Tracking of Potential Epidemics
Cambridge, MA, October 13, 1998 - In the upcoming special issue on "The Unknown Internet" (Nov./Dec.) of Technology Review, MIT's Magazine of Innovation, the lead story takes the first critical look at the World Wide Web Consortium, or theW3C and its founder, Tim Berners-Lee. TR reports on "little-known" or "little-understood" aspects of how the Internet works, and how it's run and what effect it has on individual lives.
"TR offers the first look behind the closed doors of what some have called the Web's secret government. Cyber-writer Simson Garfinkel's investigative report shines a light on this organization, which will have a large impact on the Web's structure in the 21st century. To some of the W3C's critics, it is unsettling to think of a consortium made up primarily of corporations, with meetings closed to the outside world, making policy that affects us all," said John Benditt, editor-in-chief, Technology Review.
Based at MIT, the shadowy W3C has more than 250 corporate members -- companies that have financial stakes in the Internet - including such giants as Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, IBM and Cisco Systems. The consortium also has as members non-profit organizations, industry groups and government agencies around the world. Its members have a decisive authority on how the Web will operate in the future. In spite of that influence, almost nobody outside the telecommunications industry understands what the W3C is and how it works.
While its technical work is widely admired, the W3C has raised eyebrows with projects that have more to do with regulating online society than managing the flow of bits. In addition, some in the industry complain that the group's decisions reflect the thinking of one man: Tim Berners-Lee, so-called king of the Web. The top-down, personalized management of the consortium as structured by Berners-Lee, is criticized.
Web Monitoring of Emerging Diseases The W3C story is followed up by three reports on unknown aspects of the Net: Web tracking of emerging diseases, bandwidth as a tradable commodity and a real company's transformation to a virtual retail shop. - ProMED-Mail, - (http://www.healthnet.org), "the CNN of epidemiology outbreaks," enables epidemiologists to use the Web to keep pace with emerging viruses anywhere in the world. In the four years since it went online, ProMED-Mail has grown from 40 subscribers in seven countries to 15,000 in 150 countries. It is considered by health experts to be an indispensable medium for tracking the global spread of ebola, AIDS, and other infectious diseases, and for transmitting news to the far corners of the globe. Also, Outbreak - (http://www.outbreak.org), which TR calls the "single best site on the Web for one-stop surfing on emerging diseases."
- Bandwidth's New Bargaineers - A report on the possibility that bandwidth will soon be a tradable commodity along with crude oil, cocoa beans and porkbellies. Companies leading the way are listed in feature.
- Egghead Goes Virtual - The story of how Egghead Computer transformed itself into a virtual company. The article deals with the challenges and difficulties of an electronic commerce business.
For full-text of these stories (for press only), please contact June Howlett, 781/237-2347, or [email protected]. The magazine will be available on newsstands Oct. 27, 1998 and can be read on-line at http://www.techreview.com.
Technology Review will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year, it is the oldest technology magazine in the world. Relaunched this year as "MIT's Magazine of Innovation," Technology Review focuses on the latest, most important technological innovations across a wide range of fields, including biotech, nanotech and information technology. Published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Technology Review now serves a greatly expanded audience, providing information and analysis of leading-edge discoveries and their potential impact on science, business and society.
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