From: technews <technews@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@lists.ou.edu>
Subject: it-fyi: New Institute to Assess Internet's Impact (NY Times on th
Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1999 09:54:05 -0600
November 9, 1999
A Coming-Together of Foes to Assess Internet's Impact
New Institute Plans to Help Shape Policies
By STEVE LOHR
Over the weekend, Robert J. Herbold, the chief operating officer of
Microsoft, and James L. Barksdale, the former president of Netscape
Communications, appeared on television, radio and in newspapers, commenting
from opposite sides of the Microsoft antitrust case.
But today, they are putting those differences aside to focus on a shared
interest in high technology as board members of a new research organization,
the Internet Policy Institute. The founders -- a diverse collection of
corporate sponsors, Internet pioneers and political figures -- say their
Washington-based nonprofit institute is intended to be a source of
influential and independent research for policy makers.
"The Internet is surrounded by noise, hype and marketing, but there is
little hard data on which policy makers can base critical decisions that
will determine the future of the new medium and how it affects society,"
said Barksdale, co-chairman of the institute's board and now an independent
investor.
The institute, its founders say, has ambitions to become a major research
center -- a kind of "Brookings Institution for the Internet," according to
Kimberly Jenkins, who functions as its president.
The research group is looking for offices in Washington and plans to grow
quickly over the next couple of years to support 30 or so resident scholars
and outside research projects, with an annual operating budget of $10
million. "We want to move fast because the next three to five years is the
formative stage when so many of the key policy decisions will be made about
the Internet," Ms. Jenkins said.
The institute plans to focus its research on assessing the Internet's impact
in areas including the economy, privacy, security, government, society and
innovation. Along with publishing its research and sponsoring conferences,
it plans to hold briefings for the presidential candidates on Internet
issues starting next March. It will also support international research
projects.
The 19-member board is expected to make sure that the institute's work is
noticed in both government and industry circles. Barksdale is an adviser to
the Republican front-runner for president, Gov. George W. Bush of Texas.
Other board members well connected politically include Ira Magaziner, a
former senior policy adviser to the Clinton administration; the former House
Speaker, Newt Gingrich, and Adam Clayton Powell III, vice president for
technology programs of Freedom Forum.
Internet pioneers on the institute's board include Vinton G. Cerf, a senior
vice president of MCI Worldcom, and Robert E. Kahn, who is president of the
Corporation for National Research Initiatives. Its corporate
representatives, besides Herbold of Microsoft, include George Vradenburg
III, senior vice president for policy at America Online.
The board's diversity, the founders say, represents an effort to make sure
that its work will not carry an ideological or political slant. "Unlike
other organizations focused on the Net, this is not going to be an advocacy
group or a trade association," said Esther Dyson, a board member and
currently interim chairwoman of an Internet governing body for assigning
online names and addresses. "The objective here is to do research without an
agenda."
The first project the institute is sponsoring is a study of the impact of
the Internet on the economy -- headed by Robert Litan, director of economic
studies at the Brookings Institution, and Alice M. Rivlin, an economist and
former Federal Reserve vice chairwoman, who is also at Brookings.
The yearlong project will try to assess the likely impact of Internet
technology on productivity, prices and costs. The research, according to
Litan, will look forward, trying to assess the Internet's effects as they
are diffused across the economy.
"It won't be traditional economics and it won't be easy," Litan said. "But
the potential policy implications would be to help assess the appropriate
speed limits on monetary policy in the future and to assess just how new the
so-called new economy really is."