Dave Holmes' Journal of Internet World: April 1999

This page will contains reports (6 live blogs) written during my trip to Internet World in Los Angeles from April 12th through April 16th 1999.  It  also contains both professional observations of the convention and personal happenings during the trip (well, not too personal). The term "blog" was not common at this point in the Internet.  This conference was held three years after I started building the Shoreline Community College website in April of 1996.  This was a completely work related trip.

Report by Dave Holmes: Dateline - Seattle
3/27/99
10:27:36 PM
A Pre-conference Perspective....
Internet World should prove to be extremely beneficial to my work as Program Manager for Digital Communications - Webmaster. There will be over 400 companies represented at the convention in Los Angeles. These companies run the full range from Unix to NT based systems hardware and software.

This will allow me to see what is really happening in the world of the Internet. Not only in figurative world of the Internet but also in what is happening around the world with Internet development.

With this experience I will be able to better compare our own efforts on the campus with other educational and business environments.

This conference is similar to the ICE conference I attended a year and a half ago, only much larger than that conference in both size and scope. In the previous case the focus was on Internet Commerce. This conference will cover literally everything that is being done now and the plans for the future that many companies are forming in their collective efforts that have made the Internet larger than any one company, or nation, can control.

Report by Dave Holmes: Dateline - Los Angeles
4/12/99
11:06:33 PM
Arrived safely in Los Angeles. The flight was smooth and uneventful, other that the fact that it ran about a half an hour late.

Tomorrow is a vacation day for me (at my own expense for all lodging, food, or transportation for that day). I have been receiving email updates to the various events of the show. This includes both vendor schedule updates and the actual agenda for the Keynote Speeches.The weather in Los Angeles was rainy today. Pretty much like the weather I left this morning in Seattle.

Report by Dave Holmes: Dateline - Los Angeles
4/13/99
11:53:07 PM
Tomorrow is the first day of the convention. I was able to have a vacation day today. I am looking forward to the beginning of this exposition. The week is going by very fast for me. I will write more tomorrow night after the first day of the show.

I should have something up on this page by late evening. That's one of the problems with these shows, I can only post after the fact, which is the next business day for most people. If I get a chance, I'll try a quick entry from a web browser at the convention.

Report by Dave Holmes: Dateline - Los Angeles
4/14/99
12:59:53 PM
I'm live at the show. This thing is huge. At first I thought 3 days might be too much. Not so. This makes ICE look tiny. Wow.
I'll write more tonight about the first day of the show.

Report by Dave Holmes: Dateline - Los Angeles
4/14/99
8:28:29 PM
Sometimes when a convention or exposition is billed as the biggest or the largest the promoters are just "blowing smoke". Such was not the case on this first day of Internet World which filled a hall of massive size at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The convention organizers also had to use the North hall area as well for special vendor booths and the keynote sessions. It was a truly overwhelming experience.

On Wednesday afternoon I attend the Keynote speech of Rich McGinn, the Chairman/CEO of Lucent Technologies. His speech was billed as one that would talk about the inadequacies of the current Internet, and he touched on that.

However, the main focus of his talk really stressed the merging of all networks: computer, voice, and  video (also wireless versions of those three technologies).

He described the World Wide Web as the World Wide Wait and this has become more evident to many of us involved in Internet development in recent months. One side joke for him was that with all of us tech types at the conference today the web was probably screaming along just fine, at least until the kids get out of school in the afternoon.

The main focus of his presentation was serious. Not only the cross over or all communications technologies but the current efforts to bring fiber optics throughout both the Internet and Intranet structures of companies and institutions across the world. The "bottlenecks" have been found and the current efforts to increase speed at these points is of primary focus for both internet software and internet hardware companies.

This effort was very noticeable on the display floor of the show which had plenty of router companies and ISPs (Internet Service Providers) for large scale enterprise installations.

The Internet is an important catalyst in the communications revolution now occurring. But today's Internet is not sufficient to accommodate future needs. The next generation Internet will require greater capacity, flexibility and ease-of-use. Breakthrough technologies to address these needs already exist thanks to scientists such as those at Bell Labs. We can expect even more innovations in the near future as the world's communications networks are transformed into a network of networks. Rich McGinn, Chairman and CEO of Lucent Technologies, shared his views of the communications revolution and what it will mean for the Internet.

I gathered lots of material today and I think that I will be faced with the usual daunting task of weeding out the dross from the useable information that we can use at Shoreline Community College.

Already I have some ideas for our Intranet (internal web) that might help reduce or eliminate the training in Frontpage and instead focus on automated ways to post Word and Excel documents straight to the Intranet. Perhaps this would encourage people to move documents to the Intranet, especially if the existing Word documents can be used the way they are with out having to format those documents all over again for the Intranet.

Report by Dave Holmes: Dateline - Los Angeles
4/15/99
12:13:35 PM
Live from the floor of Internet World. Great weather today for the show here at Internet World. I watched a great keynote speech this morning. I'll write more about that tonight.

Report by Dave Holmes: Dateline - Los Angeles
4/15/99
6:44:01 PM
"Live from LA": Another great day at the show. I went to both keynotes and a number of sit-down demonstrations and sessions sponsored by some of the vendors.

The first keynote was John Chambers of Cisco Systems. He showed a real (as in non-vapor-ware) demonstration of ready to ship integrated products. I was very impressed with the Ethernet phone that plugs into the normal Ethernet jack, gets its DHCP number and logs onto the network. It also has a second jack to plug the computer into so that you don't need two Ethernet ports in the same office.

What was really cool is that when you move the computer and phone to the new office and plug them in the phone, like the computer, is all set to use: the number of the phone moves with it because of the DHCP addressing. You can talk on the phone and use the computer at the same time with only one jack. This is the total merger of voice and data that everyone is claiming will happen someday.  Until today I had not seen it as a real product that can be purchased.

More than 200 years ago, the Industrial Revolution forever changed the fortunes of people, companies and countries. Similarly, the Internet Revolution of today is driving economic growth and reshaping businesses and governments worldwide. What we are witnessing is the emergence of a new economy in which the Internet is changing the way people work, live, play and learn. Chambers' presentation focused on what is driving this new economy and what businesses, countries and governments must do to remain competitive in this new world.

The afternoon session featured Real Networks' Rob Glaser who showed that Real Networks (formerly Real Audio) is still at the top if the streaming video/audio game.

Streaming media is transforming the Internet, accelerating the industry's growth and creating new business models. Increasingly, these new businesses are generating revenues from streaming media delivery of information, entertainment and advertising over the Web. Mr. Glaser talked about the key factors in successfully building businesses based on streaming media in a marketplace where the opportunities are expanding exponentially.

Report by Dave Holmes: Dateline - Los Angeles
4/16/99
11:02:57 AM
Just attended a great final Keynote speech by John Sidgmore, Vice Chairman of MCI WorldCom, now called UUNET. (Yes there are two UUs in UUNET). Instead of lots of future predictions he also showed current trends in Internet growth compared with trends in voice networks for UUNET years 1998 and 1999.

With demand for Internet bandwidth growing at unprecedented rates, today's telecommunications companies are facing challenges on every level - from quality of service to scaling capabilities and beyond. John Sidgmore, Vice Chairman of MCI WorldCom discussed the changes and developments that are under way to help further the growth, reliability and expanded capabilities on Internet technology, including:   Developments and breakthroughs in Internet access and management *Service level agreements and quality guarantees  Future trends in Internet and telecommunications convergence.

These amazing numbers again showed that voice, even for MCI, will soon be a minor side business for them.......

Well, off to see the rest of the show. My flight is confirmed and the shuttle to the airport. Nice weather in Seattle and LA should make for a nice flight tonight.

"Almost Live" from LA: Dave Holmes......

Home