Report: the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) is very pro-commerce
and recently met in Amsterdam for a session to discuss Internet
Mercantile Protocols (IMP). It would allow consumers & companies on the
Internet to combine PEM and MIME to complete and automate commercial transactions.
J. C. Davin, previously of Bellcore helped initiate the IMP project. He
envisions a standard that would allow companies to sell data such as
image files or software. Another approach being considered would allow
a sort of `home shopping network' approach.
Meeting m Amsterdam minutes can be found at thumper.bellcore.com.
Directory path: pub/devetzis/imp. Get: imp-archive.
Mail me for more information.
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On a related note, Bob Metcalf of IETF and columnist for InfoWorld was
on NPR recently and talked about the `pampered elite' of people with
Unix machines that are currently using the internet. The comment was
clarified to mean that a vast audience of people with PCs and Macs and
other low-end computers are mostly unconnected. IETF membership info appended.
He shows a strong commitment to:
1) increasing address space for participants of the next century -
`upgrading in one of the biggest cutovers since Great Britain decided
to drive on the right side of the road'
2) exploiting ATM with ``cell-based protocols, operating systems, and
applications. Otherwise, the Internet stays stuck in its current
20-year-old ASCII-bound applications -- TELNET, FTP, and E-mail.''
3) strong support for *individual* subscribers vs. the current
institutional monopoly, with ISDN playing a central role
4) he's in favor of usage billing as a critical aspect of commercial
development. ``Internet carriers must be able, as are telephone
companies, to settle with one another for traffic carried on behalf of
each other's customers.''
From: "Bob Metcalfe"
if you want to join the Internet Society, as I just did, to keep in touch with how the third generation is coming along, it costs $70 per year and gets you the quarterly /Internet Society News/. Call >703-620-8990.