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. - - - 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" <Bob_Metcalfe@ccgate.infoworld.com>

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.