Date: Sat, 04 Mar 1995 14:09:22 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "USENIX Conference Keynote Address" by Barlow CSBARLOW.RVW 950110 "USENIX Conference Keynote Address: San Francisco, CA, January 17, 1994", Barlow, 1-56592-992-6, U$9.95 %A John Perry Barlow %C 103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastopol, CA 95472 %D 1994 %G 1-56592-992-6 %I ORA Audio/O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. %O U$9.95 800-998-9938 707-829-0515 fax: 707-829-0104 nuts@ora.com %P 70 min. %S Notable Speeches of the Information Age %T "USENIX Conference Keynote Address: San Francisco, CA, January 17, 1994" John Perry Barlow, lyricist for the Grateful Dead, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (and self-described "retired Wyoming cattle rancher") was the keynote speaker for the Usenix conference in San Francisco, January 17, 1994. This tape includes both his talk and the question period. (It is also available on Internet Talk Radio for those willing to consume that much bandwidth, and possibly spend longer downloading the file than the playing time of the speech.) Barlow primarily discusses the cultural conflict between the traditional Internet and the new commercial interests generally identified with the "information superhighway". There is discussion of government, cryptography, censorship, and the evolution of the aims and work of the EFF. One point reiterated throughout is the need for those deeply involved in the technology to study and become involved in the political forces which drive the use (and abuse) of advanced communications. A minor theme is the call for "rich media". Barlow laments the fact that human beings assimilate text at a very low rate (generally below 1200 bps), but take in experience far faster. Rich media (or multimedia) are therefore much more efficient for human communications purposes. Barlow ignores two, very vital, factors here. The first is that the bandwidth requirements for non-text messages are currently very expensive, and promote a dependence on an elite level of technology. (This is interesting in view of the link with Internet Talk Radio). The second consideration is that, despite almost a century of involvement with multimedia, people seem to be only marginally capable of generating communications in non-text forms. Automation isn't likely to effect that. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 CSBARLOW.RVW 950110. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver roberts@decus.ca Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca Research into slade@freenet.victoria.bc.ca User rslade@CyberStore.ca Security Canada V7K 2G6