dacs.doc electric

On December 3, 2002, DACS members are fortunate to be able to listen again to John Patrick, the now-retired Vice President of Internet Technology at IBM. The meeting will take place at Danbury Hospital Auditorium starting at 7:00pm, with the main presentation at 8:00pm.

Each December for a number of years, Patrick has enlightened DACS members with the direction and the future the Internet will take. At times he described situations using the Internet that sounded like fiction, but actually were realized a few years later. No wonder John Patrick is called an Internet guru. He is described by the media as a leading Internet technology expert. He travels all over the world giving speeches about the future of the Internet to diverse audiences. DACS members are fortunate to have the opportunity to hear this very charismatic speaker once again at our December 2002 meeting.

One likely topic for presentation will be John's book "Net Attitude", published a year ago and setting forth his philosophy of using the Web to its fullest. You can find out more on the book by visiting http://netattitude.org/. If you can find a copy, bring it down for an autograph.

Over the years, John Patrick has described different situations where companies with web sites ask their visitors to call them during business hours. The question is always, in a global economy, whose business hours? My nine to five in the USA? Or my sister's nine to five in Switzerland? Or my neighbor's family in Japan nine to five? I'm looking forward to hearing if any progress has been made in that regard.

Another subject I'm curious to find out about is how long the majority of users will still use desktop computers to access the world wide web. Will the trend move toward using cell phones, PC tablets or other mobile devices to get information via the Internet any time soon? Ed Heere broached the topic during his presentation in August. I hope that Patrick will elaborate on this.

John Patrick's presentations are always very informative, and not to be missed. Look for the link to his site from DACS' web page for more information on what he intends to talk about.