IP: Two notes from Esther Dyson on Europe's Internet Lag: An American Fabrication? and one from Kjell-Morten Thorsen of Norway on their usage [IPers are all over djf]

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

To: farber () cis upenn edu
From: edyson () edventure com (Esther Dyson)
Subject: Re: IP: More re Europe's Internet Lag: An American Fabrication?
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 03:26:31 -0400

I was just at the Global Business Dialogue meeting *on e-commerce* in Paris.
Very high-class event, at the Louvre, with Ministers etc. from all over
(including US Secretary of COmmerce Bill Daley), heads of Time Warner,
Vivendi, AOL, Bertelsmann, Fujitsu, IBM Europe, Microsoft Europe......  but
the nicely printed book of distinguished guests did not include e-mail
addresses (no, not a privacy issue, because it had phones and snail mail
addresses and the odd fax).  However, cell phones were ubiquitous.

Esther Dyson

To: farber () cis upenn edu
From: edyson () edventure com (Esther Dyson)
Subject: another item re Europe's Internet Lag: An American Fabrication?
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 03:27:06 -0400

I am over here (Munich/Warsaw/Paris/London/Geneva/Moscow) getting ready for
my annual European Net entrepreneurs' conference next month.  though I come
here every month, the getting-ready-once-a-year process makes one focus on
the changes. Last year, as I recall, most of our speakers were from larger
companies or from the US; it was hard to find genuine Net commerce
entrepreneurs.  This year, I feel as if I were on the surface of a glass of
champagne; things are fizzing and popping up all over. In Germany, a
start-up is renting applets over the Net to small businesses who want to add
(but not manage) various functional components to their Websites - things
such as data-collection forms, event sign-up calendars, transaction
management. In Poland, a company is outsourcing data collection services to
pharmaceutical salespeople using Palm Pilots.  In the UK, Lastminute.com is
selling last-minute tickets to upscale consumers too busy to plan ahead. All
over, online brokerage services are opening up, changing investors' habits
and probably the very nature of capital-raising in Europe. New VC firms are
showing up everywhere.  Symbian is finding application partners to do
everything from traffic reports over wireless to chess-over-the Net from
your wireless device.  And so on.......    (FWIW, EFF and TRUSTe are now
opening up over here, too!)

The gulf between this community and the establishment that attended the
Global Business Dialogue conference (see other note) is stil wide; *that* is
what is most different from the US.

Esther Dyson

From: "Kjell-Morten Thorsen" <kjell-morten () oslo sydvest no>
Subject: Re:More re Europe's Internet Lag: An American Fabrication?
To: <farber () cis upenn edu>
X-Priority: 3
Reply-To: "Kjell-Morten Thorsen" <kjell-morten () oslo sydvest no>

To correct your impression about Europeans and technology: Here in 
Norway it's common to have more than one telephone handset at home, 
almost everyone have got a cellular phone (especially the youths), 
all the students and many of the working people have got e-mail and 
use it frequently. In my work, for instance, I base my communication 
on e-mail. I don't feel technophobic at all!

As another example, the leading phone and GSM network operator in 
Norway - Telenor Mobil - have agreed with Nokia on the supply of the 
Nokia General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) core network pre-release 
solution, for a pilot system expected to be operational in November. 
More on Nokia's site: 
http://wwwdb.nokia.com/pressrel/webpr.nsf/mostrecent/C225663600509DEDC 
22567E10048E91F?opendocument

But you're right about the fax, though - it has never really reached 
the home marked.

Kjell-Morten Thorsen,
webdeveloper