IP: Penn professor fears modest start-ups could suffer on the Net and announces plans to establish 2 fellowships

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

http://www.phillynews.com/inquirer/2000/Mar/11/business/FARBER11.htm

Penn professor fears modest start-ups could suffer on the Net They could
lack prime space, David J. Farber, an FCC official, told entrepreneurs. He
voiced concern for the Net's "richness and variety."

By Leslie J. Nicholson

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

David J. Farber sees a danger looming on the Internet. It is a digital
divide, but not just the familiar kind that involves race and social class.

Of equal concern, the outspoken University of Pennsylvania professor of
computer science said yesterday, is the possibility that economically
disadvantaged entrepreneurs would be prevented from succeeding on the Web.

Some start-ups, he told a meeting of local entrepreneurs, could be relegated
to a "walled inner city in cyberspace."

Farber is serving a one-year appointment as chief technologist at the
Federal Communications Commission, but said his remarks were personal. He
said that as single companies begin to control both Internet content and
systems for gaining access to that content, such as cable television lines,
the Web could resemble a shopping mall with no prime space available for
start-ups with no money.

Such a system, he said, would have prevented grassroots successes such as
bookseller Amazon.com.

<snip>

Farber emphasized that he was not speaking on behalf of the FCC, nor was he
alluding to specific companies.

He said he was concerned that the "richness and variety" of the Internet be
preserved and that the government not begin regulating the Net.

<snip>


During his speech, Farber announced he was setting up a fellowship for
technology students at Penn that would be financed with proceeds of stock he
holds in the Innovation Factory. The fellowship is in memory of two of his
former graduate students, Philip M. Merlin and Jonathan B. Postel, an
Internet pioneer.
[Note: I plan , given the proceeds are projected to be adequate (and I
believe they
will be) to establish the fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania's
CIS department
and the Stevens Insitute of Technology CIS department  djf]

Farber is on the board of directors of Innovation Factory
[http://www.innovationfactory.com]
, which was founded last year by Marvin Weinberger, the former chairman of
Infonautics Inc.,
which operates research sites on the Web. Weinberger also founded Electric
Schoolhouse, a Web site with an educational focus.

<snip>