What will be [antikvár]

Foreword Bill Gates What Will Be is an engaging and visionary guide to the future, filled with insights on how information technology will transform our lives and our world in the new century. The author, Michael Dertouzos, stands apart from many of the forecasters and commentators who bombard us daily with images of this future. For twenty years he has led one of the world's premier research laboratories, whose members and alumni have brought the world time-shared computers, spreadsheets, the ether-net, RSA encryption, and over forty startup companies. As a visionary, his predictions have been on the mark: in 1981, he described the concept of an Information Marketplace as "a twenty-first-century village marketplace where people and computers buy, sell, and freely exchange infonnation and information services." That's a good description—fifteen years ahead of time—of the Internet as we know it today. Not surprisingly, Michael is very much a part of the current action surrounding the Internet: his laboratory's World Wide Web Consortium involves 150 organizations that help steer the evolution of the Web. Naturally, we do not agree on all the specific ways the new world will evolve or affect us. This is as it should be. There is plenty of room for new ideas and debate concerning the rich and promising setting ahead. What's more important is that people become informed, and form their own opinions, about the changes ahead. When it comes to that future world, what we do agree on far outweighs our differences. New businesses will be created and new fortunes will be made in the novel areas of activity this book describes. More important, impending changes in hardware, software, and Foreword