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IP: President Pumps up Next Generation Internet -- see it
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 21:14:33 -0500
CyberWire Dispatch // Copyright (c) 1998 // January, 27th Jacking in from the "Here, parse this!" Port: Washington -- Netizens tuning in President Clinton's State of the Union speech will have to wait almost 50 minutes before they get their ears tickled. Not until the end of the speech does Clinton get into cyberspace issues. But when he does, he brings it home big. According to a copy of the speech obtained by CyberWire Dispatch, the President says "We should enable all the world's people to explore the far reaches of cyberspace." This is your clue to wake up because, in a few short paragraphs, cyberspace is gone and outer space starts, as the President talks about building a "permanent foothold in the heavens." Clinton notes that the first time he gave a State of the Union speech, "only physicists used the World Wide Web..." well, okay, we can let him slide on the facts, he has, after all, had a few distractions lately. "Now, in schools, libraries, homes and businesses, millions of Americans surf the Web every day," the President will say. "The Internet is an exploding global marketplace of ideas as well as commerce," he will say, and then he does his "Show Me the Money!" impression: "I ask Congress to step up support for the building of the Next Generation Internet, which will operate up to a thousand times faster than today." Clinton also gives a head bob to censorware: "We must give parents the tools they need to protect their children from inappropriate material on the Internet." But he doesn't give details as to how these "tools" should be distributed, used or paid for. And then is a few words about space and "God Bless you and God Bless America." Tomorrow, it's back to the feeding frenzy of sexual scandal. Meeks out...
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- IP: President Pumps up Next Generation Internet -- see it Dave Farber (Jan 27)