03/08/94
RMIUG Meeting Minutes - Guy Cook - The Internet
as a Strategic Business Tool
The Rocky Mountain Internet User's Group had its second meeting on March 8th,
1994. We started about 15 minutes late (7:15)
due to the bad weather. Dan mentioned that
we are 2 for 2 with snowy weather, so let
him know when you are skiing next and he
will schedule a RMIUG meeting! ;-)
Some general administrivia issues and
announcements of interest.
- Of the ~100 people present, it appears
that about half of the audience was not
on the RMIUG list but that only 3 did
not have any Email access at all. I talked
briefly about the list, and encouraged
people to send a "subscribe rmiug" to
majordomo@csn.org. The general
concesus seemed to be that we don't want
tons of junk Email, so although this list
is an "open" one, I'd encourage people
to post info of general interest only.
- Alan McCartney (amc@stortek.com)
mentioned an upcoming Sun Synergy Satellite
Broadcast scheduled for March 15th. A
subsequent posting to RMIUG mentioned
that you could stop by NCAR to see this.
- Jim Sheeler (James_R._Sheeler@onenet-bbs.org)
from the Boulder Camera Business Section
mentioned that he was doing an article
on the Internet and was interested in
talking to people who use the Internet.
- Steve Norman asked about RMIUG setting
up a Wide Area Web server. This is being
investigated, but I suspect the mailing
list will be the main source of information
for the short-term. BTW, there is some
activity "behind the scenes" to improve
our electronic "setup"
- An upcoming Front Range Unix Users
Group (FRUUG) meeting about Internet Providers
was mentioned. This will be held at the
auditorium at the National Institute for
Science and Technology (NIST) at 325 South
Broadway in Boulder from 3:00 to 6:00
P.M. Tuesday, March 22 1994. FRUUG does
a nice job with their meetings, and if
you are interested to hear about Internet
Providers, this is highly recommended.
Details about this were also posted to
RMIUG (or Email fruug-info@fruug.org)
There was a short presentation from Brad Sutton
(Brad_Sutton@onenet-bbs.org) of Black
Labs about what his company does. Black Labs
has an entrepenaurial background, and is developing
(from what I gathered) a "KnowBot" program
that will "search" the Internet for information
that you want. It will "know" where certain
stashes of info is, and although it will be
general purpose, one product of particular
interest is a bio-tech application (ummm,
what a co-incidence given Boulder's scientific
community! ;-) Black Labs is sponsoring an
upcoming conference titled "Profit on the
Information Highway" to be held at the Boulder
Clarion Hotel on March 30th, 1994; call (303)
530-0511 for more info. He said if you mention
you belong to RMIUG, you'll get a special
discounted price of $99 (versus $199).
The main presentation was by Guy Cook, CEO
for Colorado SuperNet. CSN is one of the main
Internet Providers in Colorado (attend the
above mentioned FRUUG meeting to hear about
others). Guy's talk was titled: "The Internet
as a Strategic Business Tool Or Gaining Competitive
Advantage with the Internet". Guy's slides
focused on how the Internet is changing the
way companies do business. There were also
several questions about the Internet in general.
There were several questions about security
- the March/1994 issue of Scientific American
has an excellent article about the Internet
that is recommended. In addition, the "Clipper
Chip" was mentioned, and RMIUG hopes to have
Phil Zimmerman, inventor of Pretty Good Privacy
(PGP), talk to us sometime down the road.
Guy also discussed some of the Myths &
Facts of the Internet. For instance, many
people think that commercial business is
not allows on the "Net" when in fact over
60% of the traffic is such. He also referred
several times to an Internet article in
the March 7th issue of Fortune.
Guy closed by pointing out that the Internet
is growing at 20%/month, and that notions
of Property, Value, Ownership are changing
fundamentally and that Politicians, Regulators,
& Lawyers (my favorite group!) don't necessarily
understand this. (All of this should make
for an interesting environment, eh? ;-).
The next RMIUG meeting is scheduled for Tuesday,
April 12th. Speaker and location to be announced
on this list - stay tuned! ;-)
Suggestions/comments/feedback are always
welcome - pls direct these to Dan Murray
(ac551@freenet.hsc.colorado.edu)
or 447-3475.
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