The Networker

On the growth of the Internet: There are about 165 million users, and that probably will reach 200 million by the end of the year. But to put it in context, the telephone system has over 800 million termination points, about 130 million cell phones and 700 million wire lines around the world. So the Internet is still very small compared with the telephone system, but it is growing much faster than the telephone system is, which is why it is of such great interest to telecommunications companies around the world.

In terms of growth, my estimates are that the number of things on the network, pieces of equipment-computers or Internet-enabled devices-will reach nearly 900 million by 2006, so that says this system will be nearly the scale of the telephone network in about seven years' time.

On online customer service lessons: Cisco Systems sells $20 million a day worth of equipment through its Web site. It succeeds at doing this at less cost than it would if it were using 800 numbers or call centers or salespeople, because the customers are doing their own configuration and placing their own orders. So Cisco saves half a billion dollars a year by that means.

Using the Net is a way of aggregating a very dispersed population of consumers. We're really re-learning a lesson Sears Roebuck learned a hundred years ago with the paper catalog as a way of aggregating a very dispersed population of buyers. Of course they delivered their products through the Postal Service.

On challenges to electronic commerce: First problem is, in whose jurisdiction has an abuse happened? Now it's very popular to say that cyberspace is just floating around somewhere and it doesn't really exist anywhere except in your imagination. Well that's not quite true, because the physical manifestation of the Net is in real places with geopolitical boundaries and rules and regulations. But it is a little confusing to think about someone sitting in Paris ordering something from a place in the United States to be delivered in Australia and possibly paid for by a bank in Switzerland.

There are plenty of opportunities for scams on the Net, as there are with any other medium, telephone and Postal Service, but you notice we've passed laws that say if you do these bad things using these media, we will prosecute you because we think that's unacceptable. I imagine we will apply similar tools to the Internet. These are not new in any real sense.

On the government's role on the Net: Well, it should support R&D, which it does. It can help to set standards and encourage industry-led standards to be developed. It certainly is a major source of procurement and that drives the direction of some of the products and services available.

It has a primary responsibility for setting policy and preparing legislation to allow things like the Internet to be more useful than it has been in the past.

The Interntet may even be a vehicle for increasing participatory democracy-exchanges between the government and the citizens [of] information that citizens need to live their lives and do their jobs and information from citizens to help guide the government.