_______________THE YEAR OF DREAMING DANGEROUSLY BY STEPHEN TALBOT (07/22/98)
	After reading the article on the significance of 1968, from what I can tell, every year, and most likely every second, is held up by baby boomers as that which defined their generation. Let all of us, the entire global-digital community, realize that the years 1960 to 1970 were no more nor any less significant in shaping the folly that is human life than any other decade/year/nanosecond. If one desires it, he or she can compile a list of significant, paradigm-shifting events for any year, 1968 or 1977 or 1544. -- Nels Nelson Plainfield, Ill.
_______________MICROSOFT.ORGY BY ANDREW LEONARD (07/21/98)
	I was disappointed that this piece focused heavily on the use of NetMeeting for adult communication purposes. While adult use of videoconferencing applications is a very visible use of this technology (as adult purposes seem to be in other areas of the Internet), this is a minority. The most common use of these applications (specifically with regards to NetMeeting) is indeed for business or for personal communication between family and friends. NetMeeting was designed for small group conferences, and business users are best able to utilize the key features of the product: multipoint data conferencing, Internet telephony and videoconferencing. As to the misuse of the Internet Locator Servers, they do make it easier for people to find and connect with each other. It is important to note, though, that it is just one of the many ways users can do so. Users can also connect by logging on to an ILS with an unlisted address, and send e-mail address or a NetMeeting SpeedDial to be called; not log on to an ILS at all, and use their physical IP address to be called; use instant messaging or buddy list technology to see when their friends are online (IP addresses make the connection); or go to the ILS Web site and perform a query for the person they're trying to reach. The majority of consumers using NetMeeting are using the technology to communicate with friends and family. Examples include: A couple in North Carolina got married over NetMeeting. When the bride's family in Seoul, Korea, couldn't attend the wedding, Dad gave the bride away via NetMeeting. A suburb of Detroit linked up with a town in Sicily for a "sister city" family reunion via NetMeeting. An officer in the U.S. Air Force based in Illinois uses NetMeeting to conference with his 71-year-old mother in Southern California. He has used the application-sharing feature of NetMeeting to help put together the church newspaper. Good Internet access, limited budgets and family members off for a tour of duty make Internet conferencing very popular with military families. I'd be happy to provide you with contact information for these users if you are interested. Another important point that did not make it into the article was the issue of industry standards. Your article seemed to communicate that the broad availability of NetMeeting was a bad thing for customers, and a bad thing for the industry. This couldn't be further from the truth. Before NetMeeting, there were various videoconferencing and Internet telephony products on the market that had NO way of communicating with each other due to the lack of industry standards. NetMeeting was a pioneer and the first product to embrace industry standards for audio and video and application sharing over IP networks (the Internet and corporate intranets). The broad distribution of NetMeeting helped to rally a segmented industry (segmented by each individual vendor in the market) to one that could support ubiquitous communications on the Internet. Writing about the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) standards (H.323 for audio/video and T.120 for data) is dull stuff, but the promotion of standards, rather than stifling competition as others suggested, is what is making this industry viable. Today you can pick up any telephone by any manufacturer and call anyone anywhere over any service (U.S. West, AT&T, etc.). ITU standards make this possible. The Internet conferencing industry will not become viable until any product can call any other product. Because of NetMeeting's leadership in embracing standards, a whole host of third-party products is coming to market: audio/videoconferencing servers, Internet to telephone network bridges, Internet-based call centers, video cards/cameras and, yes, other clients as well. These products work with NetMeeting and any other standards-based products from any other vendor. I'd be happy to talk more with you about the importance of standards in Internet and intranet conferencing, and Microsoft's role in working with the industry to drive them. As with all Microsoft products, we are listening to customer feedback and will continue to evolve NetMeeting. We expect to see solutions for these industry issues with increased availability of instant messaging or buddy list-type clients, which will improve the way people find and connect to each other for a video/audio session. Over time, this will make the directory servers obsolete and help to alleviate these issues that the industry is facing now. -- Tom Laemmel NetMeeting Product Manager
_______________SAND HASSLES BY SUSIE BRIGHT (07/17/98)
	What struck me most about Susie Bright's column was the graphic description of her sexual trauma when she was 17 years old. It seemed like rape, however unintentional, on the part of her boyfriend. Did he know the pain he was causing? Why was there such a breakdown of communication between the two lovers? Traditional societies prepare their young people to make love. We have failed in this regard, and this case is an example of a terrible neglect. One can only hope that her self disclosure only furthers the healing of her post-trauma reaction. After all, men and women have made love under the sun and stars for millennia without necessarily damaging their parts. And it would be sad indeed if someone continued to miss out on one of nature's joys because of youthful ignorance and misplaced exuberance. -- Michael Doherty SALON | July 28, 1998

R E C E N T L Y+| THE FACE OF ZORRO BY LUIS VALDEZ

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