BKWFFTGV.RVW   971013

"A World's Fair for the Global Village", Carl Malamud, 1997,
0-262-13338-5, U$40.00
%A   Carl Malamud carl@media.org
%C   55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA   02142-1399
%D   1997
%G   0-262-13338-5
%I   MIT Press
%O   U$40.00 800-356-0343 fax: 617-625-6660 www-mitpress.mit.edu
%P   281 + CD + CD-ROM
%T   "A World's Fair for the Global Village"

In retropect, of course, the idea of a World's Fair on the Internet
(or, rather, the World Wide Web) seems an obvious concept.  In
retrospect, all great ideas seem obvious.  But Malamud and cohorts
actually did it, and it sounds like it was quite something.  Malamud's
account is, as always, readable, informative, and amusing.  The story
of the fair touches on a great many areas of technology, society,
people, and politics.

I must admit that I knew nothing about it.  I knew about the "Day in
the Life of the Net" book project, I knew about NetDay, and I knew
about some of the other activities that were apparently part of the
overall fair, but the fair itself seems to have slipped by me.  I
*may* have heard of it, but, if so, it didn't register.  This fact may
say something about my observational skills, the sheer scope and size
of the net, or the impact of the fair relative to Malamud's impression
of it.  Take your pick.

The Internet 1996 World Exposition claims five million visitors and
one hundred million dollars worth of donated telecommuncations
bandwidth.  On the other hand, Netscape and such vital sites as
playboy.com claim multiple millions of hits per day.  On the third
hand, Expo '86, as a class three exposition, had ten million
individual visitors at a basic budget of three hundred million
dollars.

Is the Internet 1996 World Exposition important, and will it leave any
legacy such as London's Crystal Palace or Paris' Eiffel Tower?  Yes,
and yes.  The basic content of the fair itself is still, apparently,
available at http://park.org.  The pages, however, are not as
important as the fact that it was done at all.  The experiences
involved, as recounted in the book, show once again that even such
technically implicated government institutions as the patent office
still do not realize the ramifications of the technology.  A committed
and informal group put together something that major information
conglomerates could not match.  A donation of services from a company
that could only look forward to long term public goodwill suddenly
made a direct, immediate, and unforseen contribution to the company's
profits.  A project seen as as an amusing exercise in community
suddenly and substantially increased the world's effective networking
capacity.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1997   BKWFFTGV.RVW   971013