this is the sort of story that brings back images of the social differentiation in trickle down economics, deficit spending, etc. this gentleman is going to be in a world of hurt for years because of the boom-bust economics that the current regime sponsors.

Breaking the silence. Breaking the silence Last night ITV1 in the UK ran a documentary that is unlikely to be shown in the USA. It is by a respected journalist called John Pilger and amongst other tidbits it shows Colin Powell saying in 1991 that Iraq poses no threat and also Condoleeza Rice confirming the same thing. It also quotes some US officials that the current bunch who seem to be running US foreign policy were known during the administration of Bush senior as “the crazies”. Plus much more. [MetaFilter]

Tim Berners-Lee Royal Society Webcast.

Bronwyn Stuckey from StageStruck Online said in Yahoo! com-prac just now:

Tim Berners-Lee Royal Society Webcast

http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/live/

[It's all about people and networks]

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this looks like it will be an interesting webcast, I plan on watching it when i get to the office, so I'm blogging it too.

The
Day Internet Governance Mattered, by Michael Geist, in the Tornoto
Star, on the VeriSign Site Finder service and ICANN's ''intervention.'' [A blog doesn't need a clever name]

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this is also well covered on cavebear blog.

Stateless Transnationals.

[via Reuben]Business Week writes:

[A] new breed of high-tech companies is defying conventional wisdom about how corporations ought to operate. While most large companies have extensive worldwide operations, these companies go much further — aiming to transcend nationality altogether. C.K. Prahalad, a professor at the University of Michigan Business School, calls this the fourth stage of globalization. In the first stage, companies operate in one country and sell into others. Second-stage multinationals set up foreign subsidiaries to handle one country's sales. And the third stage involves operating an entire line of business in another country.

What's different about these outfits — call them transnationals — is that even the executive suite is virtual. They place their top executives and core corporate functions in different countries to gain a competitive edge through the availability of talent or capital, low costs, or proximity to their most important customers.

An example: Trend Micro, whose “financial headquarters is in Tokyo, where it went public; product development is in PhD-rich Taiwan; and sales is in Silicon Valley — inside the giant American market.” India's Wipro is also mentioned in the article.

[E M E R G I C . o r g]

from Ralph, on the seweb list:

The “Semantic Technologies for E-Government” Conference was held at the White House Conference Centeron September 8th. This was a very successful event with over 130 attendees. Among many agencies represented were Army, Census Bureau, CIA, DIA, DOE, EPA, GSA, IRS, Navy, NARA, NASA, NSA, NSF, SSA, USDA and US Patent Office. A number of attendees were from non-profit organizations such as Aerospace.org and Mitre. Major goverment contractors were also well represented by the attendees from BBN, CSC, Lockheed Martin and SAIC.