Part 2: Commercial vs. non-commercial and free expression

You're active both on the commercial and non-commercial side of the Internet. How do you see the relationship between these two Internet cultures developing in the future?
The non-commercial led the way at first, then the over investment pushed everything to what Wall Street would pay for. In fact, those subsidies were sometimes harmful. You'll see the non-commercial surge back, particularly because the Net boom did make a bunch of open source programmers independently wealthy, and some will just code for the fun of it.

As a strong proponent of freedom of expression, how do you think the desire of many corporations to "control" information flows will impact on what goes on the Internet?
A good deal. The question is pretty broad. We have to ensure competition in the various sectors so that users get or retain real choice. In the face of choice it's hard to control information flows.

Equally, how does that work in reverse - how does the Internet impact on the way businesses have to think and act?
The Net boom made every business develop an Internet strategy. The bust may make them compensate too far the other way, and not think ahead.

It will be less and less possible to build a business on glaring information inefficiencies. A year ago VCs would fund one on any inefficiency you could name, but the big ones will still be ripe for plucking.

Businesses will become more productive, especially white collar ones where the productivity is based on the speed of cooperative work.

And, in turn, where do national governments fit into this issue of privacy and free expression? Can they play a role and whose side are they on?
They will insist on playing a role, and they will have a big effect. While it's not possible for the government in a free country to block out the traffic from outside the country, and thus not possible to fully govern the Internet, they can still do quite a lot, and make it inconvenient to do a lot. Truth is that while you can always take something offshore, that's a pain, even in the Internet world, and governments can still regulate.

Whose side are they on? Well, largely the side of the people who lobby them the most.

What is the one thing in your opinion that is missing on the Net overall?
Authentication and security, so that we can replace almost all our paper mail, and unify our messaging.

Can you give us some idea of what your great plan is for the "hot-Internet-killer-app-make-a-billion company" as cited on your website?
It involves the marriage of "Presence" (smart devices that know if you are near them and how available you are to communications with others) to the telephone.