Next General Meeting:
The Future of the Internet
Date: Monday, December 7, 2009
Location: Danbury Hospital Auditorium,
24 Hospital Ave, Danbury, doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Program Preview:
by Jim Scheef

Again we are honored to feature John Patrick at our upcoming December General Meeting.

John’s current title is President of Attitude, LLC. In 2001, he retired from IBM as Vice President of Internet Technology. John knows of what he speaks. Among John’s other accomplishments, he was a founding member of both the Global Internet Project and the World Wide Web Consortium at MIT. John is a member of the board of directors of several companies including Danbury Health Systems, Inc., the parent of Danbury Hospital. You can read more on John’s website, patrickweb.com.

As he said the first time he spoke at DACS about the Internet, “I get to play with all this cool stuff and get paid for it.” (Or words to that effect.) It’s not just because John is an entertaining speaker that we have asked him back for his eighteenth visit. My favorite anecdote about John is from his fourth or fifth visit. He was talking about connectivity and how the Internet will be everywhere and described how wireless Ethernet connections were coming. “Have you seen these credit card-size cards for your laptop?” As he awkwardly held up his computer, “This changes everything.”

At the time, I doubted that Wi-Fi would ever be affordable for ordinary people, but now it is simply expected that laptops come with Wi-Fi built-in, “hotspots” are available just about anywhere you might want to sit for a while, and most consumer Internet service includes the hardware needed for a home wireless network. Even at the enterprise level, large companies no longer go to the expense of pulling ethernet cables to every office and cubicle. Instead they install building-or even campus-wide Wi-Fi. I would certainly say that Wi-Fi has had an impact! Each year John has one or more nuggets like that somewhere in his talk.

As in past years, John’s topic will be “The Future of the Internet.” While the title may sound the same, don’t think that it will be a repeat of past years. As social networking remains a moving target, was Twitter even on the radar a year ago? Will Twitter be important?

John will give us his perspective. John will also talk about the current state of information technologies at the Danbury Hospital, giving us an insider’s view on a topic that could not be more timely. I’m looking forward to seeing John and I hope to see you there as well.

—Jim Scheef, DACS Past President

December is the month when we hold elections during a brief business meeting. The slate is here. The modified agenda for this meeting will be as follows:

6:30 p.m.: Registration Opens
7:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.: Ask DACS
7:30 p.m. – 7:50 p.m.: Annual Meeting and Elections
7:50 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.: Break
8:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.: “Future of the Internet” by John Patrick followed by Q&A
9:30 p.m. – 9:35 p.m..: Final Announcements and Door Prizes

As a reminder, our General Meetings are free and open to the public so invite anyone you know who would be interested in this topic.

DACS meetings are held at the Danbury Hospital auditorium. (Click here for directions.) Activities begin at 6:30 p.m. with registration and casual networking. The meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. with a question and answer period (Ask DACS), followed by announcements and a short break. The featured evening presentation begins at 8:00.

Danbury Area Computer Society (DACS) is a registered nonprofit and has been serving the region since 1990. Members receive an award-winning newsletter, members-only workshops and events, and access to volunteer phone support.