NEW YORK, Oct. 22-- Forty-four years after computer pioneer John Kemeny became president of the College, Dartmouth graduates at the center of the "information superhighway" debated the technological opportunities the global network will provide.
At a conference called "Vox Clamantis in Cyberspace: Life in the Information Age," technology leaders, including Cellular Communications Chair George Blumenthal '66 and Time Warner Inc. Executive Vice President Glenn Britt '71, told guests that the future of telephone-televisions and videos on demand will profoundly change the way society operates and the legal rules that govern information exchange.
The two-day conference at New York's Rockefeller Plaza, was the fifth in a series produced by the Dartmouth Alumni Association of New York City to inform and bring together alumni.
"It is fascinating to watch how something that is so basic to society, like the First Amendment, nevertheless has trouble" applying its value to new technologies, College Provost Lee Bollinger told a crowd of 150 at a kickoff cocktail party Friday.
"There's something about new technologies and communications that seem to befuddle us, even without basic values," he said.
The information superhighway -- the media label for the network of satellites and wire backbone that will potentially link every home via computer -- is moving away from government-sponsorship and into commercialization and expansion.
At the up-scale, uptown Rainbow Room, New York Alumni Association Co-President David Hodgson '78 said, "If the information age has a physical birthplace, my argument is, it's right here in New York City and the role Dartmouth has played in that birth is a very important one."
The gala dinner preceded six seminars Saturday on subjects ranging from "Television and the Future of Democracy" to "The Future of Content: CD-ROM and Beyond" -- in which about 250 people participated, Alumni Association Co-President Carey Fiertz '79 said.
The "Cashing in on Cable" discussion centered on the joint venture between telephone companies and cable television operators. Such deals are designed to produce videos on demand and virtual shopping malls on televisions.
Blumenthal said hand-held computers, like Apple Computers' Newton, will be able to communicate remotely so people can send electronic messages to each other no matter where they are.
Michael Keeshan '73, president of advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi, said advertising will give companies the revenue to undertake capital projects such as rewiring houses to accommodate more complex programs.
The conference also showcased the College's technological achievements, including BlitzMail and the role of computers in teaching on campus. Since Dartmouth established the first remote computer link -- hooking up the Thayer School of Engineering and New Jersey's Bell Laboratories -- in 1940, Dartmouth has been on the cutting edge in computer and video technology, Hodgson said.
