next... zack greant, from the mozilla foundation, spoke about the use of technology, from the earliest days of man forward, in the development of literacy and society and culture. he referenced the sumerian code of hammurabi, the torah, copyright law, and the control of information.
after lunch, david humphrey of seneca college talked about how to get started with open source programming.
chief evangelist for mozilla, mike shaver, took over the podium for the next hour to give his vision of the future of the internet.
a quick ten-minute break was followed by mozilla's jonathan nightingale, who presented some of the latest security risks and mozilla's newest security model, which includes a character named larry, an "extended verification" certificate program, and new malware detection.
two speakers were broadcast from tokyo next, describing the work that mdc japan is doing.
the final five speakers before the dinner were the shortest and quickest - four girls and a boy, ages 7 to 13 years old presented their visions of the future. they included learning agents in the form of animals and robots, a library filled with animals, a supernetworked smarthome with a robot maid especially designed for paralyzed people, and a spherical car utilizing centrifugal propulsion and sea water and magnets... the science was a bit fuzzy but i was ready to buy one after the persuasive presentation. after the american students presented locally, students in thailand and other locations took their turn (not broadcast due to child protection laws).
finally, the closing panel consisted of vint cerf, grandfather of the internet and google vp, from his home in washington, dc; jun murai, professor at keio university, in tokyo; mitchell baker, chair of the mozilla foundation, from stanford; and a panel of children in tokyo, stanford, and thailand. half of the session was conducted in japanese and half was in english, with translation provided throughout. the presentations were a "kids summit" of those recorded earlier by the children in each location. common ideas were:
- robots as servants and teachers and ubiquitous companions
- virtual worlds for socialization, learning, and simulation (especially the outdoors)
- smart houses, cars, and bicycles that talk to occupants and use green fuels
- teleportation, matter transmission, and matter creation
after the student presentations, the three panelists were invited to comment. professor murai said that he might be out of a job because the kids had scooped all of his ideas, and vint cerf concurred that all of their ideas were entirely possible and maybe even probable. they identified the themes of mobility and ubiquity, personal computing, and environmental sustainability. mitchell baker was excited by teleportation :)
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