Future Of Netscape/Marc Andreessen Lecture
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  By William P. Barr <wbarr@leland.stanford.edu>

  (I just transcribed it, verbatim, from my notes ... Marc talks
  real fast ...)

  This afternoon, Marc Andreessen, inventor of Mosaic and now
  co-founder of Netscape, gave a lecture to a grad class at
  Stanford.  Attending the lecture was a literal who's who of
  human-computer interface design.

  What follows is an embellished version of my shorthand scrawl:

  - Netscape estimates 6 million people use their browser; no
  market percentage was claimed

  - According to protocol analysis, the majority of IP packets
  being sent over the Internet contain http, having surpassed email
  a few weeks ago

  - the majority of users access the Internet via the web

  - Lots of old metaphors are now being used to display
  information, those metaphors will break down very soon (malls,
  newsstands, etc.)

  - Major Netscape customers are looking to the Internet for
  salvation because they really don't know what or where their
  businesses are, anymore
         - communications and telcos
         - publishing
         - financial
         - computer/software
         - Global Fortune 2000 companies

  - Providers like Compuserve, AOL, Prodigy, etc. are in big
    trouble if they don't adopt an infrastructure that uses the
    Internet model
         - currently, their backbones can't handle the increased
           level of traffic

  - Some of Netscape's first large customers were Penthouse,
    Playboy and Hustler

  - Proxy servers are a key software technology
         - without them, large companies won't hook up
                 - security
                 - content control
                 - traffic control

  - Actual Internet/web business application software is the growth
    market, not just browsers

  - A change of the page metaphor is imminent
         - HTML 3 will be the launchpad
         - interactivity will be responsible for new metaphors
         - interactivity will be the ultimate user control for
           page layout
         - interactive browsers will let users redefine the layout
           of a site on the fly, at will
         - indexing, navigational aides and content organization
           will quickly supersede current layout and design issues
         - VRML and Hot Java will support this change
         - "Doom!" like interfaces will be the next model for
           browsers
         - current VRML does not support views of other people
           using browsers on the same page, Java will change that
         - 3D scenes will be "commonplace" by the end of the year
         - Hot Java is actually about 6 years old
         - ultimately, user will have complete control over how
           content is viewed

  - Have computers become "geek-free" or have we all become geeks?
         - he suspects the latter, especially in light of the
           average user trying to network Windows 3.1

  - Privacy is still an issue, though not as big as before
         - current, publicly available encryption technology will
           require about 64 mips years of CPU time to crack a message

  - Netscape is now accepting advertising on its site, but is not
    leasing space on its server farm for other external content

  - He foresees custom protocols being developed for interactive
    sessions
         - user connects to site, browser downloads protocol for
           interactive session, after session is complete, browser
           forgets protocol

  - HTML and PDF are complimentary technologies
         - soon there will be more browser improvements that will
           have little to do with HTML or page manipulation, but will
           facilitate data retrieval

  - Emphasized use of push-pull facilities as the basis for crude
    interactivity and background "multimedia" experience

  - "Lost in hyperspace" is still a big problem and lots more
    research needs to be done to solve this issue