Subject: Harvard 2nd International Conference on Internet & Society
Curtiss Priest (bmslib@mitvma.mit.edu)
Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 19:17:34 -0700
Message-Id: <356CC93E.D92@mitvma.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 19:17:34 -0700 From: Curtiss Priest <bmslib@mitvma.mit.edu> To: Telecom Roundtable list <ROUNDTABLE@CNI.ORG> Subject: Harvard 2nd International Conference on Internet & Society
Archive: Harvard 2nd International Conference on Internet & Society
W. Curtiss Priest, Ph.D.
Center for Information, Technology & Society
466 Pleasant Street
Melrose, MA 02176
Internet: bmslib@mitvma.mit.edu, Voice: 617-662-4044, FAX: 617-662-6882
This document may be distributed freely
May 27, 1997
An Open Discussion
with Government, Foundations, Non-profits
and Grassroots Efforts
Were it not for a $1300 scholarship from Harvard, I would probably not
have afforded this conference.
And, I must thank my benefactors, as benefactors are hard to find.
Yet, I was left after today's session with a tremendous despair about
the inability of Kim B. Clark, Dean of the Harvard Business School and
Prof. H. T. Kung, William H. Gates Professor of Computer Science
and Electrical Engineering, to ask any question of Steve Ballmer,
(Executive Vice President of Microsoft, a graduate of Harvard, and a
current overseer to the University) which didn't permit him to say
to the "world" that of course Microsoft will carry on the sword of
innovation despite their monopolistic dominance of the PC industry.
Should this surprise me?
Well, yes and no. While having been a member of that "down river"
Instutute called MIT and having been only too well aware of the
"old boys club" that Harvard represents, I guess I could have
expected no more.
But, having been an admirer of Prof. Clark and various others in the
Harvard Business School -- especially Prof. Abernathy who provided
a great deal of wisdom about the process of technological innovation,
I did hope (against hope) that they would rise above the allegiances
and take Ballmer on to be the "street bully" that I judge he is.
That they let him get away with oblique, self-serving answers which
finally culminated in Bullmer's pronouncement that Microsoft's
practices will be vindicated in the Justice Department's antitrust
suit, just left one with a very sickening feeling that Harvard ties
are thicker than blood.
--W. Curtiss Priest, Director, CITS Center for Information, Technology & Society 466 Pleasant St., Melrose, MA 02176 Voice: 781-662-4044 BMSLIB@MITVMA.MIT.EDU Fax: 781-662-6882 WWW: http://www.eff.org/pub/Groups/CITS
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