Report from the FMC Conference
Before I launch into my impressions of the conference, I should
mention that the home page (and source of a lot of relevant links)
for the conference is at MSRI's page: http://guido.msri.org/activities/events/9495/fmc/
The Futures of Mathematics Communication Conference at the
Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) in Berkeley, CA, Nov.
30 - Dec. 3, 1994, was the first conference I have ever attended, but
I have it on good faith from a number of people who attended that it
was very good; certainly it was interesting and stimulating, two very
important qualities in any conference. There were a lot of really
famous people there (e.g.,
Andrew Odlyzko, Neil Calkin, Whitfield Diffie, Aviezri Fraenkel,
Paul Ginsparg, Van Jacobson, and Steven Wolfram, to name just a few),
and I had a great time meeting as many people as possible, finding
out what's happening in technology, exploring the Bay area, and in
general thinking a lot about current trends in technology and forming
my own plans for focus.
In fact, there's so much to write about that I've decided to split
this article up further, into the following six categories:
- Current Trends in Technology
- It seems appropriate to present some of the interesting
statistics quoted at the conference, as well as a general overview
of what is currently possible and what will soon be possible. The
amazing thing about all this is that the technology is progressing
at an exponential rate, and mathematicians are already behind the
times. Catch on or catch up, one might say.
- Scholarly Publication at a Turning
Point
- The very first talk of the conference was by Andrew Odlyzko,
and I've chosen his title for the title of this section. Much of
the focus of the conference was on the changing roles of
publishers and librarians, as publications make the transition
from print to the electronic world. Very far-reaching consequences
and insightful possibilities were mentioned; many of those present
are convinced that most journals we currently use will be entirely
electronic by the end of the century.
- Virtual Collaborative
Environments
- This is a topic which (together with the next one) especially
holds my interest. One extremely important use for the developing
technology is the creation of online collaborative environments,
in which researchers can meet with each other in a sort of
``virtual hallway,'' talk (literally, via audio), share ideas on a
whiteboard (which exists only in the computer's memory), use
programs together in a shared environment, etc. The possibilities
are truly endless, and will forever change the way we do
research.
- Education through the Net
- Research and publication practices aren't the only areas which
are being changed by technology; education, too, is changing.
Indeed, in some senses secondary and elementary schools are
responding to these changes faster than universities are. I have
my own visions for what can be done in this area, and it was
exciting to here what others across the nation have already
accomplished in their classrooms.
- Pricing the Net
- Currently, the Net appears free to us, the users. How will
this change? Efforts are underway to introduce virtual cash and
electronic billing schemes; certainly commercial interests need
such advances to be able to peddle their wares on the net. It
seems only natural that once the technology is available, it will
be employed. There are many difficulties to be overcome, of
course, but many clever solutions are being found.
- Miscellany
- Of course, much more than this was covered. There were also
discussions on the role of scholarly societies, presentations of
up-and-coming software, and very deep (and difficult) questions of
user-authentication and intellectual property issues that I
suspect may always plague us, but are no less important than other
issues I've covered in more detail. What steps need to be taken
next? Where will we be a year from now?