Keynote Title :  
Disinter-remediation: The surprising nature of business on the web   

Keynote Abstract :   

Conventional wisdom has it that web-based commerce will "disintermediate" middlemen, and that the essence of business will become finding ways to deal directly between buyer and seller . In fact, conventional wisdom could not be more wrong.  Disintermediation is merely the first stage in a larger process that in the end creates more middle players than ever, and also leads to entirely new kinds of market and organizational structures. The consequence is "disinter-remediation", a dynamic process that creates new business niches for new players in an ever more complexified commercial cyberspace. This talk details the nature of the disinter-remediation and it's surprising consequences for both web-dwellers and businesses at large.    
  
Bibliography

Paul is a specialist in the long-term social and commercial impacts of new
information technologies. In his spare time, Paul also writes on emerging
technology issues and their long-term implications. He has contributed an
occasional column to Wired, and his essays have appeared in a variety of
publications, including The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Fortune,
Byte, PC Computing, and Infoworld. A book of Paul's essays, Dreams in
Silicon Valley, is available in Japan.

Paul holds a B.A. from Harvard College, an LL.B from Cambridge University,
and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. At Stanford, he was Editor-in-Chief of
the Stanford Journal of International Law. Prior to joining IFTF in 1985,
Paul practiced law in Silicon Valley, specializing in technology and venture
capital matters. He is a member of the New York and California Bars.