[Infowarrior] - Mozilla leader worries about Internet limits

[Richard Forno]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Mozilla-leader-worries-about-apf-712012919.html?x=0&.v=3

Mozilla leader worries about Internet limits
Mozilla leader worries that legal restrictions could limit Internet  
growth

By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Writer , On Monday January 25,  
2010, 10:02 am EST
MUNICH, Germany (AP) -- The leader of the Mozilla Project, whose  
Firefox Web browser now has 350 million users, said Sunday that she is  
concerned that legal restrictions could limit Internet expansion.

Mitchell Baker said she worried about "the increase in laws that make  
it difficult to run an open network," especially rules about content.

"You suddenly become liable for anything that gets downloaded, whether  
it's legal or not," she said. "If you said to a municipality, if you  
build a road, you have to guarantee nothing illegal happens on it --  
that's what's happening on the Internet now. So that's the kind of  
regulatory disruption that's going to have some long-term consequences."

Baker spoke at an opening panel of a three-day conference on digital  
innovation and creative ideas.

The DLD conference -- which stands for Digital-Life-Design -- is  
chaired by Hubert Burda of Germany, owner of Hubert Burda Media, and  
digital investor Yossi Vardi, who co-pioneered instant messaging and  
chaired the  panel, titled "Disruptive."

Niklas Zennstrom, co-founder of Skype which now has over 500 million  
users, said successful companies can't become complacent and must  
continue to make improvements and not be afraid "of disrupting  
themselves."

Vardi asked J.P. Rangaswami, chief scientist of the BT Group in  
Britain, what he thought of what Skype was doing to telecommunications  
companies like his.

"Watch this space," Rangaswami replied cryptically.

Vardi then asked Rangaswami whether he sees the industry following  
Skype's efforts to set minimal charges for phone calls around the world.

"I think those parts of the industry that don't follow what Niklas is  
doing will either find themselves out of a job or working for him," he  
replied.

American entrepreneur Jimmy Wales, whose nonprofit charity founded  
Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that has 350 million users,  
said it was a "very, very bad business" to try to compete against  
because the reference work is offered for free.

He ruled out advertising on the site for now -- but left open the  
possibility it could happen sometime in the future to raise money for  
the charity.

Moderator Vardi expressed amazement that the Internet companies had  
small work forces despite their vast number of users.

Skype has just over 600 employees, Mozilla about 250, and Wikipedia  
just 30.

What advice would the three give to companies trying to get 100  
million users?

"Stay out of software first of all," said Mozilla's Baker. "Go to Web  
sites and services."

Wales said, "Have a very pure, simple vision that everyone can  
understand immediately."

Zennstrom said the idea should also "make consumers' lives easier."  
And, he stressed, "don't do a copycat of someone else."

BT's Rangaswami said he believes the Web in the past 20 years has made  
people more willing to collaborate, to work together. The emphasis is  
on online data "because it's through that that people can do things,"  
he told The Associated Press.

Ranjaswami said the key is transparency.

"So I think all the data.gov initiatives are very, very important  
because that's laying the foundations of the next generation -- how we  
use that transparency of public information to start really making  
change as a result of community," he said.

Yves Daccord, director-general of the International Committee of the  
Red Cross, said in a video presentation that Twitter and the social  
media have been very important in mobilizing a response to the  
earthquake in Haiti and giving the people "the sense that we are very  
close."

In the future, he said, he expects victims of disasters to use social  
media more effectively to communicate their needs so humanitarian  
organizations can deliver better services and reunite families.