The infraNET Project presents ...

The infraNET Distinquished Speaker Seminar Series

Speed, Agility and Innovation:
Fulfilling the Promise of Webtone

David Mann

VP, Technology, Broadband Networks
Nortel (Northern Telecom, formerly nortel.com)

Wednesday, September 30, 1998
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Davis Centre, Room 1302
University of Waterloo

View Presentation Here

Abstract

The World Wide Web offers virtually unlimited potential as a major force for shaping human interaction in the 21st century. Its key values—user-driven innovation, accessibility to rich multimedia content, and rapid service evolution—are embodied in a concept called Webtone.

Webtone is about multimedia, multi-points of connectivity, about being able to not only communicate, but also to access, manage, and alter information in ways never before possible. The change from dial tone to Webtone will transform the way businesses operate, governments define and respond to public interest, and how individuals gather knowledge and information, access social services, and entertain themselves.

This fundamental and pervasive change is occurring in “webtime”, engendering a host of new types of companies and service providers. In addition, the most important criteria for quality and value are increasingly being defined in the terms of users.

Meeting the challenges of Webtone will entail meeting a host of challenges. The communications industry must learn to adapt quickly to this environment of rapid and organic growth. We are just at the beginning of this undertaking, with only our imaginations to tell us what the world will be like a few years from now. But we are taking the first steps toward creating exciting new possibilities for enriching society and bringing about profound, productive change in a global context.

David Mann

David Mann has served more than thirty years in the telecommunications industry. He has worked in many countries including UK, Spain, Zambia, Belgium, Sweden and now Canada. Currently, VP, Technology, Broadband Networks, he is a member of Nortel’s Technology Council. He has served as Nortel’s Chief Engineer, VP, Multimedia Development, and VP and General Manager, Broadband Switching. In 1989, he received, on behalf of STC, the Queen’s Award for technical innovation.

Nortel (Northern Telecom)

NORTEL, a leading global provider of communications network solutions, commercialized digital technology to the telecommunications industry in 1976. It provides network solutions and telecommunications equipment and related services worldwide.

For more information

Shirley Fenton
The infraNET Project
Computer Systems Group, University of Waterloo
519-888-4074