The Participants

Sue Beckwith is former director of Austin Free-Net.

Gene Crick is the president of the Texas ISP Association and director of the Texas Telecommunications Resource Center.

Gary Chapman is director of the 21st Century Project at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at UT, and he writes the internationally syndicated newspaper column on technology and society, "Digital Nation."

Steve Jackson is a game designer who reads, writes, buys, sells, works, and plays on the Internet.

Will Kreth was the first (and probably best) employee of Wired. He's also worked for Prodigy, Roadrunner, and Austin's Agillion.

Lodis Rhodes teaches at the LBJ School of Public Affairs of the University of Texas. He also works closely with the Austin Learning Academy and Austin Free-Net.

Sandy Stone is director of the Advanced Communication Technologies Laboratory at UT. She is also a Force of Nature.

Nick West was the driving force behind the Austin punk zine Sluggo. His current gig: senior interface architect and advanced technology director at Austin's MonkeyMedia.