Re: Borenstein Speech

I know better then this.

>Nat Borenstein is speaking nearby on Monday.

What's the global definition of nearby? :(

I'll be the one yelling "thief, thief" as he talks about safe-tcl...

              MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC RESEARCH LABORATORIES
                             201 Broadway
                         Cambridge, MA 02139
                             617-621-7500

               OPEN PROTOCOLS FOR INFORMATION COMMERCE

                Nathaniel Borenstein, Chief Scientist
                     First Virtual Holdings Inc.

                Date:  Monday, November 28, 1994
                Time:  9:30 am

Abstract:

Traditional one-way payment mechanisms, such as cash, credit cards,
and digital cash, presuppose the necessity of payment validation in
advance of the completion of a transaction.  In contrast, a "closed
loop" protocol that verifies both payment information and customer
satisfaction permits a far simpler payment engine in an open Internet
environment, and is well-suited to a broad sub-class of Internet
commerce applications.  In this talk, I will present the underlying
philosophy, design rationale, and specification overview for a
recently-developed set of open protocols for information commerce.

(Dr. Borenstein is well known for his work at Bellcore on the MIME
standard for multimedia messaging; he is also the author of the
Andrew Message System, ATOMICMAIL, Metamail, Safe-TCL, and
_Programming as if People Mattered_.)

Host:  David B Anderson <anderson@merl.com>

Directions to MERL can be found in

        ftp://ftp.merl.com/pub/directions.map

It's kind of ironic, because on the one hand Borenstein is using
some nice technology which would lend itsef very well to crypto
protocols, electronic cash, and other privacy-protecting transactions.
But it is being used to facilitate VISA card payments and many people
have raised questions about the security of the system.

When you place an order, you get a safe-tcl style "enabled mail"
message (which Tim would hate!).  This is readable but if you have
safe-tcl running it will actually pop up a dialog box or something
which you can click on to confirm your payment.  I think this would
be a good thing for DigiCash to copy if/when they start supporting
email transactions.  It would be fun for Magic Money too.

Borenstein and First Virtual also have a whole set of MIME extensions
for electronic transactions which might also serve as a model for
more general types of payments.  Maybe Rich could ask whether they
are considering that.

In general, FV has a lot of good ideas IMO, but it's too bad they
are still tied to the old models of payment.

Hal