Niels Ole Bernsen Odense University nob@nis.sdu.dk

Issue 2 of i3magazine (March 1998) presented the unfolding i3 roadmap in terms of a distributed yet tightly coherent community that will continue its research far beyond the existing i3 projects. The five–points roadmap stated that (1) the i3 community is not located in one building complex but in many. Yet videoconferencing and other advanced means of communication could establish the co–presence the community needs. (2) Strong external communication could work as well for a distributed community as for a single laboratory. (3) A professional scouting unit on Intellectual Property Rights, licenses, venture capital and technology could be the point of business contact. (4) Regular, i3–wide progress "fashion shows" could supplement visits to individual research sites, providing access for industry to exploit emerging results in near real time. And (5) industrial sponsorship could set this strategy in motion. We now have Task Groups addressing (1), (3) and (4), and a Task Group for (2) is in the final negotiation stage. (5) is the ultimate challenge which will be in focus in what follows.

Issue 3 of i3magazine (August 1998) reported on the roadmap support that emerged from the First i3 Annual Conference in Nyborg last July. The article also presented exerpts from the emerging i3 vision presented to the potential industrial sponsors at a meeting at the end of July 1998. In September 1998, the i3net CG created a Task Group to sit poised for negotiating with our industrial partners should they want to take the collaboration forward. The Sponsorship TG members are Tom Rodden of Lancaster University (TG leader), Marco Susani from Domus Academy in Milan, John Thackara from the Netherlands Design Institute in Amsterdam, and myself.

Since then the — mind you, still potential — early–bird sponsors have worked hard to produce their vision of what i3 could do. I have just received their vision document, but unfortunately its draft state means that it cannot be quoted at this point. Nevertheless, here is a synopsis of what will happen in the near future. As befits the long–term yet entrepreneurial spirit of i3, the talks are now moving into the exciting land of future joint research, design, and business opportunities and priorities: what can we do in the i3 community to invent and explore the future global information society from the unique point of view of people, design and technology, such that both advanced industry, research and design would really want to know? The Sponsorship TG and the i3net Coordinating Group, together with representatives from our industrial partners–in–negotiation, will conduct a brainstorming session at the i3 Spring Days in Barcelona to address this question, as well as the question how our future collaboration could be efficiently structured.

Do follow the reports which will appear at www.i3net.org. i3net is in the process of setting up a web discussion forum which will enable all of us to argue about the future of the i3 community. After a trial period the forum will be announced on members@i3net.org.