WASHINGTON - President Bill Clinton hosted a day-long economic conference Wednesday, giving dozens of guests, including Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates, a chance to share a broad range of ideas on technology's impact on the new economy.
Gates, whose company only two days ago was found to have violated U.S. antitrust law in a lawsuit brought by the Clinton administration's Department of Justice (DOJ), sat next to the president during one of the panels, appearing at ease as he discussed the pace of innovation and the country's obligation to make technology accessible to everyone.
Gates and Clinton spoke one-on-one briefly before entering the East Room of the White House for the panel discussion, but they did not talk about the antitrust case, a spokesman for Gates said. The Microsoft chairman was invited to attend the conference about four weeks ago in part because of the tens of millions of dollars that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given to pay for vaccines and vaccination research.
"They didn't talk about the suit. They talked briefly about vaccines," said Trevor Nielson, a spokesman for the Gates foundation. "They have spoken in the past few weeks about vaccines as well. The foundation and the administration have a lot in common in their efforts to make vaccines available around the world."
Asked whether Gates felt awkward being at the White House in the wake of the ruling in the case issued Monday, Nielson said, "Clearly, Bill did not feel awkward about being here."
Gates, who spent the morning on Capitol Hill meeting with congressional leaders, avoided reporters after participating in the panel. He and many of the other panelists and the president used the forum to promote the idea that technology should become more universal and should be employed in a broad range of societal issues, from lifting people out of poverty to empowering women, improving health conditions and educating people all over the world.
"There is really an obligation, I think, for all of us to not only embrace the new technology but to think about how we can make it available to everyone without regard to background or station or even what country they live in," Gates said.
Clinton, who moderated all of the conference's three panels, said he convened the conference to ask the experts how the country can keep the economic expansion going, how to extend its benefits to people left behind and to ask them what could go wrong and how to avoid it.
In addition to Gates, other prominent participants included Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, World Bank President James Wolfensohn and Robert Chase, president of the National Education Association.
Greenspan said the economic growth the U.S. is now experiencing is "in many respects without precedent in our annals," and its most compelling aspect appears to be the extraordinary surge in technological innovation. Technology's impact on commercial transactions is one of the biggest new developments, he said.
"It's only a matter of time before the Internet is the prime venue for the trillions and trillions of dollars in business-to-business commerce conducted every year," Greenspan said.
The potential of business-to-business e-commerce was a topic discussed during the morning panel in which participants agreed that the U.S. has entered a new economy driven by information technology. The panelists were generally optimistic about the future, though some said investors should buckle up in preparation for more ups and downs on the stock market.
Kim Polese, president and chief executive officer of Internet "push technology" pioneer Marimba, was among the most optimistic about the future.
"I believe we have barely begun to feel the real impact that the Internet will have on our economy," she said. "The new economy is not fleeting or ephemeral; it's a sustainable situation."
Polese said most of the businesses that her company has been working with are just beginning to adopt new technology. Though dot-com companies are getting a lot of attention, changes at traditional companies are more exciting, because the changes will affect major pieces of their business structures, such as logistics and scheduling, she said.
Polese predicted an even greater impact on productivity and on prices as companies continue to adopt Internet infrastructure technologies and technologies that hook businesses together, allowing competitors to collaborate and know that their information assets are secure.
Clinton closed the panel in which Gates participated by asking a question that partially stumped the Microsoft chairman. Clinton asked how Gates could encourage more philanthropy, especially among young people who are reaping unprecedented financial rewards by working at or leading technology companies.
Gates said it was a question he thinks about a lot, but added that he hasn't found the answer yet and he needs more time to think about it. Making it understood that it's exciting to get involved in philanthropic efforts is one way to attract youth, Gates suggested.
'I have to say that as I learn more about (philanthropy), I've gotten more excited about it myself," Gates said. "I've been pleased to find out that philanthropy, if done the right way, can have a phenomenal impact."
Gates added that he might try to spread that excitement himself as a way to increase participation.
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