Alumnae group interacts in real and Internet time

Welcoming members of the President's Council of Cornell Women (PCCW) to Silicon Valley for the alumnae group's fall meeting in Palo Alto, Oct. 22-23, were from left, Cornell Board of Trustee members Rebecca Q. Morgan and Carol MacCorkle. Toby Kleban Levine, right, is current chair of PCCW. Stu Brinin

By Linda Grace-Kobas

Though the program was dominated by discussions of how the Internet is changing education, entrepreneurism and women's lives, there was plenty of productive human-to-human interaction at the fall meeting of the President's Council of Cornell Women (PCCW) Oct. 22-23, held for the first time on the West Coast at the Palo Alto Sheraton hotel.

The alumnae group's meeting opened Oct. 22 with committee sessions and a tour of DeAnza College's advanced technology center. Cornell Board of Trustees members Carol Britton MacCorkle and Rebecca Q. Morgan welcomed attendees to Silicon Valley.

"The energy at this meeting has just been fabulous," PCCW chair Toby Levine '64 said Oct. 23, after PCCW members and guests heard Cornell faculty, administrators and alumni explain how they are using Internet technology.

"The creation of knowledge used to reside in universities, but there has been a fundamental shift," said Daniel Hutten-locher, Cornell professor of computer science, who currently is a visiting senior fellow at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. "The Internet economy is changing the way universities work. We're trying to operate in Internet time."

That theme was echoed by other participants in the Oct. 23 panel titled "High Tech Intertwines the Ivies," moderated by Kathleen Frankovic '68, director of surveys and a producer for CBS News.

"The library is really at a crossroads," said Sarah Thomas, Cornell's Carl A. Kroch University Librarian. "We must continue development of access to information but not lose site of our heritage. The University Library is a billion dollar asset. We'll use technology to help leverage this investment."

Polley Ann McClure, Cornell vice president for information technologies, discussed the challenge of making universities exciting and keeping technology at the cutting edge when the top job category in the country right now -- web-site designer -- didn't exist five years ago. Her comments were reinforced by Raman Khanna, chief information officer at Stanford University, who said one of his challenges is to "position the library as an asset rather than a cost."

Eva Tardos, Cornell professor of computer science who currently is conducting sabbatical research at the University of California at Berkeley supported by a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, described her research during a lunch session moderated by PCCW member Molly Tschang '85. Tardos is examining how information is routed along the Internet.

The speed and intensity with which the Internet is changing the business world was starkly described in a panel moderated by Nancy D. Mills '64 with a group of alumnae who operate their own companies. Karen Kaufman Polansky '67 began her stationery company, Nameable Notes, in her home and built a sizeable business in pre-Internet days. She admits she has a "love-hate relationship with technology" and is just getting ready to go on the web.

On the other end of the scale, Katherine Glassey-Edholm, who has a bachelor's degree in operations research from Cornell, built her company with her husband at home by creating computer-based "business intelligence." Their multimillion-dollar company, Brio Technology, is based in Silicon Valley.

Also speaking were Gretchen Knoell '81, a former Wall Street analyst who now heads her own Internet venture advising firm, and Linda Manaster '88, who overcame a debilitating injury and built CompuCook, the first "out-of-home portal network" of interactive terminals across the country.

Cynthia Santisi '91 enthusiastically described her Internet company, Source Quality Recruiting, which she operates from her apartment "24/7" (that is, around the clock, seven days a week), she said.

Recruiting and keeping qualified staff are their two biggest challenges, the Internet entrepreneurs agreed. Santisi pointed out how recruiting on the Internet has grown from 17 percent of companies a year ago to 45 percent today, with more than 5 million resumes now online.

The key to Internet success, Glasey-Edholm told the audience, is to "keep your ears and your mind open but don't let it suck your spirit. Learn to listen, but filter."