Other panelists agreed with Gill, but for different reasons.

"The more people you hook up to the network, the more valuable the network becomes--not only for the provider of the network, but the individual private user too," said Richard Civille, the executive director of the Center for Civic Networking, who cited the economic benefits of universal access.

Universal access is generally defined as service to 100 percent of the universe, but moderator Nolan Bowie, a visiting lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government, said the phrase often means far less than that.

Civille emphasized the difference between merely allowing universal access to the Internet and actually teaching people how to use the Internet.

"You need to think about the resources that need to be brought to the table in order to have a network-literate population," he said.

And Prudence Adler, the assistant executive director for external relations of the Association of Research Libraries, turned the discussion into a question of what is actually being accessed on the 'Net.

Exploring the issue of regulation on the Internet, she asked how the government is going to enforce copyright protections on a system which is based on the free flow of information.

She suggested that the copyright protections of the print medium be extended to that of electronic media.  --By Douglas M. Pravda

Accuracy of 'Net Content May Decline

The high accessibility of the Internet could well lead to the decline in relevance and factual accuracy of its content, members of the "Press and the New Media" panel told a packed Science Center C audience last week.

Eyewitness amateur journalists and advertisers masquerading as writers are particularly blameworthy, speakers said at the panel.

"I wouldn't believe half of what I read or even three-quarters or 90 percent of what I read on the 'Net," said Denise Caruso, the director of digital commerce for The New York Times.

Panelists pointed to the proliferation of company-sponsored Web sites, which serve two functions: advertising their own products and providing content aimed at their target audience.

"The model that is least likely to work is advertisers coming up with their own Web sites," said Janice Kaplan of News Corp. "As if you're going to see an ad for Jeep and run to their Web page to see if you can buy one."

As an alternative, panelists praised AT&T's "Lead Story."