This column is for decision-makers in the advertising industry who are concerned with the uses, implications and consequences of new digital technologies. While the main focus is on the Internet, the goal is to help advertisers survive and prosper in the digital revolution currently underway. And to make sure the world survives as well.

To that end, my column is grounded in the work of Buckminster Fuller, James Burke, Marshall McLuhan and Arthur C. Clarke. They predicted the problems we are only now beginning to face, and they outlined a way past the danger to a survivable and sustainable future. It was their job to predict the future. It is our job to invent it. These columns are designed to help in that effort.

Ideas for these columns came from many places, but special thanks are given to Leland Wallace, Senior Engineer on Apple's Web Server team, Alan Brunner, Co-founder of Jasmine Technologies, and Robin Hedges (aka Robin Sterling), former senior quality assurance manager at Apple, Adobe, Radius, and eBay. And many thanks, and RIP, to Joel Sperans, Chief, Space Exploration Projects Office, NASA, for his insights into Bucky's design principles and how he used them to help make the Galileo Probe a success.