I was at Jupiter Media's Internet Planet conference at the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan today.

John Patrick was the keynote speaker.

A few highlights:

He estimates we're only "5% of the way there" (to where, I'm not sure) and that "we're at the very beginning." Okay.

Enormous potential in medical fields. Regarding the security issues: "encrypted medical records online are far more secure than manilla folders in a doctor's office."

FCC/Regulatory strangulation: US is currently #10 in broadband. A national disgrace. Contrast Japan where Yahoo Broadband is the #1 broadband provider: 8mbs for $9 a month; 45mbs(!) for $29 a month. (And I'm paying way more than that for my cable modem right now, for a fraction of the speed).

He reitterated what most of us in the blogosphere have been saying for years: deregulate broadband, let a freemarket function in broadband. (sigh)

He thinks our secret weapon is the power grid. Broadband over the grid. I've heard it before. It would be nice. But for now we can only hope.

He talked about the mobile scene. The usual stuff about controlling your home devices remotely from your cell/pda, etc. But he also made some interesting predictions about Linux-based mobile devices. I think he might have an investment interest in that scene. Good for him. I can't wait for Linux powered PDAs. His big Linux line was: "Linux is not about free, Linux is about freedom." Nice.

He made a few jokes about "long distance" -- 99 cents a minute versus 2 cents a minute for VoIP.

He talked about the glory of unregulated spectrum and ubiquitous WiFi.

And finally, he talked about blogging. He loves the blog scene, naturally, and is thumbs up on all the stuff he played with at DemoMobile 2004 (he didn't actually say that, I extrapolated).

Okay, that's it, the second half of Pistons/Lakers Game 5 is about to begin.

I'll post something about day 2 tomorrow.