THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                  November 22, 2000


                    STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY

     Today, President Clinton announced that Zoe Baird, Carly Fiorina,
and Thomas Kalil will serve as the U.S. representatives to the Digital
Opportunity Taskforce.

     The Digital Opportunity Taskforce, or "dot force," was created by
President Clinton and the other G8 leaders at the Okinawa Summit.  The
mission of the dot force is to create a strategy to help bridge the
global digital divide between developed and developing countries.  The
dot force is composed of representatives from government, industry,
non-profit organizations and international organizations from both
developed and developing countries.  The first meeting of the dot force
will be held in Tokyo on November 27-28.

     Zoe Baird is the President of the Markle Foundation.  Ms. Baird
brings with her more than 20 years of experience as a noted lawyer and
business executive in both the private and public sectors.  The Markle
Foundation seeks to realize the potential of emerging information and
communications technologies to improve people's lives, and has recently
launched an initiative to help create "digital opportunity" in
developing countries.

     Carleton (Carly) S. Fiorina is chairman, president and chief
executive officer of Hewlett-Packard Company.  Prior to joining HP,
Fiorina spent a total of nearly 20 years at AT&T and Lucent.  Under
Carly's leadership, HP has launched World e-Inclusion, a new business
strategy to broaden access to the social and economic opportunities of
the digital age to low-income people in developing countries.

     Thomas A. Kalil is Special Assistant to the President for Economic
Policy, and is the point person for the White House National Economic
Council on a wide range of technology and telecommunications issues.  He
also serves as the White House co-chair for the Administration's
initiative on nanotechnology.

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