(Monka gathers the information he needs regarding the technical needs of the Conference. He also asks about the type of language the representative of Sirius should be fluid in prior to their assignment.) 

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Monka: greetings and felicitations and again, welcome on behalf of my esteemed colleague that spoke prior and Madame ambassador. It is my duty as a communicator and a historian to be able to talk to you tonight on the technological advances that I have been commenting on in previous discussions that we have had with your small group. You'll have to excuse my energy flow, it seems to be interrupting the host body's natural energy flow. Where we will go with this brief comments and then I too will ask some questions is concerning the technological interaction with the medium that you wish to use. It seems to me having observed and analyzed various data that now it is getting close to the desired point that we wish where once the discussions start to take place, it can be done in a much more easier format then either dictating or by using your digitals to type in messages on a keyboard instrument. It is now getting to the point where due to your currency flow that the cost of little apparatuses for viewing are becoming from a prohibited price to a inexpensive price and so therefore you will be able to use these mediums to be able to have recorded announcements through the host's vocal capacities and to be able to interact at certain times, at prearranged times so that all parties can from time to time meet as it were face-to-face even though it will be through the medium of your current entertainment system of the Internet. The purpose would be more useful and more user-friendly so therefore it would be putting a human face on the discussions. However the problem I perceive is that some of the entities may not wish to do so and those that do may be working through mediums that would be into using fiscal currencies so unfortunately that would slow down the process. But, with the technology that I see very soon to be more used and the non-prohibitive price of the equipment relating to this will definitely speed up the process and give access to those individuals that have the desire to be able to communicate in this medium. Now the first question that I will be asking is how do you feel about the interaction and the current growth in the technology that you are using with the ability to view over great distances using your entertainment medium and news services over your digital cabling system?

Russ: well the digital cabling is allowing faster internet access in various parts that it's at. Unfortunately there are still many parts that don't have such technology as yet and still rely on dial-out modems which would slow down the connection speed as far as making this workable. As far as the other goes is the capabilities now with the cameras is it's still camera ready as far as conference call but a lot of it is still having to type in the answers and the questions on a keyboard to have them pop up next to the image that's being displayed.

Monka: hmmm....I am under the impression that this is about to change.

Russ: hmm, I haven't heard much on that yet though the technology is there, it's just like I said, that's still not quite as inexpensive yet....oh wait...

Skip: videophone.

Russ: videophone of course.

Skip: yes it is, it is. It's feasible right now.

Russ: right, you know more about that than I do actually Skip.

Skip: yes I do. Videophone.....excuse me, I didn't mean to interrupt.

Monka: no, that was desired.

Skip: videophone is a video camera on top of our screens which we view and talking over a phone through the net, you can see the person you're talking to and they can see you. And it is over telephone lines like Russ said, there's a lot of areas that don't have the cable yet but the cable companies are very, very hot on this because it is a lot faster than the telephone lines.

Monka: okay.

Skip: these are both our means of communications but the equipment has come down in price to a point where most people can afford it.

Monka: okay now concerning the cable, am I correct in assuming that that is a metal cable encased in a plastic and ceramic casing?

Russ: fiber-optic.

Monka: fiber-optic.

Skip: it's fiber-optics and it's a lot quicker than the telephone which is plastic and metal okay?

Monka: okay. And also is it correct.......am I correct in assuming that satellite capability would be even faster?

Russ: right.

Skip: yeah but I don't know if that is in complete operation yet or not.

Russ: almost, Microsoft has got another year left before it gets distributed.

Skip: yeah ALO has been doing that aren't they?

Russ: right, there is enough satellites.

Monka: as Ashtar said, that time to us is a different perception then of your time.

Skip: yeah. Well it's in the near future let's put it that way.

Russ: blink of an eye for your time perception right.

Skip: yeah it will be....it will be in operation by the time these discussions start I believe.

Monka: good, so it would be easy to say that once the discussions start we would be able to go from one set of communication systems to a much more sophisticated and less cost prohibitive than the original investment made by individuals in more primitive communication systems?

Russ: correct, definitely.

Skip: correct, yeah, yeah.

Monka: okay and to this end it would be easier once this system installs to work as a group being the earth human group as opposed to other groups to work together to improve each others communication systems and mediums?

Skip: yeah we're doing that constantly trying to upgrade our own communications within our sphere of communication now. Everybody's trying to do this is upgrade so that we can get better.

Monka: okay.

Skip: that's the only way I can put it is better.

Monka: okay, so following a vein similar to Ashtar's, it would be easier to have a representative from the world of Sirius that was fluent in your English communication, would that be beneficial?

Russ: uh-huh, absolutely.

Skip: yes indeed, yes indeed.

Monka: so to select an individual, they would be necessary to be very communicative and learning ability would have to be high so that they could learn your interesting local dialects?

Skip: yeah our colloquialisms and idiosyncrasies and stuff like that, yeah you're correct.

Monka: so it would be useful for an individual that may have possibly had time, served on your planet?

Russ: uh-huh. Though also...

Monka: or why that would not be suitable.

Russ: well, though also there is a certain amount of decorum that would be necessary for this.

Skip: well not only that, but you're going to run into a little bit of a challenge here of different parts of even our nation have different.......we call them brogues, dialects.

Monka: I am familiar.

Skip: they're not that far from the English, American language. I can't say English because that's a different, that's a different way of speaking than Americans do okay?

Monka: I am aware that English has many different varieties within it under one auspice of a name even though it would be correct to say that there is American, there is Canadian, there is New Zealand, there is South African, Australian and of course, English.

Skip: yeah you understand then, I was just trying to put that in there because that's going to have to be learned by whoever talks to us to the different areas of the country, they're going to have to know these things.

Monka: so an individual that has a more generic American accent would be more suitable than an individual that has no accent all?

Russ: well your accent for example using Mark's body right now and the way it's coming out.....

Monka: I am aware that it does have a English, English hint to it.

Russ: right, but still it's perfect for what you're looking for I think.

Skip: yeah I think so too. I think Russ is correct in his assumption.

Monka: hmmm, I would be unable to participate.

Russ: right but whoever you did would have to......if they had your same English capabilities and way of speaking would be perfectly workable.

Monka: Hostine would also be unavailable due to the fact that he has more of what you would call a southern surf language?

Russ: ahhh, Monk.

(a speaker we had spoken to from Sirius before)

Skip: oh Monk. Yeah but that's okay, several of the people that we have spoken to from Sirius or Ashtar Command have got command of the language that's very acceptable.

Monka: we feel that it would be best to have an individual that has had little or no contact with your planet so therefore it would be an unbiased and unopinionated point of view that would be able to be used. The feeling that we are getting is that if we had a individual that had experience with your planet, they would be tainted by the perceptions of the planet.

Russ: quite true.

Monka: so therefore an individual that is totally unknowing of the setup would be an ideal candidate. Am I correct in assuming that?

Skip: yeah there you go.

Russ: absolutely.

Skip: you're completely right there.

Monka: okay final question is concerning the necessary security to start off with these discussions and the security of the communication systems. Am I correct in assuming that using a system that would be difficult to interfere with would be feasible?

Russ: well it's not so much the system as the software involved but yes it is feasible. You could set it up so that it's password-protected.

Monka: what about the term encrypting?

Russ: as long as everyone has all the right encryption gear on all ends it could be done yeah.

Monka: that is something that can be worked upon?

Russ: uh-huh, absolutely.

Shane: I have an idea, you know how they've got all those eye retina scanners?

Russ: well that's a little......that's going to a financial extreme there.

Skip: that's way ahead of us.

Shane: uh-uh.

Skip: yes it is, it's way ahead of us with our computers.

Shane: oh, with the computers yeah.

Russ: it's getting there, we're close.

Skip: we're close but no cigar yet okay?

Russ: anyway yeah, the encryption would work as far as keeping anybody from coming into it. It could still be hacked, but it would be a lot tougher.

Monka: okay, what about an encryption system with the terminology fire breaks?

Russ: oh firewalls yeah? Yes, basically you'd have to run it with your servers that are going through, each of the various speakers would have to go through a firewall that's right, that would keep the encryption secure, so a secure server right.

Skip: yeah, yeah, firewall would do that.

Monka: okay thank you.

Skip: you're sharper on that than I am.

Russ: yeah.

Monka: okay thank you very much..

Russ: my pleasure, enjoy. Yeah a firewall would work well.

Skip: yeah you're sharper on that than I am. I don't know that much about firewalls. See, you're way ahead of me Russ when it comes...

Shane: hmmm...

Skip: you are, you're way ahead of me.