KEY WASHINGTON POLICYMAKERS and Internet industry executives will meet Feb. 8 through 10 for a strategic discussion about the impact of politics on the Internet, especially in electronic commerce.

Called WashingtonWeb, the meeting is sponsored by the Association for Interactive Media and the WashingtonWeb Internet Policy Forum. The event will bring together leaders in the Washington policy community and the new-media industry.

"There needs to be an ongoing dialogue between the users and regulators of this powerful medium," said Andy Sernovitz, president of the Association for Interactive Media.

Topics on the agenda include pending legislation and regulation, and taxing the Internet. More than 300 members of Congress have co-sponsored bills regulating interactive businesses, including federal agencies such as the FCC, the Federal Reserve and the Patent and Trademark Office.

FRIDAYS, 1:15 - 1:50 P.M. ET: Gould Resources & Internet Telecommunications, which bills itself as the world's first Internet radio station, has an online program, "Technology Today," with commentary and reviews.

IVERSON SOFTWARE CO. (Mankato, Minn.) offers the "Directory of Computer Consultants & Developers," a free listing service and job database of 1,700 consultants, developers and jobs.

"THE INTERNET HAS CREATED the most precise mirror of people as a whole that we've yet had.

"It's not a summary prepared by a social scientist or an elite think tank. It is the real us, available for direct inspection for the first time. Our collective window shades are now open.

"We see the mundanity, the avarice, the ugliness, the perversity, the loneliness, the love, the inspiration, the serendipity and the tenderness that manifest in humanity.

"Seen in proportion, we can breathe a sigh of relief. We are basically OK."

- Jaron Lanier, composer and computer scientist

CYLINK CORP. (Sunnyvalle, Calif.), a provider of network security solutions and wireless communications, offers info on how its products enable secure transmission of data over LANs, WANs and the Net. Cylink serves Fortune 500 companies, multinational financial institutions and international government agencies.

KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY (Fountain Valley, Calif.), a maker of memory products for servers, workstations, PCs, portables, with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe and Taiwan, has info on memory products for Silicon Graphics' Origin/Onyx2 Server.

PLS DEVELOPMENT TOOLS (San Jos e, Calif.), a vendor of development tools for the Siemens C166, offers info on the new Siemens 32-bit embedded architecture.

SUN'S DESIGN AUTOMATION CAFE offers "Ask Dr. EDA," actually Jay Southard, the senior technical consultant for Viewlogic Systems Inc.'s synthesis development group.

INVENTIVE ENGINEERS will feel right at home at MIT's comprehensive, functional and fun site called the "Invention Dimension" .

Focused on primarily American inventors and their innovations, the site serves as a showcase for the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Awards Program. Last year's annual half-million-dollar prize went to computer pioneer Douglas Engelbart, and he is profiled along with dozens of others.

There's Bell and Edison, of course, but Web surfers will also find profiles on Herbert Boyer, a pioneer of genetic engineering; Wilson Greatbatch, inventor of the pacemaker; Chester Carlson, inventor of the photocopier and electrophotography; and Seymour Cray of supercomputing fame. Not to mention Richard Knerr and Arthur (Spud) Melin, the men behind the hula hoop.

A terrific online "Handbook for Inventors" focuses on issues of intellectual property, how to do a patent search, licensing and even how to raise capital.

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