In my column series "The Main Thing," I often talk about how Internet technology can improve the way people communicate - both within a business and between a business and its customers and partners.

Between March and July 2009 construction crews working for Barksdale's Spread Networks completed a nearly straight fiber-optic link between Chicago and New York City. James Love Barksdale (born January 24 1943 in Jackson Mississippi) is an American executive who served as the president and CEO of Netscape Communications Corporation from January 1995 until the company merged with AOL in March 1999. He has three children and five grandchildren.