Token-ring phaseout?

But not everyone believes new technologies would be developed via e-mail. The regular meetings are an important part "of the opinion-forming and technical convergence process," Madge's Messenger says.

"I don't see that there is anything more for the token-ring committee to do," says Donald Czubek, president of Gen2 Ventures, a consultancy in Saratoga, Calif. "The bottom line is . . . there's no new business or any need for more standards."