Does the Net Work for Every Business?
This is the first of a series of columns concerned with the demands and opportunities which technology presents to business. Although all aspects of technology may be covered, the main, or at least initial, focus will be on the Internet and its importance to business.
As with any business endeavor, the first thing that might be considered about any entry into the Internet is why? Why, particularly if the business is already successful, should a business want to enter these uncharted, often confusing waters? What is to be gained as a result of whatever effort is necessary to develop an on-line presence?
If it turns out that there are sufficient reasons to take the plunge, the next question is how? What are the options? What does it cost? How much time and effort will it take? Who can help?
Finally, what else should be understood? There are issues of privacy; security; constitutional protections; on-line pornography and the protection of children; roles of government -- all complex issues that have important implications to business users as the technology and culture evolves.
It is these issues that these columns will address and readers’ suggestions and questions will be welcomed.
WHY - The "why' has two aspects - opportunity and competitive pressure and, unfortunately, both are slightly murky and difficult to quantify. The alert business person sees the Internet every place -- "or visit our Web Site" is a common expression on radio and television; everyone from CNN to Pizza Hut mentions the World Wide Web. Advertisers pay thousands of dollars to simply be mentioned ("linked") on a heavily visited web site.
Government agencies and large business talk about awarding certain contracts only to firms that use "Electronic Document Interchange" (EDI). More and more people now say "Well, can I e-mail it to you?". In short, there seems to be compelling reasons to get involved, if only for protection of existing business.
Beyond the pressure reasons, there are also new opportunities to be found through the use of this world wide connection. An obvious one is the rapid expansion of market size. Regional business with innovative products have become international players with relatively little expense. The Internet makes the connected world a marketplace
Additionally, new products, services, or ways of doing business using the Internet are constantly being developed. A recent case in point is that of the New York brewery, Spring Street Brewing Co., which posted a World Wide Web page to let people interested in its stock meet and trade. In this fashion, it launched an initial public offering, raising $1.6 million without paying a penny to underwriters. The company, in the words of the Wall Street Journal, "faced a classic fund-raising problem of the small company - to small to interest Wall Street underwriters but reluctant to sell itself to venture capitalists." It took an innovate step, catching even the SEC by surprise (the SEC, after scrutiny and request for some modifications in procedures, approved Spring Street’s actions. paving the way for other companies to follow the same path).
There are many stories of firms developing new products, procedures or methodology to utilize this exciting new platform. There are also many players on this platform there because they know "there is money to be made here" but aren’t really sure how, They have a presence because they just don’t want to be left out when they are proven right about the money potential.
Another compelling reason for some firms is access to information that was previously difficult or costly to obtain. The value of such information will, of course, vary from business to business but it should be realized that there is now availability of staggering amounts of information -- all bills passed or under consideration by Congrest, the Statistical Abstract Of The United StatesS, travel information, the CIA World Book of Geography (facts and minutia about every country in the world), securities information, financial filings of corporations; samples of new recordings and movies -- the list grows daily.
Unfortunately, it is usually difficult to quantify the value of information. Often, if it is not available, it is not missed; if it is available, it is hard to imagine doing without it. It is also difficult to appreciate the ease of obtaining the material or the wealth of information available without actually experiencing it. This presents a quandary for a person considering making the time and expense commitment necessary to join the connected world -- to see the value, the system must be used; yet the business person wants to know the value prior to investing in its use.
Subsequent columns in this series will continue to explore these issues and will explain the technology and culture of the Internet. They will also discuss the details of successfully using the all Internet facilities - e-mail, discussion lists and the World Wide Web.
Rules of the Boardroom Don't Apply in the Chatroom
The Internet - In the last column, I wrote about the attention focused on the Internet and that part of it known as the World Wide Web. While there has been much media attention to issues relating to these areas -- issues such as electronic commerce, censorship, privacy, child pornography, role and power of government -- the terms themselves may be fuzzy to some.
The Internet is a global network of networks, connecting people, information, and computers. The method of funding this global infrastructure differs from government jurisdiction to jurisdiction; in the United States, the funding is through a combination of business, consumer, and tax expenditures. The vagaries of funding methods even within the United States has ramifications. particularly in the area of education (for instance, a study that I did a few years ago showed that children in school districts in California had far greater access to the internet than those in New York because of the cost spreading done by the state of California).
The global aspect is very important. At a Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) roundtable a few years ago, a CIA analyst said that "the Internet is redefining sovereignty; governments have always controlled flows of information and the Internet has changed that capability." At the same meeting, Electronic Frontier Foundation founder John Perry Barlow interrupted a discussion of free speech on the net with the comment "You have to remember that there are many people on the net that regard the First Amendment as just a local ordinance.". We read of German provinces attempting to enforce its obscenity regulations on Compuserve, a world wide information provider; of Singapore attempting to become a major presence on the net while harshly censoring electronic political commentary within and about itself; of American law enforcement agents arresting US “downloaders” of pictures of child pornography from Danish sources where the acts pictured are not illegal (as they are in the US); and, within the United States, of information providers being convicted under the obscenity and pornography of one jurisdiction while the material they provided on-line, although possibly reprehensible, is not illegal in the jurisdiction in which they reside. The legal issues surrounding the Internet are complex and, unfortunately, sometimes not always well understood by those attempting to impose regulation.
The network of networks portion of the definition means simply that the Internet is not one comprehensive network with one set of standards, procedures, security, and user regulation. Any collection of computers and terminals tied together for a purpose is a network. IBM has its own internal computer network for the purpose of exchanging business information, firm policies and other material. The New York State Educational Network ("NYSERNET") ties together colleges and universities within the state. America OnLine, Delphi, Genie, Compuserve and Prodigy all provide consumer services -- news, stock quotations, airline schedules, movie reviews, etc. -- to their subscribers. Each of these networks have their own methodology for use, their own rules of behavior, their own sources of funding, and their own security provision. They are also part of the global network through their connection to the Internet "pipeline(s)".
The first Internet pipeline was developed and funded by the Department of Defense (DOD) and was designed as a non-secure method of computer communications linking research laboratories, universities and government installations. Control of the pipeline passed from DOD to the National Science Foundation ((NSF) and the pipeline became known as NSFNET. Because of restrictions on the use of NSFNET for commercial activities, alternate pipelines developed, provided by such firms as Sprint and PSI and, as privatization became in vogue, the federal government withdrew from NSFNET.
The "network of networks": type of connection provides for a very unstructured system with no central accountability or control. When a new Fairfield student or new IBM hire receives access to the Internet though those organizations, no one tells any central place "hey - we have one more." All estimates of the number of the users of the Internet are just that -- estimates or educated guesses -- .and just as no one gets the information on these new people, there is no way of analyzing how many subscribers to Compuserve also have America OnLine or Prodigy accounts. This lack of information makes marketing decisions very difficult -- we all know that there are "a lot of them out there" but do not have the answer to the basic question "how many?".
Rules of behavior vary from place to place. Topics of discussion in an America OnLine "chatroom" may not be appropriate in a business conferencing platform or on a children’s MOO. They may also be banned from Prodigy, yet appear tame when compared to usenet newsgroups with titles such as"alt.sex.beastality.gerbils".
It is in this unstructured, greatly undefined world that businesses are trying to find profitable niches. There is agreement that"there will be money to be made" but the "hows" and the positioning still remains unclear for many.
NEXT: Internet ABCs: a quick lesson in Netspeak
Internet ABCs: a quick lesson in Netspeak
There are many uses of the global network of networks called the Internet. For ease in discussion, we will break them into three categories: personal communications (using the "e-mail" function); interactive communications (using the "telnet" function); and information gathering (using the World Wide Web and "ftp", "gopher", and "archie" functions).
There is admittedly some overlap in these categories -- people can send e-mail through the use of one of the World Wide Web browsers; they can gather information using the "telnet" function, etc. but the categories will serve for the purposes of discussion.
Before proceeding to a discussion of the individual functions, a short technical overview (It is very easy to get bogged down in the actual practice of net use and "miss the forest for the trees"; if one remembers the general terms - standards, client/server, and addressing, it should be easier to see things from a higher vantage point.):
The actual mechanics of mail sending and reading depend on the service or mail “client” used (of all clients, “Eudora”, available in Windows and Macintosh versions is the most used). Whatever the method used, all provide for the sending of mail to one or more parties, the automatic reply to a sender of mail, the forwarding of mail to third parties, the printing of mail, the deletion of mail and the saving to a local disk. Some systems also provide the ability to store addresses (so that a sender does not have to remember that my e-mail address is johnmac@mhv.net) and to maintain mailing lists ( a facility that allows a single name such as “family” to be used when sending a letter to parents, three brothers and sisters, 33 cousins and 57 uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews).
To send e-mail to a recipient. the electronic address of the recipient must be known. The format of an e-mail address is user@ system.domain.extension (e.g. johnmac@mhv.net or, for Newt Gingrich, GEORGIA6@HR.HOUSE.GOV (click to send e-mail to the Speaker)). While there are services to look up a person’s e-mail address, they are often incomplete and out-of-date. The best way to get a person’s e-mail address is usually to call her/him and ask for it (sometimes a person won’t know the address; when that happens, tell the person to send you e-mail; her/his address will be contained in the message).
There are two net etiquette (or “netiquette”) rules relating to e-mail:
A List For Everything
E-mail is used as the vehicle for obtaining information when used in conjunction with electronic mailing systems known as “listserv”s (note that there is no “e” in “listserv”). Listservs are systems of distributing information via e-mail to “subscribers” to the list; there are no charges for such subscriptions. They are maintained on computers throughout the world, generally on college systems. When a person sends messages to a listserv (to subscribe or unsubscribe, for instance), the format and text must be exact; the message is handled by a computer program an not a person -- incorrect messages will be returned.
Once a person subscribes to a list, he/she receives copies of every mail item sent to the list. This mail will include questions, answers to questions, pointers to reference material relating to the subject, etc. The number of messages received will depend totally on the number of list members and the activity of the members. There may be 5 messages a day, a week, or a month (I made the mistake of subscribing to a “politics” list on a Friday afternoon shortly before the 1992 presidential election; when I checked my mail on Monday morning, there were 767 letters in my mailbox -- I quickly unsubscribed.)
There are over 15,000 lists covering almost every conceivable subject -- wine-tasting, various philosophies, comic books, Shakespeare, the UNIX operating system. “Thought-for-the-day”, etc. To obtain a complete listing of the various subjects, send an e-mail message to listserv@american.edu. In the message, leave the subject line blank (this is the exception referred to above) and, in the message portion, put the words “List Global”. Shortly after sending this message, you will receive, as e-mail, the “List of Lists”, a complete listing of all subjects and the listserv location of the list for that subject.
To join one of the lists, you must send e-mail to the listserv that contains the subject list. The procedure is best explained by giving an example:
NEXT: How the Internet Carries Us Off to Virtual Reality.