[8789] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
VERY serious $ Business now done on Internet
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Gordon Cook)
Sat Dec 4 23:26:28 1993
From: cook@path.net (Gordon Cook)
Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1993 20:25:54 PST
To: com-priv@psi.com
Dave Farber, with all due respect, your view of business on the Internet is I
believe obsolete by about 6 to 12 months.
Here is the final sentence in Mary Cronin's book to be published at last on
Tuesday. ***"Meanwhile the electronic highway is not merely open for business;
it is relocating, restructuring, and literally redefining business in
America."***
Yes, I know there was a context in which you meant your statement to be
understood and I know that the Internet is a tricky place to do business in, but
I hope we have seen the last of such quotes from the mainstream press
" The Internet, however, will have to go through some radical changes before it
can join the world of commerce." and ``It's a perfect Marxist state, where
almost nobody does any business,'' says Farber. ``But at some point that will
have to change.''" And tonight Farber says: The way I read this is for a long
time doing business on the net was and **is** considered BAD by most people who
use the net. [Emphasis on "is" added by Cook.]
Maybe more than 50% of the net uses still consider doing business on the net bad
Dave. But I submit that *if* the number still is more than 50% it is dwindling
fast. Cronin's book is eloquent testimony to that fact.
I knew that if I were to have a chance of changing perceptions I'd have to do a
review that was in some ways as much of a summary as a review..... because while
we have all seen pieces of the evidence here and there, its the overwhelming
*TOTALITY* of a virtual "mountain" of examples that drives the book's point
home. THAT is one of the characteristics that distinguishes this book from
previous reporting. While I won't burden this list with the 43,500 characters
of my review let me close buy quoting something that I only summarized in the
review. This is *what* a major Fortune 500 company identified by name in the
book does with the net. In a more general sense Cronin's point is that *EVERY*
company on the net is trying as hard as it can to learn how to do *as many of
these tasks* as possible. It is why she can end her book with the sentence she
does.
It's a short list, but it is also quite powerful. Among the reasons for any
business to use the network:
"exchange email with customers and colleagues
get commodity [software] code
track standards
teachnology watch
ask questions and get answers
send and receive documents
conduct business; for example buy software, order parts
learn about unfamiliar technologies quickly"
Another item not in this list is
offer effective, rapid response, and cost efficient support to both vendors and
customers.
None of these things is really advertising of the kind that is justly disliked
by the net. So with a speed that leaves us all a bit breathless, American
corporations *ARE* doing business on the net. Our lead in this area over JAPAN,
which is just now beginning to struggle to open its corporations to a
commercialized internet, is striking. I suspect we also have a sizable lead
over european corporations as well and should get a better sense of this over
the next two weeks as I repeat for a major European carrier the consulting I did
last Monday for Nippon Telephone and Telegraph.
What a sweet irony. Perhaps Al Gore was right after all. Only its the plain
old multi-megabit [**not gigabit!**] American internet that has become a serious
weapon in our international and domestic economic competitiveness far more
quickly than anyone could have imagined when this began to pick up speed 3 years
ago.
