January 3, 2000
Internet World: Q&A with Tim Berners-Lee.
It's not for the consortium to do something about that; it's for the existing political process. It's for people to take to the streets, if necessary, to do something about that. When it comes to, for example, the fear about vertical integration--the fact that you'll end up with a biased IP supply--the bias is for consumers to do something about.
Information Week: Goodbye Problems, Hello Benefits.
Donald Norman. We've been at this IT stuff long enough. It's time to forget about exciting, cool technology with its concomitant breakdowns, frustrations, and bugs. Instead, let's focus on the benefits, services, and results of all this technology.
Internet World: Burning Cash In Prime Time.
Does any dot-com service--as it is being presented to an undifferentiated mass consumer audience--really present a compelling case that each individual consumer has a problem that can be solved by going to a Web site? This may sound nitpicky, but I think it gets down to a fundamental problem with the way mass advertising and the Web are converging.
NY Times: Manufacturers Grapple With Online Sales.
Traditional retailers and distributors are not above reminding their suppliers that they can choose not to carry their products, for instance, or can relegate their products to the bottom shelf, and thereby eliminate the riches manufacturers hope to gain from the Internet.
SF Chronicle: Catalogs Thrive in an Online Age.
[Bill Bass, senior VP for e-commerce and international Lands' End]``If you look at our sales, there's a sawtooth pattern and the peaks are all around catalog drops,'' said Bass. Bass expects catalogs to continue to be important for remote sellers, but their primary function will shift from selling to advertising.
Internet World: Bad Bot.
I asked him how he could advocate such a problematic piece of software as being ready for such a strategic role on a customer's Web site. To his credit, he said it was a valid question. But his answer was essentially that Neuromedia is working hard to make its product better, which is pale comfort.
SJ Mercury: Moving toward a `mobile information society'.
Q&A with Nokia President Pekka Ala-Pietila. And that's what we are developing. We call it the mobile information society. We see that is going to not only influence our normal day-to-day activities, but then, in later stages, it's going to influence society.
Business Week: Whisking Your Money across the Web Will Soon Be a Snap.
Dozens of startups are racing to fill the void, and already several companies let you zap payments to people over the Net. The rapid proliferation of this technology is going to add a convenient new dimension to our financial lives on the Web.
Information Week: Learn At A Distance.
Businesses have done the math. They know, for example, that conventional classroom instruction costs hover at about $75 an hour, with full-week programs costing $3,000 to $5,000. Computer-based training, by comparison, costs about half that.
InfoWorld: Wal-Mart ups e-commerce bid with Web site relaunch.
Wal-Mart is also taking advantage of its diverse product base to cross-sell a number of items. For example, while shopping for a novel in the book department, a bookshelf or desk from housewares may be marketed to the customer as well.
SJ Mercury: Newsstands facing e-competition.
With international news available on the Internet and 24-hour cable television networks, old-fashioned newsstands are dwindling fixtures in big cities across the country. ``I've lost 50 percent (in sales) in the last four years,'' said Fred Cohen, the manager of the Harvard stand. ``The Web is killing us.''
NY Times: Internet Pioneer to Be Named Top F.C.C. Technologist.
Mr. Farber, who is currently the Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunications Systems at the University of Pennsylvania, will keep his teaching position there even after moving to Washington to work full-time for the F.C.C. later this month.
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