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With the recent discussion here on advertisers, thought this might be interesting. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Melissa Davis Librarian Splendora Middle School Splendora I.S.D. P O Box 168 Splendora, TX 77372 Internet: mbdavis@tenet.edu PHONE: (713)689-2853 CompuServe: 75146,771 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 7 Mar 1994 09:27:43 CST From: Aneurin Bosley <bosley@aix1.uottawa.CA> To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU> Subject: Internet Advertising -- A Special Report ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Internet Advertising -- The Internet Speaks Out The April issue of THE INTERNET BUSINESS JOURNAL will be a special report on Internet Advertising. Members of the Internet community have strong and divided opinions about Internet-facilitated advertising, and we would like to include a sampling of these opinions in this special report. Here is a chance to tell the business community what you feel about advertising on the Internet. We also invite extended commentary on the subject (up to 2,000 words). Also, if you provide an Internet advertising service of any kind, send details to ak943@freenet.carleton.ca for inclusion in the special report's resource section. If you have an interesting story to tell about your business using the Internet to advertise -- or about being the recipient of advertising on the Internet, we would also like to hear from you. This special issue will be freely available on the Internet in low ASCII and Postscript format. Send your submissions to me at ak943@freenet.carleton.ca by March 11, 1994. THE INTERNET BUSINESS JOURNAL welcomes letters from Internet users on any subject but reserves the right to condense them as necessary. Letters must include name, address and telephone number. Aneurin Bosley Editor The Internet Business Journal ak943@freenet.carleton.ca The following commentary on one aspect of Internet-facilitated advertising appeared in the February issue of THE INTERNET BUSINESS JOURNAL. Internet Advertising and a Level Playing Field When it comes to the issue of Internet-facilitated advertising, the Internet will never mean the same thing to large corporations as it does to the world of small to medium size enterprises. The key difference between small business and the corporate world is access to national and international markets through advertising. Until the arrival of the Internet as a business communication tool, small businesses never had access to affordable global marketing capability -- exorbitant advertising costs represented the final barrier to growth. The high costs of traditional means of advertising has served to ensure that small businesses rarely grow beyond local markets. Now that the commercial Internet has come of age, the privileged access to global audiences previously held by the corporate world can no longer be counted on to ensure market domination. Privileged access to international audiences has been effectively and permanently broken by the rise of Internet entrepreneurs. Unlike the Internet, the coming Information Superhighway will not have a significant immediate impact on small to medium size enterprises. This is because the Information Superhighway will primarily consist of interactive entertainment services controlled by multinationals. The cost of entrance into this digital consumer Disney land will undoubtedly remain out of reach of the typical small business. Television advertising has never provided more than local advertising capability to small businesses. There is little reason to believe that even the next generation of "smart TV's" hooked into the InfoHighway will be significantly less expensive. The critical difference between the Internet and the coming Information Superhighway is ownership and membership fees. The ownership of the InfoHighway of tomorrow will rest in the hands of an exclusive consortium consisting of telecommunications, cable, and entertainment industries. The Internet will remain a stark contrast -- no primary owners, no content controllers, and almost insignificant entrance fees. Whereas the largest mergers in history are occurring as a result of multinationals jockeying for position of dominance over the InfoSuperhighway, a quiet paradigm shift marked by the evolution of multimedia, bi-directional Internet advertising is quietly and swiftly growing. In the middle of this decade, the corporate world will experience a rude awakening when they finally discover that tens of thousands of small businesses are gaining an increasing share in the international delivery of products and services due to the empowering effect of Internet- facilitated advertising. With an ever increasing percentage of the economy and job creation tied to the rise of home-based business, there exists the distinct possibility that the balance of power may shift from inefficient, slow moving corporate bureaucracies to highly adaptive telecommuting entrepreneurs and virtual partnering collectives. Often, the true significance of a new phenomenon lies not in the phenomenon itself, but in the convergence between two or more new social systems. The Internet as a communication system is historically unique in many aspects: its size, growth rate, decentralized structure, multi-cultural character, and subversive potential (note that any wide spread phenomenon that displaces the distribution of power in society is inherently "subversive" to those who experience loss of power and control). At the very time in history when we are witness to the rise of the Internet, we are also faced with the globalization of markets and cultures. This generation is also witness to an unparalleled return to home-based businesses and cottage industries. The economic bases of North America is shifting away from the hands of the multinationals to the microeconomics of small businesses. The economic significance of small businesses is occurring at the very time that the Internet is able to empower small businesses to effectively compete in the international market. Neither the growth of small businesses nor the arrival of the commercial Internet as isolated phenomenon represent a sufficient precondition for a paradigm shift within the global economy. But together, they will prove to be a radical agent of change. Up until now, the most widely held assumption in macroeconomics is that multinationals would continue to dominate global markets. But this assumption can no longer be maintained when, in the midst of this information age, both the medium of information is changing (paper to digital), and the centralized control over the mass distribution of sanctioned knowledge is eroding (the second gutenberg revolution -- every computer on the Internet is a potential printing press serving a global audience). Information and the knowledge it yields is power, and today we are witnessing the beginnings of a fundamental change in both the nature of information, the flow of information, and the control over information. When these changes are fully realized, we will be faced with a very different society and entirely new global economy. A key, but by no means isolated, factor in the coming economic revolution is the Internet and its affordable bi-directional advertising capabilities. Michael Strangelove Mstrange@Fonorola.Net