This interview is broken into sections - please pick the one that most interests you, or simply browse through it all:
A: The most important goal is to raise visibility for your company and your product line. Companies that view the Internet as a large group of passive buyers ready to buy from whatever company plugs in are doomed to fail, but those firms that instead proceed deliberately, aiming to bring information and their product line to the community and willing to accept a slow start-up are most likely to be successful.
The key, as with any business, is to have realistic expectations and to budget your business plan for the pessimistic possibilities, not the best-case scenarios. That way, if it goes better than planned, great! If not, if you don't make a single sale for the first two months, you're still around and able to continue building your presence and reputation.
It's also important to remember that it does take time to create a presence on the computer networks, and the Internet even more so because it's so diverse and unfocused.
A: I see I have to field the easy questions! Seriously, I think that the popular perception of the Internet as a highway is a valuable metaphor and one that can help people understand the basic pieces of the Internet as it exists today.
The most important thing to remember right up front is that the Internet is a network of networks. It's not a single computer that users plug into, but a somewhat motley collection of different computers on separate networks that are all connected by what I'll call super-networks, or backbone network lines. The sum of all of these is what we call the Internet today.
Let's think about the logistics of a highway for a moment. There are what seems to be an infinite number of cars and other vehicles all vying for the limited resource of space on the road itself. The highway system is also comprised of thousands of different individual highways, roads, streets, and even dirt paths that might lead in the right direction. When things get too congested, the road is widened to increase capacity. If exits are poorly planned people end up missing the places they seek. It's the old adage about location being the top three criteria for a business applied to transportation: if customers can't get to your shop, they can't buy your wares and you're in trouble.
Now let's look at all this from a technological perspective. The highway system overall is the Internet: it's comprised of thousands of smaller highways that have various capacity and can handle different traffic loads. Each highway is an individual network, and the vehicles, well, those are different kinds of traffic, and indeed, each has different demands on the road. On the Internet there are various kinds of information packets that drive from computer to computer along the network, ranging from simple text packets, like electronic mail, to large, complex multimedia information, perhaps a color graphic at the top of a particular page on the WorldWide Web.
You can see already that some highways - networks - are suitable for small, light vehicles and prove almost impassable for larger, more resource-demanding transportation. In computer terms, it's why a 9600 baud dialup to your local service provider is fine if you want to check your electronic mail but far too slow if you want to transfer large files or explore the Web. And just like the highway department, the solution is to build a bigger road - to add speed to your connection.
And when wešre talking about the speed of a n etwork connection, wešre talking about a baffling array of different solutions that start out simply with a modem that uses your existing phone line. This can offer speeds of 9600 baud, 14,400 baud, or even 28,800 baud (think of this as roughly bits of information per second that can be transmitted). If 28.8 is too slow you need to move up to a different kind of highway: a dedicated phone wire. Then you can buy a 56 Kbyte (that's 56 * 1024 bytes / second) connection. Keep moving up and you can get a variety of special phone-company installed lines hooking your computer to another one somewhere in your city, with exotic names like T1 and T3.
If you want to hook up your business so you can check electronic mail from customers, a dialup line is probably quite sufficient. If you hope to conduct electronic transactions around the clock on a dedicated system like a Sun SPARCstation or a PC running an NT-based server, then faster speed is going to mean more simultaneous customers and faster response. If you really want to go top of the line, and if you're planning on a graphically-intensive Web site that might receive 10,000 or more visitors each day, then a T1 or faster line is a must.
Q:What do people need to understand about establishing and registering their Internet address? Describe the domain name structure, registration process, and communicate important address tips.
A: Just like you can't make up your own social security number or checking account number, you also can't just pick an Internet network address or domain name from thin air either. Indeed, there are an astounding number of different companies all competing for a very limited set of domain names: no two can be alike across the entire worldwide Internet!
The authority that assigns Internet host numbers and domain names is the Network Information Center, formerly run by SRI in the San Francisco area, but now run by AT&T in New Jersey. Applications are free and should be sent in through electronic mail: you'll need to specify how many hosts you want to plug into the network (and don't forget that computers hooked up to your networked computer will also need legal Internet, or 'IP', addresses so as not to confuse the networking software) and you'll need to have at least one other computer that's already on the network serve as a "name server" for you: if your system is unavailable, that one can answer queries about your domain.
Domain names are actually quite interesting. There are a small number of what are called top-level domains. You've probably heard of them: "com" for commercial, "edu" for educational, "mil" for military, "org" for organizations, and so on. Within each top level domain space, each domain name must be unique. My consulting firm, for example, is called "Intuitive Systems" and I have the commercial domain "intuitive.com" registered. If another company comes along, perhaps "Intuitive Software", they can't use the same domain name: they could buy it from me (and that happens!) or they would need to pick something similar, but not identical. By the way, "intuit.com" is taken: it's Intuit, the makers of Quicken!
As a rule of thumb, I recommend people try to pick something mnemonic and easily typed. If your company is zygotic systems enterprise limited, you'll find more people sending mail to you at "zyg.com" than "zygotic-systems-enterprise-limited.com". A sense of imagination is a must, particularly when you find that your first few choices are already taken by other companies!
Segment III - Service Providers
Q: Can you identify and discuss the segments of the Internet service industry - access providers, application designers, system operators, network integrators, etc?
A: There are quite a few segments, as you might imagine! Like many other industries there are generalists who can do a decent job of quite a few different tasks. Perhaps it's one person who can install new computer peripherals, configure the system to work with them, add them to your Internet service set, and even rebuild your Web pages to include information on them. On the other hand, if you really want to do the best job you can, I have a personal bias towards working with a team of top specialists, individuals who are fully versed on both the strengths and weaknesses of each step in the process and can help you to ensure that you get the maximum results for the minimum expense.
Q: What are the key support roles and core competencies to maintain and run an FTP site?
A: The Internet builds from least-common denominator to most-common, and the two services that are the most widely used are electronic mail and file transfer. FTP is the file transfer protocol and it's been around for as long as there's been an Internet, which is quite a few years! At its simplest, people can connect to your site and download your catalog, price lists, technical notes, white papers, or marketing literature. At its best, FTP can really be the everymans' way of obtaining a vast variety of different information from your site.
The best news is that it's very simple to set up an anonymous FTP server on a PC, Macintosh or Unix machine, and that once set up, it's almost maintenance free. Simply drop the new files and material you want to "publish" to the world in the appropriate directory and it's instantly available.
As a result, perhaps the key strength for an FTP administrator is the ability to organize the information you'll be making available in a manner that is helpful and meaningful to the customers and users who will later try to find it. If you opt for indices or files that list all the other files available at your site, make sure it's kept up to date: a table of contents that doesn't match the pages in a book is surely one of the most frustrating possible situations!
Q: What are the key support roles and core competencies to develop applications and run a Web server?
A: A Web server is somewhat similar to an FTP server, with two added wrinkles: files have to be translated into a special markup language called HTML - hypertext markup language - and at any point in the file system, or on the pages in Web terms, you can have pointers to other Web sites on the Internet. It's critical to ensure your Web pages are designed to transmit the information quickly and understandably, both to reduce the load on your server and to offer that information to the greatest number of users.
Again, I'll emphasize that being able to organize the information in a meaningful fashion and ensuring that it's all up-to-date (particularly links to other Web and Internet sites!) is critical to this endeavor.
Q: What Internet presence models might consider a hybrid of both insourcing and outsourcing? Dave, can you describe some scenarios where one might want to consider providing some of the services internally but also utilize outside resources/services?
A: Day to day maintenance is something I think is best done internally; hire a part time systems administrator who can, for example, check to ensure that log files aren't eating up available disk space. Let that same person back up your vital information on tapes each night or at least weekly so that if something does occur, you're covered and your business doesn't vanish overnight.
At the same time, if you have some strange hardware glitches or want to make your existing software jump through some new hoops, hire a consultant or contractor to come in, help you spec out the job, implement it, and then depart from your payroll when the task is complete. You donšt paint the lines in your corporate parking lot, so why try to hire enough expertise to avoid using outside Internet experts as you bring your firm online?
Segment V - Promoting Your Internet Presence
Q: What are the ways to promote your Internet presence both on and off the net? Dave, provide your tips for promotion.
A: Be consistent, ensure you have a branded presence on all your Internet-based information -- that is to say, pick a logo and graphic design for your published information and have it present on ALL material you produce. Add your URL and email address to all your print advertisements, and include it on the business card of every employee.
Find out where your customers hang out online and spend time there too. The more people in a company become part of the network community, the more people from the Internet will be interested in learning more about your firm and browsing, and buying, your wares.
Q: Panel picks on top Internet promotion opportunities on the net. Provide me with up to three lists, news groups, databases, or sites that you feel are "top picks" to promote your presence. Be prepared to discuss why you selected the site briefly. I'll communicate to you any duplicate picks so you each have unique selections.
A: I will lead with my own project: The Internet Mall. With over 3000 stores listed, and with a specific focus of listing only companies that actually offer products or services through the Internet, it's a compelling place for customers to visit. By listing companies with email access, FTP access, Gopher or Web access, or any combination, and by distributing the Mall information through Usenet, email, FTP and various other forms -- in addition to our busy Web site -- it's the top place people look for things to buy on the Internet.
Number two is Yahoo!, a terrific database of Web sites on the Internet, whether they be commercial, educational, entertainment, or anything else. It's my first stop when I'm looking for information on the Web.
Finally, I'll put in a plug for the ever-growing net-happenings mailing list, and now Usenet group. If you have anything to announce, from your joining the net to a conference, a new book to an award from a consumer group, you can always mail it to net-happenings and have it distributed throughout the online community.
Segment VI - Internet Business Rationale
Q: What are typical promotion cost variables?
A: Promotion costs are as varied as your imagination. If you think in concrete terms, then you'll want to budget for a certain number of print ads in magazines favored by your customers, radio spots, a TV spot perhaps, or online promotion through sponsorship of an Internet site like the Internet Mall, or an advert in an online publication like the Global Network Navigator.
Add a dash of imagination, however, and you can be off and running with T-shirts given away to decision leaders with your email address on the back, free versions of Internet software to customers that starts them at your own material when they connect, mouse pads, pens, mugs, calculators, or what-have-you.
Q: Benefit Identification Ideas - give me a couple of your ideas on why companies would benefit from a presence on the net. Ideas might include: corporate image, sales potential, customer service, relationship building, marketing/promotion fulfillment, etc..
A: The best reason that companies can benefit from an Internet presence is because it's where the technological elite are flocking today, en masse. If you have a product or service where a key customer is part of this group, you must plug into keep your business competitive and your image innovative.
Q: Technological innovations and standards that will create business opportunity on the Internet - what are they? Give me two innovations you feel are significant.
A: I think that faster data lines and the entry of the regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs) into the Internet access provider business are both going to be vital advantages to the future. Another innovation: Microsoft Network and its built-in Web and Internet browsing capabilities.
Q: Tips for getting started - Give me three tips each. Communicate what you believe to be the mistakes, misconceptions, to help those who want to establish a presence.
A: Three tips: buy the fastest communications equipment and link you can afford, hire an expert to set you up correctly the first time, and have fun traveling through this new world and learning what it can do for your business and your personal life.
This page and the information herein is all © Copyright 1995 Intuitive Systems. Permission to further distribute this information is granted providing this copyright note remains on the bottom. Thanks!