Minutes from Internet World BOF Minutes from Internet World BOFFirst, I'd like to say that this was one of the most exciting
computer conferences I've attended over the last 15 years. This could
be due to my bias (because people were really excited, and my business
is likely to benefit :-). But, based on the comments from every show
exhibitor I spoke to, I believe the impression is valid. Many exhibitors
were running out of literature intended for both days after only 4 hours.
Most were having new literature shipped in over night for Thursday. Some
of the booths (like Netscape) had people literally shoving to get a
chance at literature or to meet with representatives. No one I spoke to
regretted the usual stiff conference fees...
-------------------
Lunch-time gathering:
DATE: December 7th, 1994 - 12:10 approximately
PLACE: A Greek Restaurant off Connecticut Ave. - (Good food)
We had an informal gathering for lunch in part to allow those who could
not make the BOF to meet. Attending were:
Jonathan Carey, LegalVision
Gabe Goldberg, Computers & Publishing Inc.
Ivan Pope, Web Media
Ken Kappel, Primo Computer Systems
Andy Schwab, TriNet Services
Frank Taylor, TriNet Services
Kristin Zhivago, Marketing Technology
This was an excellent opportunity to get to know a few people in the
business informally. There was ample discussion about the growth of
business on the Internet. Most indicated fast-paced growth for their
businesses. There was some discussion about why the demographics indicate
women are in the decided minority (less than 10% according to the Ga.
Tech survey) on the web. No conclusion was reached, but it was suggested
that the interface and the design of most web pages were simply not appealing
to the taste of most women. [NOTE: one statistic I recently ran across
showed a much higher percentage of women when the education sector was
excluded from the statistics. I wonder if this would be true for the
Ga. Tech survey?]
-------------------
On to the BOF minutes:
DATE: December 7th, 1994 - 5:30 PM
PLACE: Monroe Room, Washington Hilton Towers, Washington D.C.
TITLE: BOF - Internet Prezence Providers - Internet World '94
List of attendees (no particular order):
Frank Taylor, TriNet Services - Organizer
Andy Schwab, TriNet Services
Christopher Gronbeck, DigiMark
Gary Goldberg, DigiMark
Ian Poynter, Jerboa Internet Services
Rem Jackson, Wentworth Worldwide Media
Jim Flowers, Connect Ohio
Lisa Losito, Electronic Newsstand
Joel Maloff, The Maloff Company
Lewis Rose, Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn
Arnold Kling, ASK Real Estate Information Services
Steve Ossandon, Communications Planning & Services Inc.
G. Winfield Treese, Open Market
Aria Sella, Ubique
Karl Schlatzer, Persimmon IT, Inc.
Kerry Lyn, Webs Are Us
Reggie Fairchild, Internet Publishing
Gabe Goldberg, Computers & Publishing Inc.
Winston Apple, CPL
Laura Balsom, Hookbuilt Systems
Ken Kappel, Primo Computer Systems
Steven Ossandon, CP&S
Jim Sterne, Target Marketing
Tim McEachern, One Wolrd Interactive
Bob Brownes, EMI Communications
Paul Kainen, Kainen Technical Services
Mike Bauer, The Internet Group
* Informal Survey:
Q: How many in the Prezence Providing business?
A: ~85%
Q: How many doing are doing WWW business?
A: ~85%
Q: How many with multiple paying customers?
A: ~65%
Q: How many in the business for more than 3 months?, 6 months?
A: ~65%, ~30%
Q: How many have clients who are selling products?
A: ~40%
Q: How many are growing/expanding their business?
A: ~65%
Q: How many expect to be in business 6 months from now?
A: ~65% (an optimistic bunch!)
* Introductions:
We went around the room and had each person give their name, affiliation,
kind of business they are in, and what they are best known on the Internet
for. This was an excellent opportunity to put names and noteriety to
faces. This took up nearly half the meeting, but was well worth the
time.
* Discussions
The discussion at the meeting was quite interesting, although it drifted
from topic to topic. A panel session might have been more directed.
Many of the attendees started to leave after the introductions (presumably
to attend the numerous parties or to grab dinner). The following topics were
discussed (according to my recollection - additions/revisions are welcome):
- Big business entering the market - MCI, AT&T, AOL, Prodigy, Compuserve
and others will be entering the WWW business. It seemed to be the
opinion of most that the big businesses would fumble initially in
attempting to offer web services to other businesses. Some felt that
the larger businesses would turn to these just because they are big.
Most seemed to feel they could distinguish themselves by offering
customized and creative services. Comparisons to the advertising
business were made where many smaller business can distinguish
themselves based on creativity and quality.
- Someone made the point that we were only talking about web services
and that other services would reach the largest audience. Someone
else pointed out that while it is very important to offer E-mail,
FTP, and gopher services as well, most of the customers are demanding
WWW services.
- There was discussion on the difficulty in meeting client demand
under rapid growth. Under-capitalization could cause some of the
start-ups to have difficulties resulting in a loss of business.
Those companies with only one or two employees seemed particularly
overwhelmed.
- It was mentioned that there are varying degrees of quality in the
service provided to clients and this has resulted in confusion in
the buyers due to price variance. No solution was presented, but
the need for education is clear.
- One of the consultants present indicated that reliable Prezence
Providers (who meet their obligations and provide quality services)
are actually hard to find. Some of this might be attributed to the
rapid growth these companies are experiencing.
- A question about pricing was raised, and Lewis Rose - the attorney -
was quick to point out we should not discuss pricing due to anti-
trust laws. It was generally agreed that Internet consulting and
WWW pricing varied widely and that customers are paying for the
current confusion in some cases to their detriment.
- Joel Maloff announced that the RFP he put out early last summer was
in fact to do the web pages for the Discovery Channel. He announced
that he received an overwhelming response to his RFP (over 100 I
believe), and it was a very successful example of using the Internet
for a business purpose.
The meeting broke up shortly after 6:30 since another BOF was being held
then. Several of us went off to dinner together and had several interesting
discussions which lasted until the late evening. Topics discussed included
secure financial transaction technologies, the problems with registration
of domain names and InterNIC (when will it be commercialized, will they
implement blankit registration - blah.com, blah.org, etc.), discussion about
a more official set of search engines and registration services (something
more robust than the current NCSA What's New), the ethics of logging
identities in the access logs, and many other brainstorms too numerous
to log.
I hope everyone enjoyed the gatherings as much as we did.
Frank Taylor
President
TriNet Services
** ------------------------------------------------------------------ **
** TriNet Services Inc. P. O. Box 3651 Cary, North Carolina 27519 **
** Phone: (919) 859-4707 E-mail: ftaylor@trinet.com **
** For more information: http://www.trinet.com/ or info@trinet.com **
** Visit TRIANGLE ONLINE Magazine: http://www.trinet.com/online.html **
** ------------------------------------------------------------------ **