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Discloses the significance of Internet technology to the survival of both the traditional retailers and the emerging ones. Corporations who have wide access to the Internet; Disadvantages of ambitious spending on the Internet.

Focuses on the plans of some network managers to use the Internet as a less costly method for point-to-point routing of corporate data on their intranets. Possible creation of Virtual Private Network; Efforts of vendors to meet the demand for encryption gear, routers, firewalls and Internet access services; Creation of privately accessible, intracompany networks or intranets.

Discusses the role played by poorly designed computers and applications in the downfall of the Internet economy. Significance of a natural interaction in designing computers; Cause of the economic downturn.

Presents news briefs related to the Internet industry as of October 30, 2000. Former United States Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin's comments on the economic impact of the Internet during a speech at an Internet World event; Hewlett-Packard Co.'s acquisition of Bluestone Software Inc.; MoneyandValues.com's introduction of its electronic-marketplace for connecting investors with brokers and financial advisers.

Interviews Jerry Brown, mayor of Oakland, California, about the Internet economy. City government's role in the Internet economy; Significance of the Internet; Brown's response to critics who worry that dot coms are starting to gentrify Oakland as they have San Francisco.

Reports on the move of the National Association of Securities Dealers for establishing a special committee to examine the impact of extraordinary volatility of Internet stocks. Subcommittee of the panel; Positive effect of volatility; Implication of the volatility for market managers.

Deals with the challenges faced by analysts in valuing the Internet stocks. Valuation approach used by companies for Internet stocks; Companies that used the price-to-sales ratio valuation; Advantages of using price-to-sale ratios; Factors that will affect the price-to-sales valuation approach for Internet stocks.

Reports on the effects of small investors on Internet stocks as during the 1998 holidays. Increases in the `Inter@ctive Week' Internet Index; Background about the stocks of Skymall Inc.; Average size of a trade in Skymall.

Focuses on the significance of online trading networks to Asian business. Advantages of Internet-based electronic data interchange (EDI) and messaging systems; Comments from some industry officials; Information on some EDI network service providers such as GEIS.

Profiles three Asian corporate executives who employ the potential of Internet technologies in business. Masayoshi Son, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Softbank Corp.; Nobuyuki Idei, president and CEO of Sony Corp.; Daniel Chiang, president and CEO of Sinanet.com Inc.

Explores why the Asian Tiger economies have lagged in adopting Internet technologies, particularly in business-to-business communications. Comments from some industry officials; Assessment on how Japanese corporations utilize the technology in business; Result of a survey in 1998 on the revenue from electronic business.

Presents graphical information on the Internet economy in Europe.

Discusses issues relating to Web economics. The practice of online startups in using the value of their high-flying stocks to expand their companies; Why Web companies have a hard time making money; Mention of the case of Chris MacAskill, chief executive officer of Computer-Literacy.com.

Examines how Bell Atlantic Corp. has used software and services from net.Genesis Corp. to transform the company's Web site into a tool for marketing, creating new business, improving customer relations and saving money. The use of net.Analysis Pro 3.5 to analyze the company's Web site; The Design for Analysis process, which seeks to help users maximize the validity and effectiveness of customer data on Web sites; Details of the publishing system that net.Genesis created for Bell Atlantic.

Discusses the business potential of the digital sounds available for public use on the Internet. How information technology managers can use the sounds; Efforts to develop the technology to take advantage of the sounds available; Companies like Sound Dogs Inc. that offer vast quantities of sounds for public use; How Sound Dogs started; The digital library that Sound Dogs has been collecting since 1991. INSET: The making of Sound Dogs.

Focuses on the growth in acceptance for hosted Internet electronic mail services. Why New South Federal Savings Bank decided to outsource its e-mail to Critical Path Software Inc.; Types of businesses which can benefit most from outsourced e-mail; Companies which provide outsourcing for Internet e-mail; The role that Internet service providers are playing.

Discusses how the Internet impacted technology executives and chief information officers in 1998. Efforts to leverage the Internet to transform business; The growth of electronic commerce platforms and extranet-based supply chain initiatives; Merging voice and data traffic; Internet Protocol (IP) telephony; Information management; The fast pace of development that the Internet inspired.

Looks at the Internet-based training system used by Office Furniture USA Inc. The Symposium software from Centra Software Inc.; Its ability to link users and provide real time information; Security features that it includes; Issues to be concerned with when seeking Internet-based training; Comments from Gary Sweetapple, chief information officer of Office Furniture USA.

Discusses supersites, or centralized Web sites from corporations that link across the company. The economic potential of the Internet and how supersites can take advantage of it; Managing the technology behind the growth of the Internet; Why corporations have been consolidating Web services and creating supersites; The development of a supersite architecture by USWeb, developer of the term supersite; Business advantages to supersites; The difficulty in creating supersites.

Notes that Oracle Corp. and third-party tool suppliers are answering the call for products which embrace component strategies for linking Web applications with legacy systems. Oracle's Web Developer Suite 1.6; Features; Price; Components; How software developers are responding; Other products like Microsoft's Visual Studio 6.0 and IBM's Visual Age e-business.

Focuses on computer software vendors that are revamping their applications to respond to demands for better scalability, manageability and personalization for electronic commerce software. Art Technology Group, IBM, Vision Factory Inc. and Sterling Commerce Inc. revamping their applications; Figures on total Internet sales projections from 1997-2002; Expected announcements from Sony Online Ventures, and other vendors.

Focuses on problems facing Internet messaging. Causes of the problems; Figures on projected worldwide revenue of Internet communications from 1997-2000; How some Internet service providers (ISP) are preparing their systems.

Discusses the popularity of the Internet as a money-making venture. The Internet as the technological version of the 1850's Gold Rush; The three phases of Internet's popularity; Success stories of companies, such as Netscape; Companies that did not succeed; Internet as an evolution, not revolution; Rules for Internet success.

Reports that CommerceNet Consortium, a nonprofit organization that has spent two years raising awareness of electronic commerce, is developing a set of interoperability guidelines and specifications to enable digital certificate technologies and certificate authorities to work together. Creation of regional and international chapters; Development of vertical pilot projects to create online trading.

Reports that electric utilities are tapping the power of the Internet by using their World Wide Web sites for conducting electronic commerce. Customer access to a series of secure sites; Option for industrial customers to choose electric companies; Development of six Open Access Same Time Information System sites by the Joint Transmission Services Information Network.

Reports on the trend of consolidation among Internet access providers. Acquisitions and mergers, including those involving Performance Systems International Inc., America Online Inc. and Microsoft Corp.; Rate of consolidation; Federal government's plan to cut Internet subsidies.

Focuses on the projected number of people interested in setting up commerce on the Internet computer network. Processing of money transactions in the Internet despite problems of security; Emergence of competing security solutions.

Discusses the conclusions of manufacturer Johnson Controls Inc. after investigating the commercial uses of the Internet computer network. Security of data and the internal network as a main concern; Johnson Control's decision to use the InterLock firewall from ANS Core Systems Incorporated.

Reports on the Internet's lack of readiness to handle mission-critical business. Suitability of the Internet to handle electronic mail, marketing and product-support tasks; Inadequacy for financial transactions; Companies' installation of WorldWide Web servers to tap the Internet's strength as an information-gathering vehicle; Models for financial transactions.

Reports on the plans of several computer companies to develop products and services that will allow corporations to conduct business and perform communications functions over the Internet computer network. Microsoft Corp.'s Enterprise Messaging Server; MCI's faxing and telecommunications services; Ventana Media's Internet Membership Kit. INSET: The Internet goes commercial..

Discusses free services on the Internet. The assertion that the services are not really free due to the time used by the services; Amount of time saved by the author by blocking Web sites that use DoubleClick; Claims that consumers are willing to pay for premium services; The belief that users time is valuable.

Discusses the book `Blown to Bits,' by Phillip Evans and Thomas S. Wurster and other books that address the economic impact of the Internet on businesses in the United States. The warning of the authors of events during deconstruction periods; The assertion that during times of rapid change, insurgent companies have an advantage over incumbent companies.

Considers the prospects of eCharge Purchasing Account System, an online payment system from eCharge Corp that uses accounts for purchasing instead of credit cards. Speculation as to whether the payment system will survive where other electronic commerce payment methods have failed; The use of micropayments by eCharge that are not used by credit card companies; Why eCharge feels their system will work.

Reports the continued investment in information technology related industries in the United States. Percentage of technology investment among venture capital companies; Investing boom among Internet-related companies.

Focuses on companies who have succeeded online. Allaire, which succeeded through skilled incorporation of good Web pages and databases; WWW.GII.COM, which specializes in discussion about electronic commerce business practices.

Focuses on Internet economic growth as of June 21, 1999. Evidence of the excitement of information technologists over Internet economic growth at the June 1999 E-Business exposition in San Jose, California; Anticipated effects of Internet quality and taxation on growth; Successes of the Internet in 1998; Outlook.

Focuses on Cisco Commerce Solutions, a set of best practices for electronic commerce from Cisco Systems Inc. Percentage of Cisco products which are sold online; Benefits that the services will offer; Efforts by Cisco to develop strong management tools for electronic commerce Web sites.

Reports on developments which are moving Internet portals from consumer commerce into the business arena. Portal Server, software from Epicentric Inc. that allows companies to aggregate corporate data into custom portals for intranets and extranets; Field Support Portal, software from Plumtree Software Inc. that allows administrators to create portals using Plumtree's Corporate Portal Server; Info X-Ray suite, software from InfoRay Inc. that simplifies the access and analysis of corporate data; Others.

Recommends that information technology (IT) managers consider using Internet libraries in their application development strategies. What an Internet library offers; The example of EarthWeb and its shareware resources; Services that EarthWeb offers; The returns that an investment in an Internet library can produce; The value they offer to programmers.

Discusses the importance of Internet access for businesses. Percentage of workers in the United States who have Internet access at work; Factors preventing businesses from offering access; Efforts to measure the return on investment; Deciding which level of access to offer; Products that can make Internet access easier to manage.

Discusses the performance of Internet-related stocks in 1998. Number of the top ten technology stocks for 1998 that were related to the Internet; Percentage gains made by the top technology stocks; The 859 percent increase in Amazon.com Inc.'s share price, despite the loss of over 80 million dollars; Comments from Derek Brown, an analyst at Volpe Brown Whelan & Co.; Big technology losers like Cidco and Ciena Corp.

Looks at the efforts of Power Team, a division of SBX Corp., to automate its electronic commerce business, including the procurement process. Why Internet-enabling the procurement process is important for Power Team; Packages that Power Team looked at from Trade'ex Electronic Commerce Systems Inc., RightWorks Corp. and Microsoft Corp.; The customization that Power Team will have to engage in to meet their needs; The minimum requirements that Power Team has for its electronic commerce system.

Looks at how many large companies are handling electronic commerce as of September of 1998. Why they are slow in moving toward Web-based sales; Business to business electronic commerce applications; Types of businesses which have been able to successfully transition to Web selling; The need for many businesses the change their view of electronic commerce from a nuisance to an opportunity.

Presents news which demonstrates some of the risks of using the Internet in business. Easy access to private information at the LivePix Web site; Download troubles at American Express which can affect electronic payments; Electronic mail messages from Visioneer which sent replies directed at Visioneer to all the members of the mailing list; The problems caused by a piece of paper that was left on a Bay Networks Centillion 100 switch. INSET: Survey says:.

Editorial. Discusses the strategy of Lotus Development for dealing with the growth of the Internet. The impact that the Internet is starting to have on corporate fortunes; How strong backing for Lotus from IBM has enabled it to refashion Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino as Internet-based products.

Discusses electronic commerce and online shopping in early 1998. Factors contributing to the growth of electronic commerce; Why purchasing goods on the Internet may be safer than purchasing them in a store; Time and money savings through online purchases; Sites including ComputerESP, BizRate, FirstSource International, Cyberian Outpost, The Internet Shopping Network, MicroWarehouse, NECX and PC Connection.

Opinion. Argues that Internet time, the idea of increasing development time to new speeds, is slowing down. The difference for vendors between developing a stand-alone World Wide Web browser or Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) editor and developing an application; The ability of users to incorporate new technology; Assertion that the move from stand-alone to corporate-level Internet products will produce a pause in product introduction pace.

Examines how Boise Cascade Office Products Corp. is using the Internet to remain competitive as a middleman in the supply chain. Plans for cost reductions via the Internet; What Boise Cascade offers that traditional electronic commerce does not; The success of the Internet order placement capabilities of Boise Cascade; Features of the Boise Cascade World Wide Web site; Software that the company is using; Outlook for the company.

Focuses on the role of the Internet in the food service industry in the United States during the late 1990s. The Internet as an alternative to traditional electronic data interchange (EDI); The selection of an EDI value added network by the Certified Food Equipment Servicers Association; InterTrade, an online trading community designed specifically for the food services industry; What InterTrade provides for companies; How its costs compare to those of a traditional EDI system.

Looks at the plans of the Army-Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) to integrate the Internet into its supply chain. How the AAFES has used technology to stay current and competitive; Comments from Richard Green, chief of the fast action support branch of information services at AAFES; Why the AAFES has chosen an incremental implementation over a one-time renovation; Potential benefits for customers from AAFES's strategy.