Theos-Talk Archives (August 1997 Message tl00271)

At 08:25 AM 8/13/97 -0400, you wrote:
>----------
>> From: JOSEPH PRICE <JKEITHPRICE@msn.com>
>> Subject: Doggie Doo Again
>> Date: Tuesday, August 12, 1997 3:47 PM
>> 
>
>> Do you remember the early days of the INTERNET before the web.  It was so 
>> exciting.  It is becoming more organized and commercial everyday.  I think 
>> less and less people use the usenet group because the web has on-line
chat and 
>> then there is IRC etc.  (am I wrong??)
>> 
>> A lot has been gained, but the pioneering days seeming to be passing
before I 
>> very cyber-eyes.  (a small tear ;>)
>> 
>I use the web a lot for research.  I look at university papers, reports,
medical
>information, weather, on-line magazines.  Seems to me that  that's what the web
>was supposed to be in the first-place: somewhere you could get information at
>the click of a button.  The commercial guys got all excited and thought they
>could start selling things off the web, but that's been a disappointment.
I read
>that no one wants to buy cars or appliances off the web that they can't really
>see.  Small things or books are OK, but that's about it.  The web as a real
>selling tool hasn't gone very well.  Then there's the issue of security.  I
know
>I'v been ripped off on the web.  Then there's the "home" page thing where
>you can view  all sort of trivia about someone's life, especially the
college kids.
>
>A. Safron

I believe that Internet is still in its infancy and still has got a long way
to mature.

Much of the maturity is going to come from the generation which has grownup
with computers.

Even in the commercial area, it has proven its effectiveness. Most of the
large and small companies use Internet WWW and e-mail to provide customer
support 7 days of the week and 24 hours of the day, world-wide. Of course I
do get a lot of "junk" mail peddling anything you can think of. I think this
is the price one has to pay. Knock on the wood, I am yet to be ripped off
the Internet. As a matter of routine, sensitive financially related info
such as credit card numbers, I do not send them via Internet. I use FAX for
such info. I have found that telephone, fax, e-mail -- all of these have
their place in communications.

Organizations, especially ones which are in the area of "religion" and
"spiritual" arena are really slow to use Internet. One of them may be due to
the fact that most of them are controlled by older generation who did not
grow up with computers. The second problem is that they are used to control
communication with their faithful so that they told the faithful only those
things which they think the faithful need to know. I recently was told the
joke -- about how the faithful are handled -- just like mushrooms. The
mushrooms are kept in the dark and that is where they grow well. So keep the
faithful in the dark and feed little crumbs to keep them grow in the dark.
Internet is changing all this. The free communication and speed of
communication is something that it is going to take time to get used to.

As I have said before, Internet is a juggernaut and is unstoppable. Doing
business in the traditional way is going to go away.

..............MKR