As I See It: The Internet is everywhere, even at Business Journal

In case you haven't noticed, the Internet is sneaking up on you. In a rush of data flow, the World Wide Web is covering the globe, permeating every level of society and knocking a new kind of sense into the business world.

A quick look at the demographics shows what many marketers are pouncing on already: an incredibly cheap way to spread the word to previously undreamed of hordes of consumers. Users are in schools, at home and in the workplace. Not since the TV revolution of the 1950s has such a radical shift in how we can absorb information occurred.

Even here in Springfield there are technology-based businesses popping up left and right. Using the Internet as a medium, entrepreneurs are bounding over the age-old hurdles of overhead and venture capital to turn an idea into a profitable business. It all makes sense when you compare how ridiculously cheap the Internet can be compared to more traditional means of advertising and marketing products. Which would you rather do: get your commercial onto a national TV broadcast in prime time, or invest a comparatively small amount in a personal computer and some Web hosting and design costs? Do not both options offer the potential of reaching millions of people?

The Internet is the great equalizer. How else can a small business reach as many consumers as the mega-corporations?

And reaching out they are, as shown in the 19th annual Dun & Bradstreet Small Business Survey. Conducted in February and March 2000, the study found that 40 percent of small businesses have their own Web sites, up from 25 percent last year. Approximately 70 percent of said businesses have Internet access, up from 57 percent the year before. A related study by Access Market International Partners and Inc. Magazine shows that an estimated 600,000 small businesses are selling their products online, and generated $25 billion in sales last year.

Like the fax machine that came before the advent of email, it's a wonder how we lived without the Internet.

Recently, the Business Journal enjoyed a technological shot in the arm. Before June 12, there were only two email addresses and one telephone modem dial-up connection to handle the needs of more than 20 staffers. With the increasing demands of emailed display advertising, press releases, correspondence with freelancers and online research, to call the situation a "bottleneck" was a gross understatement.

SBJ now has an ISDN router, linking all workstations through an Ethernet hub network to an ISP with a T1 link to the Internet backbone that allows a 128 kbps throughput of data to all departments and staff.

It's a new language, I know. But what it boils down to is a better, faster way to communicate amongst ourselves and with the business community.

If you are a student of history, you can relate to how other technological leaps altered the course of civilization telegraph, telephone, television and now the Internet.that adjusted quickly to the changes prospered.

I for one find it fascinating how this new technology has leveled the playing field, and to watch it unfold at all levels of business. You can rest assured that you will be reading a lot about it in future issues of the Business Journal.