Since big business has invaded the Internet, small business has been shoved out of the limelight. It has become more difficult for small business to do business online.
This does NOT mean - as some say - that what started out as a "level playing field" is rapidly coming under the control of corporations with deep pockets. It DOES mean that small business needs a weapon to counteract the inroads recently made by big business.
To explain what I mean, let me put the issue in the broader context of centralization vs. decentralization.
Early computers in the '50s cost a million dollars and required many analysts, programmers, operators and maintenance people to work a few years before producing useful software. This tremendous force for centralization was welcomed by big business.
However, computer prices kept decreasing and their performance kept increasing until Apple Computer produced the Apple. Here was a force for decentralization, a tool for small business. Apple started a trend which led to the Internet. More decentralization. Small business cheered.
Naturally, big business did not like this turn of events. For some time it held back, not knowing how to counter this trend. But not for long. Here are 3 events which made big business cheer:
- PointCast produced a system which delivered the news
directly to a customer's computer screen, together with
advertising. Here was PUSH technology, almost as good
as TV..
- Sun Microsystems introduced Java. Everybody loves
Java. But you must realize that Java is a tool for
enabling big business to centralize and control all
programs "offered" to other sites.
- Bill Gates, Mr. Big-Business himself, introduces Internet
Explorer 4.0, a browser that highlights big-business sites
and makes it difficult to enter URLs to find the sites YOU
want..
The forces of centralization are mounting. How can small business counter them?
By building community.
Big business has money and power to PUSH. Big business wants the Internet to be an information highway, a place where it can PUSH information to millions of people, as it does now on TV. Small business must think of the Internet as a network of Learning Fountains, which PULL visitors to their sites. We should concentrate on helping our visitors learn specific things.
You do this by building community - a learning community. A community is not merely a group of people with similar interests. The millions who own a PC are not in a community. In a true community, members are eager to help other members for the good of the community. I hope that all of us reading this newsletter can be a learning community. To make such a community work, requires cooperation.
Big business stresses centralization, PUSH technology and competition. To survive, small business must emphasize decentralization, PULL technology and cooperation - all for the purpose of fostering COMMUNITY!
