networthy

Regarding “Internet, Shminternet!” (by Jonathan Weber, Oct. 27): For my consulting and editing service for students applying to graduate and professional programs, the answer is NOW!

Since launching our Web site in July, our gross revenues are up about 50%, with negligible increases in expenses. Overnight, the Web has become our primary source of new business and, except for word-of-mouth referrals, our most profitable form of marketing.

Though we’re not Microsoft, Time Inc. or even ONSALE, this home-based business is making money on the Internet--right now. By focusing on the big boys’ multi-million-dollar extravaganzas, Weber is ignoring the opportunities for small businesses on the Net.

Linda Abraham

Santa Monica

I have a different perception of the Internet’s reality and future. Radio, television and cable TV are primarily passive media, where couch potatoes reign. Every channel’s offerings may be different, but they require no interaction.

The Internet is more like a large library that becomes a source of different types of information, based on the users’ interests and motivations, where users, or “surfers,” have to seek out what they want. Not too long ago, I sat at home searching for a particular book in the University of Kentucky library stacks at 10 p.m., 3,000 miles away. To me, that was awesome.

Bart B. Sokolow

Encino

Large and small companies alike are mistakenly attempting to define the Internet in terms of old, familiar paradigms. The Net’s potential as a publishing and marketing medium is based on the fact that it provides new ways of connecting people.

This is the essence of what the online experience brings: two-way communication between a company and its markets, and community-building between geographically disparate groups of people. The publishers, marketers and retailers who recognize this first will be the ones to achieve real commercial success.

Unfortunately, in their initial forays into cyberspace, most media companies hoped that simply re-purposing their already existing content would provide a low-cost, high-yield return. By now, they’ve found that’s like a company running its radio commercial, as is, on TV; the content loses significance because it ignores the specific criteria of the medium.

Jonathan Strum

Valencia

Weber’s supposition that the telecommunications giants will eventually dominate the Net is undermined by the fact that PacBell, which provides me with such great telephone service, concurrently provides me, on pacbell.net, with the most amateurish and unresponsive interactive service possible.

The trash bins of history are littered with companies that confused their areas of expertise with what was happening in the real world. Do the telecommunications majors honestly believe that the Internet’s response problems have only to do with delivery media?

Allen Kahn

Playa del Rey

Let me see, do I want to entrust the future to Wunderkind-turned-mega-billionaire Bill Gates and friends or to the computerphobics of the world with their typewriters and postage stamps? I feel sorry for the multimedially challenged individuals of this age. E-mail, the World Wide Web and intranets are making for a more interesting life, offering higher-than-ever levels of convenience and accessibility.

For myself, I am even prepared to live to see Url replace Michael as the most popular male name.

Michael P. Houbrick

Los Angeles