Frontline probes big business investment in cyberspace.BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 25, 1995--Why are many of America's richest companies spending billions to construct an Information Superhighway to your door? Experts forecast interactive services and video-on-demand can never generate enough revenue to justify the price to build and maintain the electronic infrastructure. So, with no immediate profit in sight, why are these companies willing to foot the bill? In "High Stakes High Stakes is a British sitcom starring Richard Wilson that aired in 2001. It was written by Tony Sarchet. The second series remains unaired after the first received a poor reception. in Cyberspace Coined by William Gibson in his 1984 novel "Neuromancer," it is a futuristic computer network that people use by plugging their minds into it! The term now refers to the Internet or to the online or digital world in general. See Internet and virtual reality. Contrast with meatspace. ," airing Tuesday, Oct. 31, at 9 p.m., on PBS PBS in full Public Broadcasting Service Private, nonprofit U.S. corporation of public television stations. PBS provides its member stations, which are supported by public funds and private contributions rather than by commercials, with educational, cultural, (check local listings), FRONTLINE looks beyond the hype of interactive networks to examine the social and cultural impacts of cyber-commerce and to determine what big business has to gain. Correspondent Robert Krulwich Robert Krulwich is an American radio and television journalist whose specialty is explaining complex topics in depth. He has worked as a full-time employee of CBS, National Public Radio, and Pacifica. interviews the people usually in the background of this story: the venture capitalists who sense a great business opportunity; the software designers who are creating programs for advertisers to reach specific consumers based on their known activities; and the advertisers who hope to exploit this intimate knowledge of consumer habits. "One of the most remarkable facts about the Information Revolution is the dramatic impact it will have on virtually every facet of our lives, yet there is almost no discussion of what those changes will mean," says producer Martin Koughan. "We may not become aware of the seismic effects this revolution will have on commerce, jobs, government, personal relationships and the like until after these systems are in place." The program examines how advertising revenue will make cyberspace a powerful draw to the business world and how interactive computers will provide advertisers with quick and accurate marketing information directly from the consumer. Until recently, only gross demographics highlighting trends have been available to help sell products. Now, when America goes online, marketers are able to keep track of the buying behaviors of individual consumers. Consumers leave a digital footprint everywhere they go online, enabling marketers to trace consumer attitudes, preferences and buying habits like never before. "If you connect through America Online See AOL. , America Online knows everything about you. Or Prodigy or CompuServe. Those guys know basically everything," says Terry Myerson, whose company, Interse, develops marketing software. "As the user interacts, we not only can watch them to see what they're looking at, but how they are moving through your sales cycle....We can watch this happen in real time if you want, we can watch these customers move through your information." Other companies are more direct, asking on-line users to supply information on their preferences and habits before interacting with an on-line site. Correspondent Krulwich visits the World Wide Web homepage of Zima, a new beverage from the Coors Brewing Company. The company has created "Tribe Z" -- an on-line "hangout" which uses hip graphics and slang to attract Generation Xers. Before entering Tribe Z, the on-line user provides Coors with information on their preferred alcoholic beverage alcoholic beverage Any fermented liquor, such as wine, beer, or distilled liquor, that contains ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, as an intoxicating agent. When an alcoholic beverage is ingested, the alcohol is rapidly absorbed in the stomach and intestines because it does not , their amount of consumption and their age, and then is cleared to click and to surf through layers of cyber-advertising. Word of "cool" websites spreads like wildfire on the Internet; the company hopes to become a cult favorite of young on-line users, giving them an instantly accessible target population at low cost. But while companies are spending billions to secure their presence on the superhighway, no one has made any real money yet. Last year, the total value of all on-line transactions through the Internet was only $40 million. Even if the market grows 2500%, it will still be less than the value of the American blowdryer market. So, why the race to settle cyberspace? Many companies are fearful of the revolution happening around them, worried that new technologies will crossover into their realm and replace their core businesses -- especially if their core business is information. Newspaper publishing is one industry trying to find a place in this cyber-domain. In an effort to ensure its identity as an information source, the Washington Post recently announced a new on-line life-style magazine, Digital Ink, which will serve as a resource for restaurant, museum and entertainment information as well as a digital classified page. The paper is clearly taking advantage of the new technology to provide a service, but it provides it with the knowledge that if it doesn't do it, someone else will. "It's clear that this [information superhighway] opens up exciting new possibilities. It's also quite unclear what is going to happen in the next twenty years TWENTY YEARS. The lapse of twenty years raises a presumption of certain facts, and after such a time, the party against whom the presumption has been raised, will be required to prove a negative to establish his rights. 2. ," says Donald Graham, publisher of the Washington Post. "It's part defense and part opportunity if you look at it from the newspaper's point of view." In the new cyber-reality, companies fear a blurring of technologies where phone companies can provide the same information newspapers now provide, and television can replace telephones. Like the great land grabs of the last century, businesses are staking out their cyber-acreage, hoping to be relevant when the dust settles. "We're in a period where everything is changing, everything is up for grabs, and nothing makes any sense and probably won't make any sense for two or three more decades," says Paul Saffo Paul Saffo (born in 1954 in Los Angeles) is a technology forecaster. He is the Roy Amara Fellow at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California. He is also a board member of the Long Now Foundation. , director of the Institute for the Future. "Big business better play on the Internet or they're going to get sideswiped by smaller players. But the real opportunity is not for big businesses here. It's for small companies that leverage this new communications medium in a way that makes it possible for them to do something they could never do before." "If history proves to be an accurate indicator, [new opportunity] wouldn't be created in the boardrooms of the major companies," agrees Howard Rheingold Howard Rheingold (born July 7, 1947) is a critic and writer; his specialties are on the cultural, social and political implications of modern communication media such as the Internet, mobile telephony and virtual communities (a term he is credited with inventing). , one of the pioneers of the Internet, "it will be invented by all kinds of American entrepreneurs...not the giant monopolies, but yankee ingenuity Yankee ingenuity is an American English reference to the self-reliance of early colonial settlers of New England, United States. It describes an attitude of make-do with materials on hand. . And I'd like to see us give ordinary Americans a chance to create this medium before we're sold a big sanitized san·i·tize tr.v. san·i·tized, san·i·tiz·ing, san·i·tiz·es 1. To make sanitary, as by cleaning or disinfecting. 2. crippled package." But there are those who worry about the societal implications of the new cyber-reality. "You don't get something for nothing, and there's a big price to be paid in the information age, and one of those prices is privacy," says Margie Wylie, an editor at Digital Media. "Think of the Information Superhighway as being more like the sort of toll road where they not only want your fifty cents, but they want to know what car you drive, whether you fit the criteria, and whether or not you can get your car on the road will really depend on the gatekeeper In an H.323 IP telephony or video environment, a gatekeeper is a device that manages domains and provides call control. It is used to translate user names into IP addresses, to authenticate users and to manage network resources. ." "High Stakes in Cyberspace" is produced by Martin Koughan and Frank Koughan. The correspondent is Robert Krulwich. The senior producer for FRONTLINE is Michael Sullivan Michael Sullivan may refer to: Michael Sullivan
FRONTLINE is produced by a consortium of public television stations: WGBH Boston, WTVS Detroit, WPBT WPBT World Poker Blogger Tour Miami, WNET Wnet Windows Networking WNET Women's Network for Entrepreneurial Training WNET Wireless Network New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , KCTS Seattle. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is a private non-profit corporation which is chartered and funded by the United States Federal Government to promote public broadcasting. The CPB was created on November 7, 1967 when U.S. president Lyndon B. and public television viewers. FRONTLINE is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers. FRONTLINE press materials and comprehensive resources compiled for this program can be accessed through the World Wide Web at http://www.wgbh.org/frontline. The executive producer for FRONTLINE is David Fanning David Fanning may refer to:
CONTACT: Jim Bracciale, jim_bracciale@wgbh.org 617/783-3500 Diane Hebert, diane_hebert@wgbh.org Eileen Warren, eileen_warren@wgbh.org |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion