Great news! Facebook and music-listening service Spotify will create a group listening feature for Facebook users. This will allow friends to set up “listening rooms” in which they can enjoy to the same music together, similar to what Turntable.fm and Listening Room (in Beta) now offer, says Wired’s Eliot Van Buskirk. READ MORE
Special Technology Report In the late 1980s, Rhonda Sanderson happily moved her tiny public-relations agency from downtown Chicago to suburban Highland Park. The move cut her commute from 30 minutes to about 30 seconds: she’d set up shop in an office building across the street from her home. But a decade later, Sanderson & Associates Ltd. was growing, and Sanderson found that the top job candidates — recent college grads — viewed her location as a distinct drawback. Having just escaped from smallish midwestern college communities, they weren’t interested in launching their careers somewhere even smaller. “They wanted to live and work in the big city,” says Sanderson. Sanderson, a single parent, didn’t want to uproot her high school-age daughter to move back downtown. Instead, she bought a small building in a trendy Chicago neighborhood and moved several of her employees there. After she had satisfied everyone’s lifestyle demands, Sanderson had just one nagging concern: how would she, the suburban CEO who schlepped into the city just two days a week, stay in the loop the rest of the time? “I thought, ‘Will I have to call them every single minute?’ ” she says. As it turns out, Sanderson does talk with her seven staffers dozens of times daily — but without picking up the phone. Instead they chat live on-line, using a free instant-messaging (IM) program installed by an employee. Today “it’s fair to say we run the whole business on IM,” says Sanderson, whose company, with revenues in excess of $1 million, specializes in representing national franchises such as Meineke Discount Mufflers and Back Yard Burgers. “Every [internal] communication is by IM. Everything. This arrangement wouldn’t have worked without it.” There’s no playing phone tag, no wondering whether somebody got that urgent E-mail message, no delaying a response to a crisis. Sanderson is never more than a few keystrokes from her Chicago employees — as long as everyone is near a computer. “I feel much more secure handling my office this way,” she says of the constant real-time contact. “I feel the need to be connected to them.” CEOs nationwide are discovering what teenagers and twentysomethings, including Sanderson’s daughter and staffers, have known for years: IM is an addictively fast, simple, and cheap way to communicate. There’s nothing exotic about the technology. It’s basically real-time E-mail, either in-house or over the Internet. But unlike E-mail, IM is, well, instantaneous; as soon as the message writer hits “send,” the message pops up on the receiver’s screen. And unlike E-mail, IM doesn’t generate in-box clutter. Conversations usually vanish when they’re finished (although programs increasingly allow one to save them), and users, because they control their lists of authorized contacts, are less likely to receive “spam,” or unsolicited messages. The best-known IM programs are free; even commercial products are relatively cheap. Although an IM conversation typically involves just two people, power users may conduct several conversations simultaneously or create a chat room where any number of users can join the discussion. With some programs, users can even swap graphics, video clips, or voice clips. And unlike any other form of communication, IM monitors physical presence. With a glance at their contact lists, users can tell who’s logged on and available right now. Even though IM began as a way for kids to pass notes electronically (see “The IM Generation,” below), it’s clearly becoming a vital tool in businesses. IDC, a research company based in Framingham, Mass., says that about 40% of U.S. companies already use the technology. Jupiter Media Metrix, headquartered in New York City, says nearly 17 million Americans used the largest free IM services at work in March 2002, up from 10 million in September 2000. Gartner Inc., in Stamford, Conn., calls IM “the sleeping giant of the Internet” and predicts that by next year employees at 70% of all companies will use IM for business or personal communication. By 2005, Gartner says, at least 50% of U.S. businesses will rely on IM to interact with customers — and most consumers will use IM more frequently than they use E-mail. Naturally, IM works best in businesses in which employees are tethered to computers. Large high-tech and telecom companies like IBM and AT&T have used the technology for years. But it’s picking up speed in less likely industries. For instance, manufacturers are beginning to use IM kiosks in factories to keep managers in close contact with floor supervisors. Retailers that have been using live chat on their Web sites for the past few years are beginning to use it in-house as well. Jennifer Convertibles in Woodbury, N.Y., uses IM to communicate with managers in its 200-plus stores nationwide. Rami Abada, the chain’s president and chief financial officer, says the low-cost IM network, which replaced a costly voice-mail system, has saved the company $50,000 to $60,000 a year and eliminated 7,000 calls a week that were going into voice mail. Now smaller companies, too, are getting the message that IM is free or cheap, requires no special hardware and no training, and can even be kind of fun. (See “Instant Lingo,” below.) And despite some of IM’s drawbacks — such as legitimate concerns about security and productivity — they’re finding plenty of ways to use it. For many growing companies, IM’s main appeal is simply being able to reach anybody instantly — even when both parties are already busy. Being there: In the Chicago office of Sanderson & Associates on a hectic Friday morning in April, Kelly Templer was on the phone with a reporter. She checked her contact list to be sure Sanderson was on-line. She was. Templer opened her IM on-screen window and typed in: “I have a reporter from AP on the phone. I want him to interview Tommy about IFE [a franchise trade show], he also wants other franchise info — what should I do?” She hit “send,” and Sanderson, on another call in the Highland Park office, saw the message pop up. Sanderson immediately shot back: “Give it to him! Offer him interview with Don DeBolt or some other expert if he wants independent source. Try to get info on exhibitors to him.” Neither had skipped a beat on their respective phone calls. Bolstering virtual management: At Tax Technologies Inc., a two-year-old tax-preparation and software company, vice-president Jeff Wenger, who’s based in Bradenton, Fla., uses IM to manage a team of software developers and testers scattered all over the United States. Because all IM programs indicate which users are logged on, Wenger can tell, for instance, when developer Anar Patel, in Warren, Ohio, is available and when Adrienne Morey, in Phoenix, is on-line. (Team members can, and do, converse with one another by IM all day — and sometimes all night — about work in progress.) Wenger says the setup allows him to hire top employees who can work and live wherever they want, “whether it’s the mountains of Colorado, the beaches of Florida, or the big city.” Using IM has cut his daily telephone time from three hours to less than 30 minutes. Other organizations rely on IM to stay in touch with telecommuters, road warriors, or local field staff. Companies that have overseas employees, partners, or customers may find the technology particularly cost-effective. Managing crises: AtomicPR, a $1.9-million San Francisco high-tech PR agency that was launched in late 1999, just before the dot-com bubble burst, built real-time communications into its business model and culture. The company’s 15 employees say that IM provides them with a competitive advantage in a tough economy. Today the business uses IM for both in-house and client communications, and the staffers have found it invaluable for responding rapidly to a crisis. In one case, account supervisor Mike Crusick contacted company cofounder Andy Getsey by IM at 7 a.m. on a weekday, when both were still at home, to report some bad news: a press release had just come over the wire that a client was being sued by a competitor. Andy to Mike: Wow. I’ll do a quick plan for [client], then give her a call. It’d be best to have recent real-world examples too. Can you find a few similar suits and corporate responses ASAP? Thx. Mike: Here are links to announcements/responses in similar suit. Andy: Thx. Can you find 2 more from different suits, too? Hurry. Andy: PS. Would you call the rest of your team and let them know what’s happening ASAP? Andy: PSS. And tell team to hold on related media communications until we talk to [client]. Mike: Of course. Mike: More links to difft suits. Andy: Check Andy: Just emailed [client] 5 point plan. CC’d you and team. Calling her now. Mike: Roger that. Andy: Just talked with [client]. Buzzing there! Went over the key points and examples. She’s going into internal meeting at 9 — will call us immediately after. Thx for help. I’ll be at office in an hour or so. Mike: Great. I’m headed into the office now. See you there. Busy morning already Instant inventory tracking: At Pacific International Marketing, a produce-trading company in Salinas, Calif., with revenues under $100 million, sales managers use IM to simultaneously alert 35 salespeople in five cities to market changes. A typical message: “Stop selling broccoli at $7; it’s dropped to $6.” That’s a big improvement over the decidedly low-tech tradition of simply yelling across the room to local traders and then calling around to remote offices to spread the news. And, says president Tom Russell, the time savings is no small potatoes in his industry, where prices can fluctuate 100% in 24 hours and product shelf life is measured in days. As Russell puts it, “The minute we cut some product in the field, it’s beginning its journey to the Dumpster.” He estimates that IM has saved him thousands of dollars in phone calls — and an untold amount in losses caused by information delays. Kibitizing on transactions: One of IM’s most practical and widespread uses in small companies is allowing behind-the-scenes collaboration. At $22-million YellowPages.com, an on-line ad directory based in Henderson, Nev., the company’s 42 employees “ping,” or contact one another by IM, throughout the day. “My Chicago guy is pinging me right now,” Dennis Warren, senior vice-president of corporate development, says during a telephone interview. (His reply: “OTP. SB.” Translation: “On the phone. Stand by, I’ll get right back to you.”) But the technology’s real value, he says, is in letting salespeople get the answers they need. For instance, a rep who is trying to close a deal on the phone might use IM with Warren: “Can I offer her a 30% discount?” Warren can decide and reply on the spot (“Yes,” or “Try 15% first”) without making the employee — or the potential customer — wait. At StudentUniverse, a travel service in Watertown, Mass., that caters to college-age customers, agents often use IM to send questions to a manager, aiming to get an immediate response without putting the customer on hold. Customer-service director Phil Dobbyn credits IM for helping cut his staff’s average time per call by 25% in just a few months. Finacorp Securities, a bond brokerage in Newport Beach, Calif., with revenues under $5 million, uses IM for everything from telecommuting to providing tech support for its on-line arm, Tradebonds.com. But IM’s greatest value is linking salespeople to the firm’s compliance officers to get fast answers to regulatory questions. Some managers own up to swapping messages with one another during conference calls with outsiders. StudentUniverse CEO Espen Odegard occasionally uses IM to confer with his cofounder or his lawyer during sticky negotiations. Other executives cue each other during calls; in fact, AtomicPR senior account manager Misha Gulak used IM with Getsey during a phone interview with Inc, reminding Getsey about a point she thought he should make. Instant gratification, of course, comes with a price. For starters, IM, like E-mail, can transmit viruses that existing security software may not detect. (For that reason, security experts recommend using virus-scanning programs that specifically cover IM.) But because anybody can download free IM software from the Web, tech staffers may not even realize employees are using it. And IM isn’t always secure, as the CEO of a now-defunct California dot-com learned when he found copies of his private messages posted on the Web. In May, Microsoft warned that its popular free IM program, MSN Messenger, contained a serious security flaw that could leave users vulnerable to computer hackers. (The company provided a free on-line “patch” to fix the problem.) With that in mind, Tax Technologies instructs users not to transmit confidential client information. StudentUniverse’s messages include their own version of the surgeon general’s warning: “Never give out your password or credit-card number in an instant message conversation.” Obviously, any new link to the outside creates new opportunities to leak corporate secrets. For that reason, IM programs increasingly include monitoring functions that allow companies to capture or log transmissions. Many IM programs — particularly the free ones — won’t work with one another, meaning that if you have only Yahoo Messenger, you can’t use IM to communicate with a client who has only AOL Instant Messenger. That’s exactly why the American Homeowners Foundation, a publishing and lobbying organization based in Arlington, Va., stopped using IM last year. Initially, the foundation’s directors hoped to use the technology to quickly correspond with the far-flung authors who write the organization’s books. But they ultimately found IM more frustrating than useful, says vice-president Chris Christensen, citing the plethora of incompatible programs. Michael Osterman, an electronic-messaging consultant in Black Diamond, Wash., predicts that the industry will adopt a common standard within the next year or two. In addition, some people find the barrage of read-me-right-now messages annoying or disruptive. “Your attention gets very fragmented. It gets in the way of good solid thinking,” says Carl Stormer, StudentUniverse’s cofounder and executive vice-president. “It’s almost like white noise; you don’t notice it till it’s gone.” Other executives occasionally shut off IM or change their status to “busy” or “do not disturb.” Managers at some companies worry that employees will spend too much work time using IM to chat with pals inside and outside the company. Others — such as StudentUniverse’s Norwegian-born Odegard and Stormer, who use IM daily to correspond with their families in Norway — view it as a perk they can offer employees, as long as personal use doesn’t get out of control. They also emphasize that IM isn’t the right tool for every business missive; employees should still turn to E-mail when they need a record and to the phone for the personal touch. Finally, they acknowledge that IM sometimes provides solutions to problems that don’t exist. For instance, employees at StudentUniverse admit that they sometimes swap messages with nearby coworkers rather than step next door or down the hall. Stormer says, “That is like taking the elevator to the first floor.” Yet even critics recognize the technology’s promise. For example, ActiveBuddy, a New York City developer of IM products, offers free homework help, stock quotes, and sports scores; the company also created IM promotions for the band Radiohead, teen singer Lindsay Pagano, and the movie The Lord of the Rings. Other companies are exploring IM’s potential for real-time auctions, travel booking, technical support, and stock trading. Meanwhile, the earliest adopters remain true believers in the technology’s value. “Our development team is 5 to 10 times more productive in our virtual environment than in a traditional office setting,” says Tax Technologies’ Wenger. “It’s disruptive,” says Dane Madsen, CEO of YellowPages.com. “But so was the Internet and so was E-mail. You adjust.” Anne Stuart is a senior writer at Inc. Instant Lingo In instant-messaging culture, spelling and grammar matter less than trading messages at the speed of a championship tennis match. So fans of IM write in standard business shorthand: FYI, ASAP, OK, thx, cc. They also rely on those annoying acronyms that hard-core E-mailers have thrown around for years: BTW (by the way), LOL (laughing out loud), TTFN (ta-ta for now). But as if it weren’t telegraphic enough, business IM seems to be adapting its own code. Among the ones we found: BRB: Be right back. BTN/5: Be there in five (minutes); be right there. C&B or c/b: Crash and burn. Convo: Conversation. G2G: Got to go. IC: I see. JK or j/k: Just kidding. JW or j/w: Just wondering. NP or n/p: No problem. OTL: Out to lunch. OTP: On the phone. OTR: On the road. Ping: To send someone an instant message (“I’ll ping you later”). Pop: Ditto. SB: Stand by (as in “just a minute”). SN: Screen name, or on-line identity. TTYL: Talk to you later. The IM Generation Most youthful IM aficionados use the technology for exactly the reason you’d expect: to converse, instantly, with everybody they know. Simultaneously. “I have 11 windows open,” Jessica Nurnberg, 15, of Oklahoma City, typed during an interview using IM. Translation: As Nurnberg answered Inc‘s questions at lightning speed, she was chatting with 10 other friends, swapping messages on everything from homework to hot ninth-grade gossip. Other young IM fans cite more practical uses, such as: Passive promotion. Kevin Colleran, 21, wouldn’t dream of spamming his 200 IM buddies with ads for his on-line business, Clubvibes.com Boston, a nightclub directory. But Colleran, a Babson College senior who holds several national “young entrepreneur” titles, uses the Clubvibes logo in his buddy icon (the on-line ID badge that appears during IM sessions). That way, he raises brand awareness without raising hackles. Real-time brainstorming. For a sociology class, Marie Aschenbrenner, 18, of Penticton, British Columbia, was assigned to a debate team taking a “pro” stance on globalization. Team members researched the issue, then met on-line the night before the debate. Working into the wee hours, they drafted and rehearsed their arguments — entirely by IM. Coordination of schedules. Emily Giles, 15, of East Greenwich, R.I., uses IM to quickly organize gatherings. “U can ask a bunch of people if they can do the same thing all @ the same time,” she wrote in standard IM (rather than standard English) during an IM interview. “Its easier 2 keep track of who can do what n who cant.” Homework help. Casey Koppelson, 17, of Newport, R.I., sometimes uses IM for French-class assignments. If Koppelson needs the French phrase for “mow the lawn,” she sends an IM inquiry to SmarterChild, a free on-line homework helper. SmarterChild instantly searches its database of information and sends back a message with the words: “fauchez la pelouse.” Matchmaking. Sarah Kornblum, 16, of Natick, Mass., uses IM to introduce friends from different towns. “They chat on here for a while and get to know each other a little bit and THEN go out on a date,” she wrote. “So far it is working pretty well, if I do say so myself.” Many under age 25 can’t imagine life without IM. “I really don’t know what I did before,” says Aschenbrenner, who had never used IM before she started college last September. Now she’s so IM-dependent that when she stayed off-line for a whole day, her brother called to check on her. Please E-mail your comments to editors@inc.com. Related content: IM Product Sampler IM Legal Primer IM Etiquette
Inc.ubator If Bluetooth flies, we’ll all be wired without wires A short-range wireless technology with an oddball name could free you from tangles of cables for good. More than 2,000 high-tech companies — from Intel and Motorola to a crop of start-ups — have joined forces to support “Bluetooth.” The low-power technology will let laptops, cell phones, printers, handheld computers, and other devices “talk” over a distance of about 30 feet. Named for the 10th-century Nordic king who unified Denmark and Norway, Bluetooth could save small businesses time and hassle when they, say, settle into new digs or need to do E-mail on the run. Bluetooth amounts to a postage-stamp-sized radio chip that’s installed in a product, and it’s expected to be widely deployed in devices such as cell phones and headsets by 2002. “None of these devices really have the ability to talk with one another. They need a common language,” says Simon Ellis, an Intel marketing manager and Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) marketing director. Bluetooth is designed to provide just such a dialect. What does that mean for you? A start-up could use Bluetooth chips to create a short-range wireless computer network without pulling up flooring to wire the new offices. Colleagues could meet informally around a table and zap one another data files without schlepping cables to the meeting. And on-the-go executives could finally be able to match up phone numbers, dates, and other data stored on their laptops, cell phones, and handheld organizers. With a Bluetooth chip in them, cell phones could serve as modems for wireless Internet access. No more having to find the right cable to link the laptop to the phone. Instead, the cell phone could sit in your briefcase while you send and retrieve E-mail. One more option: office workers could get wireless entry to the Internet — at DSL-like speed — by using a special Bluetooth “access point” that acts like a server and provides a gateway to the public phone network. Bluetooth technology was born in 1994 at Ericsson, the Swedish cell-phone maker. In 1998, Ericsson partnered with Nokia, IBM, Toshiba, and Intel to form Bluetooth SIG, which helped foster a global Bluetooth standard. More than 2,000 companies have since agreed to develop Bluetooth products and software. The wireless technology differs from that of traditional cell phones, for example, in that it transmits over much shorter distances and emits far less radiation. The introduction of products that use Bluetooth technology may be slow, because currently there is no standard to ensure that those devices can talk to one another. But Bluetooth isn’t perfect. Like other complex technologies, it’s hitting the market later than was expected — more than a year and a half behind schedule. And security is less than fail-safe: a device using Bluetooth isn’t immune to interlopers. Researchers at Lucent Technologies recently uncovered flaws that could allow eavesdroppers to read E-mail transmissions, for example, or possibly even determine a Bluetooth user’s identity. But Paul Kan, the Bluetooth strategic marketing manager for the microelectrics group at Lucent, says those flaws can be solved “quickly” and doubts they will have much of an effect on when Bluetooth products will be deployed. Airwave traffic jams are an issue, too. Bluetooth operates in the 2.4GHz frequency band — the same portion of the radio spectrum used by cordless phones, remote-control garage openers, and the wireless local networks that already exist in some offices and homes. Airwave congestion could disrupt some data and voice traffic, but the average Bluetooth user wouldn’t experience those hiccups, says analyst Sarah Kim of the Yankee Group. Kim also says the introduction of Bluetooth products could be slow because there isn’t a simple system to ensure that all of the devices will talk to one another. “If Bluetooth can get over those and other hurdles, it could be a big success,” says Kim. Among the first products will be special cards that slide into PCs to make them “Bluetooth enabled.” IBM plans to sell its PC cards for $189. Wireless cell-phone headsets are another niche for the technology. Ericsson expects its headsets to cost about $500. Bluetooth cell phones are also expected to hit the market. Gadget freaks will likely be the early adopters. Cahners In-Stat Group expects that the number of Bluetooth devices eventually will explode, hitting 1.4 billion units shipped by 2005. The research company predicts consumers will use Bluetooth to wirelessly access the Internet, to print documents from different rooms without needing a full-blown home network, and to synchronize personal data stored in separate electronic devices. Analysts predict that the number of Bluetooth devices will hit 1.4 billion by 2005. That could mean profitable opportunities. “Bluetooth is going to enable a plethora of small businesses to start,” predicts Tony Kobrinetz, a Motorola vice-president. Already, Jeff and Mary Beth Griffin have started a Charlotte, N.C., company, BlueLinx Inc., that’s using Bluetooth technology to create “quiet zones” where beeping cell phones and pagers won’t shatter the peace. The couple — who were inspired to start their business by a ringing cell phone in church — are targeting restaurants, theaters, and other establishments. Their Q-Zone technology cuts the volume on wireless devices or switches them to vibration mode when the devices enter specific areas. Industry executives can even see a day when a customer armed with a handheld computer will be able go to the mall and notify nearby shops that he or she needs, say, oversize shoes. A store’s computer could receive that electronic alert and beep the customer’s device to indicate that the shoes are available. By then, maybe cables will be history, as outdated as rabbit ears on a black-and-white TV. Roger Fillion is a freelance writer based in Evergreen, Colo. Pocket Wizard If Larry Bodony and Paul St. Pierre achieve their dream, your wallet will become a wireless device for surfing the Internet, as well as a personal ATM. How? Bluetooth. The duo cofounded a Boston-area start-up called WearLogic. Their SmartWear wallet, which is due out by year-end, boasts a keyboard and a display screen and stores phone numbers, dates, and other personal data, much like a handheld organizer. “Smart card” users can whip out the wallet to check electronic cash balances and view recent transactions. Looking ahead, Bodony, 42, and St. Pierre, 48, plan to use Bluetooth to make their smart wallet, well, even smarter. They see their wallet as a perfect companion for a cell phone. With it users could download money into their smart card, pay bills, or shop. So Bluetooth seemed like a natural fit. “Your wallet doesn’t have a wire on it, does it?” asks St. Pierre, who admits that the challenges of the technology are complex. “How do I tell my wallet to speak only to my cell phone and not to every other one in range?” Bodony and St. Pierre met in the early 1990s at a Massachusetts company that makes digital editing systems. They quit in 1996 and went their separate ways: Bodony headed to a U.S. affiliate of a Japanese electronics company, where he built technology for reading smart cards; and St. Pierre accepted an engineering post at a software company. The Asian financial crisis reunited them in 1998. After his Japanese employer shut its research division, Bodony was unemployed. But he walked away with valuable knowledge about smart wallets, a product that his former employer had looked into but hadn’t developed. Bodony called St. Pierre to pitch his idea for an electronic wallet. They discussed it over beer and buffalo wings, and St. Pierre decided to quit his job and join Bodony. He felt that he was getting old, “and the high-tech business doesn’t look kindly on old folks. I figured if I was going to take the plunge, I’d better do it now.” Soon WearLogic was born. After raising cash, Bodony and St. Pierre set off to develop a prototype wallet. They rented a tiny office near a Chinese restaurant and, steeped in the aroma of greasy pupu platters, debugged hardware and software. Today Wakefield-based WearLogic has about a dozen employees. Bodony is CEO, and St. Pierre is vice-president of engineering. The partners secured their first round of venture funding in January after having run so low on money that they temporarily stopped taking salaries and their employees began looking for other work. WearLogic has patents and trademarks for other clothing articles, like jackets, that could become wearable computers. The price for the initial smart wallet is targeted at about $300. The Bluetooth wallets are scheduled to be available by mid-2001 but don’t yet have a price. “It’s definitely something to keep your eye on,” says Yankee Group analyst Sarah Kim. Face to Face It’s Going to Be Huge Chunka Mui is a partner with Chicago consulting firm Diamond Technology Partners and is coauthor of the book Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance. Inc. asked him about the impact Bluetooth is expected to have. Inc.: What’s significant about Bluetooth? Mui: The most fascinating thing for me is the idea of having devices talk to each other in a fairly simple way. It’s unbridled connectivity. And what that does is lay an infrastructure for a tremendous amount of innovation in terms of devices and communication. Inc.: Can you think of a similar global technology standard? Mui: The Internet Protocol, on which the Internet is based. Just look at the innovation that was permitted to spread around the Internet. So what the Internet did for PCs, Bluetooth can do for all devices. Inc.: Can you envision that Bluetooth will cause disruptions for businesses? Mui: Huge disruptions all over the place. You can imagine that the number of ways you connect with your customers will grow maybe a thousandfold. Instead of communicating with you face-to-face or over a phone or using their PC, they can do it from almost any device they’re carrying. You won’t know where your customers are talking to you from anymore. They could be at home. They could be at the office. They could be at your store. They could be in your competitor’s store. They could choose to interact with you using their handheld computer because they can’t get to the front of the line. Inc.: What’s the importance of that? Mui: You have to be able to respond to all that. You have to have the information instantly available to answer the query or the request. Then you have to be able to differentiate among the ways they’re interacting with you, because their expectations will be different. Inc.: How quickly do you see this happening because of Bluetooth? Will it make inroads as quickly as the Internet did? Mui: It’s going to be faster, because it has the Internet to build on. Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.
In late January, Norwegian police raided the home of a 16-year-old student who rattled the U.S. movie industry with a software program he coauthored that breaks the security code on DVDs, the latest generation of video players. Jon Johansen, who hails from Larvik, Norway, had posted the program on his father’s company Web site, and it quickly spread like wildfire across the Internet. The son and his father, Per Johansen, face up to three years in prison and stiff fines if convicted. Only one week earlier a freshly launched Canadian Web site called iCraveTV was hit with strong legal action initiated by an alliance of U.S.-based movie studios, TV networks, and sports leagues. iCraveTV is one of the first Web sites to broadcast complete TV signals over the Internet, showing uncut, uninterrupted streams of 17 broadcast television stations from the United States and Canada. Under Canadian law, such rebroadcasting is apparently legal, at least for cable and satellite broadcasters. iCraveTV claims the Net is just like cable and that it, too, should have the right to offer TV. As far as the U.S. broadcasters are concerned, it’s blatant copyright infringement, and they aimed to make a legal example of iCraveTV to dissuade copycats. In late February iCraveTV settled the lawsuit by agreeing to stop rebroadcasting TV programming, at least for the time being. “This kind of cyberspace stealing must be stopped, wherever it occurs, because it violates the principles of U.S. copyright law,” Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) chief executive Jack Valenti said following the iCraveTV lawsuit, a message he repeated nearly verbatim a week after Johansen’s arrest. The two cases, though quite distinct in detail, are shaping the future of the Internet. In every which way it can, the entertainment industry is not only trying to claim copyright on the content it creates, but to control the media by which it is distributed as well. From music (fighting MP3, the online — and downloadable — music format) and film (fighting the portability of DVD) to television (fighting open transmission), the industry feverishly resists the free flow of content over the Net. These events also highlight the global reach of powerful companies to exert legal pressure on threats beyond their national borders. The Hollywood-based MPAA, an association of the seven largest U.S. movie studios, filed a police complaint against Johansen in early January. The agency responsible for computer and economic crime in Norway then raided his home and confiscated two personal computers and other technical equipment before charging him on copyright violation. The Johansen incident is perhaps less muddled than the iCraveTV situation, given that the Canadian company frames Web broadcasts with its own advertising, causing U.S. interests to claim foul on revenues earned. Johansen’s arrest, on the other hand, and the MPAA’s flurry of more than 500 cease-and-desist letters to Web site operators offering his descrambling program, should serve as a wake-up call for anyone concerned about the open access to information on the Net. Digital versatile discs (DVDs) can be viewed on properly equipped computers and DVD players but are encrypted to prevent copying the content to a computer hard drive. The MPAA claims that “hackers” who distribute the decoding program are enabling the production of illegal copies of movies for distribution. But Johansen argues that the MPAA has misled the public into believing that his descrambling program allows people to more easily copy DVDs. He claims that the encryption (security coding) actually gives the movie industry a monopoly on who gets to make DVD players. Therein lies the motivation for his actions: He and his colleagues developed the code to help make a DVD player available for the Linux operating system, and not only for the Microsoft Windows operating system as is currently the case. The larger backdrop here is that Linux is an open source system — written to operate with a broad range of other software programs — that is readily available for free, while Windows is a proprietary system for which Bill Gates and friends pull in a steady income. Here’s a tough question: Which model, the open source system or the proprietary one, is the entertainment industry interested in pursuing? Information is not always power. Just ask any librarian. In the digital age, wealth and power accrue to those who control the system logics by which data is exchanged. Copyright © 2000 Sojourners, , May-June 2000, Vol. 29, No. 3
