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Internet Story: 16 Dec 1998
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Knowledge Driven Economy Today the DTI issued its 1998 Competitiveness White Paper, a blue print for Britain to succeed in the fastest growing global economy - the Internet. The Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Mandelson, launching the paper, said he was announcing a programme that was bold, far-reaching and absolutely necessary. He also announced that there would be a further £20M funding for the Information Society Initiative, to help more small businesses take advantage of new technologies. The government is setting a target to triple the number of small businesses wired up to the digital marketplace to one million by 2002. The £20m will go towards a nationwide network of support centers, an e-commerce resource center on the Internet and a national award to recognize excellence in digital business. Let's hope he gets his act together about stupid legislation about encryption technologies!
AOL shoppers spending more
In yet another e-commerce
success story, AOL announced that not only is online shopping up by 350% on last year
this season, but shoppers are spending an average of 50% more than 1997! This
included 750,000 first-time online shoppers in the first two weeks of the season, AOL
said. AOL members are buying more often - an average of two items every week - and
are spending 48 percent more on each purchase, for an average of $54 an item. The
most popular holiday category this year was toys and other items for children, closely
followed by apparel.
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Linux WordPerfect Tomorrow (Thursday, 17th December 1998) sees the release by Corel Corporation of the Linux version of Word Perfect 8. You can download from the Corel site and also from Download.com. Other download sites will have it available from 22Dec1998. |
| Movies & Video via the Net Much talked about, much hyped, little seen. That's all about to change when Broadcast.com launch their alliance with Turner Classic Movies to deliver streaming movies via the Net. Broadcast.com has become the place to get all manner of streaming audio and video, but so far in small slices only. Their first offering is probably going to be the classic file Casablanca, and should be available next week some time. This service will of course only be of much use to those having fast access to the Net and that's not many these days, but is the way forward in the next few years. |  |
Paul McCartney LIVE On Thursday night, 1900 (7pm) GMT, in a departure from his normal musical activities, Paul McCartney will broadcast a live cookery demonstration on the Net from Broadcast.com's web site. He will face online questions from fans in his first interview since his wife Linda's death. Sir Paul will also present videos, movies and photography during the show.
Andrew Stringer, © Pendle.Net Ltd, 1998