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LOCAL NETWORKING
AND THE INTERNET

The Internet expands worldwide at a tremendous rate of growth. However, the Internet at the local or regional level doesn’t seem to have faired as well. Several years ago I thought that by the year 2000 we would see local networking via the Internet. I thought our doctor, lawyer, the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker, so to speak, would have websites by this time. I thought we would be able to make a doctor's appointment via the doctor's email or website. I thought we would be able to view the cars at a local used car dealer. I thought we would be able to look at the inventory of a local building supply store to see if they had what we needed.

Many large and small businesses now have websites but most seem to be directed at a worldwide or international market. It seems there would be more advantage to us average folks if we were able to access the inventory of a local used car dealer or the service of a local attorney via their homepage or website. It is seldom that I need the services of a business on the other side of the U.S. or in Europe, however, I contact local or regional businesses everyday. Just as the telephone saved time and was used to make sales in the past, so can the Internet in this new world of modern communications.

On the World Wide Web a local or regional website gets lost among the millions of international websites. With local or regional networking, and the use of local search engines or directories, local websites would be more easily accessible to local users. I find myself looking more and more to the computer and the Internet to find general information, and to look for products and services. If I find what I need on the Internet I go no further. I find myself checking business cards and printed ads for email or website addresses. If a business doesn’t at least have email I tend to disregard it. I use the Internet to shop and conduct business as much as possible. I only wish more local and regional business websites were available.

I have both bought and sold via the Internet with very good results. It is not hard to do. The use of the Internet expands both your base of customers and your choice of products. There is little additional effort or cost. The Internet is as easy to use as the telephone and has much more flexibility for both businessman and consumer.

With all this said, then why is the Internet slow to develop locally or regionally? I suppose it is consumer resistance. My grandmother hesitated to pick up the telephone when it rang, and would ask someone else to place a call for her. This was back in the 1950s when the telephone was already 50 years old. Lack of understanding of a new product can also slow its accepted use. For example we get in the car and drive to three hardware stores only to find none of them have the item we need. It would have saved a lot of time and gasoline if we had used the telephone and called first. The telephone, if used properly, pays for itself with the time and other cost it saves us daily. After 100 years of the telephone use I suppose there are still people who think it serves little useful purpose.

The computer and the Internet can benefit us even more than the telephone. The computer and the Internet can be used for voice messages just like the telephone and much more. You can send pictures, drawings, and plans via the computer. You can publish newsletters, product brochures, and circulate information all from your home or business. Your homepage or website can display pictures in color and motion, product sounds, recorded voice messages as well as written text.

If you have email, nine chances out of ten you have the ability and means to put your homepage on the Internet. Most email service providers also provide you with a certain amount of space for a homepage or “website”. Most likely, you are paying for a homepage each month with your bill for email service whether you use it or not.

Perhaps the next generation will see the advantages to local networking via the computer and Internet. However consumer resistance and lack of understanding of new products can hold progress back for several generations.

Regards,
UNCLE BILLY

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