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Utilising the Fastest Growing Service on the Internet

Mark Priebatsch

Technical Marketing Manager
Silicon Graphics Pty Ltd
P. O. Box M42, Monash Park NSW2111
Australia

Abstract
This paper and subsequent presentation will be about how The World Wide Web has changed the view of the Internet, the way companies view the Internet, and how companies wish to utilise the World Wide Web. It will also introduce the audience to Virtual Reality on the Internet.
Keywords
World Wide Web, Business, Virtual Reality

Introduction

In the beginning there was the Internet, which was and is a vast, global collection of networks, that sparked a revolution in communications. The Internet has been called the "fastest growing form of communication ever", being extremely powerful and allowing people all over the world to communicate with each other and access information. Unfortunately, it was also limited, because it was text-based and notoriously hard to use; trying to find exactly what you wanted in an ocean of information was exceedingly difficult and time consuming.

The World Wide Web brought with it a number of benefits, both in association with the Internet and with global usage of information within society as a whole. The rest of this paper will first deal briefly with what the World Wide Web is and what repricussions it may and will have, and secondly focus on the growth areas and usage of the World Wide Web both in conjunction with the Internet and with "internal" company usage. The World Wide Web has turned the Internet and the internal information that is collected in organisations into a visual and media-rich repository, that is spawning itself into a firestorm of growth. In relation to the Internet the World Wide Web is the largest body of linked information in history, with a a huge storehouse of multimedia information - text, audio, images - even video, easily accessible to anyone in the world. It is rapidly becoming the world's largest museum, library, advertising medium and (soon) shopping centre, all rolled into one. It has created a powerful, self-reinforcing cycle of growth, that has made it the fastest growing part of Internet. This all started with Mosaic and today, browsers like Netscape Navigator and Spyglass have made the Web accessible to everyone with a PC, Mac(TM) or Unix(TM) workstation and a connection to the Internet.

As more people began using the Web, companies became very interested in using the Web to reach this large and growing audience of users. These companies and organizations put up Web servers and began creating exciting, multimedia content for their Web sites to attract user traffic. All of this new content was linked to the Web's existing content so users could easily jump from one site to the next. As the quantity of linked content increased, and the quality of that content also increased, the value to users of the Web skyrocketed, which just attracted more people to the Web and started the whole cycle over again. The growth of the Web has been nothing short of miraculous. In January, 1993, there were about 50 Web servers. In a little over 2 years, that number has skyrocketed to over 40,000. In truth, we really don't know how many servers are on the Web today, as it is so hard to determine the exact number, due in part to the Web's dramatic growth; the number of Web servers is doubling every 2 months.

The World Wide Web started out as a way for physicists at CERN in Switzerland to share information; it was literally designed for use by rocket scientists, but easy-to-use browsers like Mosaic and Netscape Navigator have changed all that. Now the Web is accessible to anyone who can use a mouse. As a result, millions are rushing to the Web as a source of information, as well as entertainment. Mosaic, the first graphical Web browser and the application that revolutionized the Web, was developed by Marc Andreesen on a Silicon Graphics machine. Perhaps the most exciting realisation is that the dramtic growth the Web has had to this day is only the tip of the ice-berg.

Factors which drive growth

There are a variety of powerful factors that will drive the growth of the Web in the months and years to come. The first one of these factors is the Internet dial tone, which all of the telecommunications companies like MCI and Sprint and a lot of new "Internet service providers" like Netcom, realize is the direction they need to head in. In doing so they are rushing to provide individuals and businesses with ready access to the Internet and the World Wide Web, because they know it will increase traffic over their networks. With this increase in business related transactions over the Internet the need for "Secure Transactions" becomes paramount for commerce to be conducted. Plenty of companies are working to solve the problem of how to conduct secure financial transactions over the Web; Netscape, Cybercash, First Virtual, etc. In fact, Netscape already has a solution; using encryption software from RSA, Netscape Commerce Server provides for authentication and encryption of important information like credit card data; Netscape has already signed deals with Visa, Mastercard, and First Data Corp. (the company that clears over 70% of all US credit card transactions). As proved time and time before, things do not succeed on mass if they are too hard, and one major component of the World Wide Web is content authoring. For this to succeed this must also be easy, as content is critical. With easy Web authoring not only will the number of organizations interested in creating Web pages increase, but so will the creative talent applied to those Web pages (i.e. no longer just HTML programmers), and thus the quality of Web content will rise, which will attract even more users. With the carrot of thousands/millions of users all trying to get onto the Internet, the "dinosaurs" of commercial online services (e.g AOL, Compuserver) are all tripping over themselves to offer access to the Internet and the World Wide Web, because they realize that the Web will provide far more valuable information at a lower cost than any single proprietary service ever could. They realize if they don't, then they will die, especially given the fact that when Windows 95 actually arrives, it will automatically give tens of millions of additional users Internet and Web access, since Windows 95 will be bundled with TCP/IP and Web browser software.

So, given the fact that the World Wide Web has arrived, it has a large existing user base, an unstoppable engine of growth and a host of strong future growth factors, how can business, companies and people benefit from it, both in association with and without the Internet.

The Web is one of the most powerful communications technologies ever introduced, that enables the cost of delivering information to be trivial, the quantity inifinite, its form any (text, audio, images, video), its geographic boundaries limitless (your Web server could be across the street or across the world from a user), and the information addressable i.e., you can make information on your Web site accessible only to certain people. Thus, any organization anywhere in the world can benefit from the World Wide Web, whether large or small, private or public, high-tech or 1ow-tech. The Web provides a powerful and inexpensive way to get closer to customers, to employees, suppliers and the general public. If we look at the Web in regards to communications in a company, it allows various groups within a company to communicate more effectively, whether providing a central storehouse of information for employees, or improving collaboration among work groups. It also allows a company to communicate better with its many outside constituencies, like customers, investors, regulatory agencies, prospects, the community, the press, and suppliers. As a result of all these powerful advantages thousands of businesses have set up Web servers, and have the Web working for them. In fact, from virtually zero a couple of years ago, commercial entities now represent the majority of Internet domains.

Fundamentals of Achieving Success with the Web

There are three fundamental ways in which an organization can put the Web to work. The first is within the organization, to promote internal collaboration and communication in areas such as, Company policies, manuals, directories, News, announcements, Workgroup collaboration, Company archives, Training materials and Internal research and information sharing. A real world example here is JP Morgan, one of the world's largest banks, that uses the Web among other things, for a constantly-updated, always accessible company directory, saving printing and administrative costs.

The second is to conduct online marketing and support and eventually commerce. The critical point is that the Web complements all the existing marketing tools at a company's disposal, it need not replace them. As for commerce, as companies like Netscape provide software for secure transactions over the Web, many companies will pursue the Web as yet another way to reach their customers and conduct business with them. Looking at JP Morgan as a real world case, it provides three examples of usage; in the area of improving IT services, where it receives on-line bug fixes and patches, as IT vendors diagnose and fix the problems online, in the area of financial analysis, where employees check via the Web government census data to assess trends in property values, incorporated in home mortgage business plans and finally in the area of company's well being, where the employees use the Web to access the latest corporate results. There are also many other real world examples ranging from Schlumberger to the Hyatt Hotels.

The third is to make information available to the general public. These organisations charter is to make information available to the public for the lowest cost possible. The Web provides them with a chance for enormous cost savings, easy updating, and a more effective way of fulfilling one of their key roles. Example of such usages are, Library holdings and resources, Legislative proceedings, Government programs and resources, Government documents and regulations, including tax forms, etc. and Educational materials for schools and universities.

Organizations who have invested in a Web presence are already receiving powerful returns on their investments. Companies using the Web internally are improving employees' access to corporate information, while saving money, since there is no printing or distribution cost, the material is always updated, and easy access to the information means less administrative support to identify the right printed material, find it, and deliver it. Some companies are putting their annual reports on the Web, saving the $3-5 or more per piece required for printing and mailing. In addition, the reports are available more quickly than the printed versions, and because people can access the information directly, the administrative cost associated with answering and fulfilling requests for individual copies of annual reports decreases. Companies who are using the Web externally are gaining benefits in a number of areas. For less than the cost of one color brochure they can deliver a multimedia presentation to millions and track who they are, what they're most interested in, etc. A great deal of information can be provided to there customers, who only access the material of specific interest to them, creating in effect customized brochures. This leads to lower administrative cost, because of fewer requests for product literature, and improved sales force efficiency as the customers can go directly to Web to get simple questions answered (and not waste sales rep's time). Also, this gives the sales rep's an opportunity to speed up the sales cycle by discussing product literature on the Web "real-time" with interested prospects. Given the tact that the Web is a truly global network, it is not just an Australian or North American thing, marketing, advertising and sales boundaries are being redifined, given that the cost of making your information world accessable is cheap.

Requirements for a successfull Web

There are three fundamental activities that take place on the Web: content authoring, serving, and browsing. Companies that will drive the success on the Web will have the unique ability to understand the visual computing medium and provide tools for these three fundamentals, enabling themselves and others to be successful on the Web. My belief is that content authoring and serving are THE KEYS to any organization effectively using the Web, whereas browsing will be a commodity, a capability of virtually any computer.

Content ALWAYS matters; whether for artists creating movie dinosaurs, engineers sharing product designs, scientists exploring 3D renderings of molecules, or companies establishing a presence on the World Wide Web, compelling visual content conveys more information and does so in a way that is more entertaining for the user. An example here is what Nintendo did with Donkey Kong Country, where they turned a fiat, 2D experience that looked like every other game into the world's first fully-rendered 3D game that could be played on a standard game machine. They realized that creating truly differentiated content has a magical quality to attract people's attention and engage them. Which is one of the reasons why other noted attention-grabbers like Disney and Steven Spielberg are so successful.

I believe the same concept applies to Web, in that the compelling content in movies, video games, and television, can be applied to the Web, allowing companies to take full advantage of all of its' exciting multimedia capabilities. Given this fact the Web is not about word processing, it's about effectively using audio, video, images and text to capture people's attention and encourage them to keep coming back. Therefore Web serving is one of the most demanding things you can ask of a computer, as thousands of users will be making hundreds of simultaneous requests for all sorts of different content, much of it incorporating audio, images, or video. Everybody talks about bandwidth being a limiting factor and there is no doubt that adequate bandwidth is important, but the performance of the server is absolutely critical if you want to respond to users effectively, as now that you are providing a real-time feed of information people do not like downtimes or slow responses that cannot be attributed to there network link. If Web users get any delay or if they are turned away altogether, not only will they not visit the site, they won't come back. For Web serving, you therefore need a multithreaded, multitasking machine that can operate as part of a network at high speeds, and has a high sustainable memory to peripheral bandwidth.

Where are things going ?

There are a number of WYSIWYAG Web editors around, but if you want to actually easily create a Web page with all the multimedia contents you need a complete package that allows you to easily create and play back movies in MPEG or Cinepack format and a set of digital media tools that allow you to easily incorporate audio, video, and images. Not just and editor that allows HTML word processing.

As with life, things are not fiat, 2D they are multidimensional, and thus with the Future of the Web things will become 3 Dimensional and beyond. It is interesting to note, that a concern that is always raised when talking about going 3D on the Web is bandwidth, but here this is not an argument, as it can be shown that a 3D VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) object will take up no more bandwidth than a small image (GIF) file, yet allow the user to experience non-immersive Virtual Reality.

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