We live in the most internet aware city in the most wired country on earth. You all know what the internet is. Canada is somewhat ahead of the USA where 80% of the population do not yet have access to the net. But that’s still a lot of folk excluded from where much of the action is these days, and where all of the action is reflected in some way.
Take a look at this e-mail I received last week about a recent big event
"PAUL MCCARTNEY INTERACTS WITH WEB USERS AND ENTERTAINS RADIO LISTENERS DURING LIVE WEBCAST OF THE LARGEST SINGLE CLASSICAL MUSIC EVENT IN HISTORY >p> On Wednesday, November 19th, live from Carnegie Hall, Sir Paul McCartney will perform the new classical work he has been composing over the past four years. STANDING STONE is a 75-minute symphonic poem, inspired by Celtic monoliths which dot the British Isles, the best known of which is Stonehenge. In one month, it has become the best-selling classical album in history. This event is a multifaceted presentation of radio, television, interactive on-line interview, and Internet audio and video broadcast across the World Wide Web…. Etc etc."
Did you know about this in advance? Not from reading the Citizen or watching TV. Did you know video could be broadcast across the internet? Just think what the people in unwired cities don’t know.
But all this ignorance will change with Web TV. Bill Gates has built its universal acceptance into his grand plan, and sunk billions into it. No longer will the net be the preserve of myopic computer geeks and pre-teens in the basement; it will be the medium of choice for grandmothers to enjoy a daily video conversation with their families around the world, and for businesses, big and small, to operate from scattered home bases. The basic Set Top Box, manufactured by Philips Magnavox, which resembles a small VCR, in size and price. These are not start-up companies!
In the States, the introduction of Wev TV in 1997 was not all sweetness and light. Millions of dollars in R & D, and only medium sales. Despite the infomercials, the people weren’t buying. They didn’t understand it and neither did the sales staff in the big box electronics retailers. Then, FutureNet out of Valencia, CA, took a proposal to Philips to market the product multi level through independent internet consultants who would not only sell the product to customers in their homes, after comprehensive demonstration, but support (and be paid to support) their customers and solve any of their problems as they got to know the internet and the set top box. Sales tripled overnight.
Now imagine your mother, taking a few minutes out to e-mail your children during a commercial break on TV. She relaxes in her living room, uses a remote as for her TV, or a keyboard if she prefers, logs on, pushes a button, types the message, and sees it wing its way across the globe or the street, all for $29.95 a month unlimited access. And when she’s sent it, she does a little surfing. In a week’s trial of a system (I now own one), I did more surfing than in the previous year, including live audio sites. I was never a surfer before - I always selected specific destinations. But it’s so ergonomic, that even over the regular phone line it seems faster, and your curiosity to enjoy the wealth of the superhighway can be readily satisfied. There’s no down-loading, no viruses, no windows, no COMPUTER!
FutureNet Canada made strenuous efforts to make this available for the Christmas season. So how do you get one? Are you going to miss it, as you did the US premiere of Standing Stone? You probably won’t see it advertised. You can’t buy across the counter. You must find a FutureNet consultant, and there aren’t many of them in Ottawa yet. If you’d like to become one, find one. Fortunately I know one, and if we don’t have this up and running on December 1, I’m going to be in trouble at home. I am blessed with friends who tell me when they discover something really good - which is the essence of network marketing. My wife Annmarie, by the way, never showed much interest in my conventional internet set-up on a 386 laptop, but when we had the trial system in, and she suggested she type into the search engine the magic words "Harrison Ford," I couldn’t get her off it. No problem with incoming phone calls: with call waiting, your set automatically suspends while you take calls. And if you have kids, don’t worry. They each get their own account and e-mail address, and you get to set the cyber nanny so their web viewing won’t stray into those bad areas. The best way is to find an internet consultant with FutureNet, who will not only supply your sustem, but also support you as you get to grips with this exciting technology. You don't need to know anything about computers; if you can operate a TV remote, you can surf the web and do e-mail with Web TV.
If you already have access to the internet (eg through the local public library). find out more by visiting the local Ottawa FutureNet site at www.igs.net/~tonyc/webtv.html.