Large merger ever focuses thoughts about the Internet

by Darryl Wilkinson

The Internet commands my attention. Trying to construct a regional portal while keeping pace with all our print operations here is a juggling act. This week there was an added emphasis since accepting an invitation to speak about the Internet at Gallatin Rotary Club yesterday and also to lead an Internet discussion session this Friday at the Northwest Press convention in St. Joseph.

But the real attention grabber was Monday’s big news of the stock merger between America Online and Time-Warner. What’s a $162 billion deal in New York and Virginia got to do with Daviess County?

Let’s put things into perspective. Back in 1985 nobody anywhere knew much about AOL, and fewer here cared. It was a little company using Commodore Computers – the same kind many local farmers were using in adult computer classes offered at Gallatin’s vo-ag building, and long since trashed. But AOL had an idea: to make the complicated world of the Internet simple for the average guy to use. They were the first to package email, chat rooms, content, and internet access in an easy-to-view way.

AOL now serves over 22 million subscribers. And that’s what drives this largest corporate merger in history. And make no mistake, Time-Warner is the established firm in this merger but upstart AOL is the buyer. Time-Warner’s stock went up 40% after the announcement.

So, what’s this got to do with Daviess County?

The merger signals how entertainment is the driving force that will rev the Internet into the mainstream marketplace (if there’s a cable or telephone line into your home, this means you). Time-Warner has quite an arsenal of information: Warner Bros. Studios, CNN and CNN.com, the Cartoon Network, People magazine, Sports Illustrated, Time magazine, Fortune magazine, HBO, and Warner Music to name just a few. Now it also has a delivery system that will accelerate the information revolution.

Interactive television is now probable. These are televisions where you won’t want to leave the couch during commercials. You’ll just focus on another part of the screen. Big screen, high resolution screens will feature web sites, telephone service and even chat rooms simultaneously.

If this sounds too weird to be true, just watch some kids playing video games sometimes. Doing multiple tasks simultaneously is what the video generation wants!

Some towns like Chillicothe view the cable connections that allow interactive TV to work as a basic infrastructure for the future. Chillicothe’s municipal utility is conducting studies to see whether it can become an Internet access provider. Undoubtedly, those looking to the future see that towns where bandwidth is provided into individual households will grow. Young people are going to choose to live where such services are offered. The day may come where we’ll be more busy checking your cable service bill rather than your telephone bill …to say nothing of satellite dish possibilities.

This is not futuristic talk but a description of reality now. Quality of service affects decisions today. For instance, Gallatin has a new business park to develop but the prospects of attracting new business will be limited unless this community can provide a better communications infrastructure. Will this town ever be so committed to build its future that we’ll invest dollars in fiber optics like we invest in asphalt for streets? Our answer reveals much about us to prospective employers who are shopping for locations to open new business that creates jobs.

The AOL merger with Time-Warner also signals changes ahead for some local businesses, especially those which rent and sell video cassettes and deliver news. How long will video cassettes line the wall at the grocery store? How many of us will make a trip downtown to rent a video if we can download the same movie without moving off the couch? How many subscribers to this newspaper are going to choose newsprint over a keyboard, especially our out-of-state subscribers who endure mail delivery that gets later while more expensive?

That is why we’ve been trying to learn the Internet for the past couple of years. Things are going to change to some degree. I personally believe the service that a newspaper provides will still be in demand regardless of the method of delivery – of helping you sort out what’s important and not important, of focusing your attention on news you might otherwise miss. I also think many readers will be like me. I prefer to hold a newspaper, magazine or book when I read. It’s just that some will choose the convenience of the Internet over the wastefulness of newsprint and our challenge is to serve.

That’s essentially why we’re working to develop a regional portal, an Internet site we hope you will visit called www.NorthwestMissouri.com. In one respect, our goal is the same as America Online. We want to make the Internet simple to understand and safe to use. We’re trying to organize a little corner in all the worldwide chaos the Internet opens. We’re focusing only on what seems relevant in the 17 counties of Northwest Missouri.

Ideally, we’d like to host a place where schools can post their daily bulletins and announcements for parents to easily see and review as well as an email directory that would encourage meaningful parent-teacher discussion. We’d like to have city ordinances posted so that you could jump directly into that portion of interest by using a key word search rather than the tedious task of research. We’d like for organizations, civic and social clubs, not only to post information openly to the public but to have security access for internal communique. And more.

So, what does the AOL/Time-Warner deal have to do with us? Well, it makes dreams like these seem possible.

Things are changing. Just a few years ago Gallatin had no local Internet access. Now there are three providers, which is quite surprising for a market this small. The AOL/Time-Warner merge means faster, much faster service will eventually become industry standards elsewhere – which only means that better service, much better service, is coming – not necessarily here and certainly not here first, but it is coming into the marketplace, competing for local consumer dollars right here in River City.

These are things worth thinking about, even as some of you, I’m sure, are still thinking about browsing the Internet for the very first time. Because how we view the Internet, whether just as for fun and games or as necessary infrastructure, will affect Gallatin’s future perhaps more than any of us realize.