By Mario deSantis August 9, 1998

We have entered the information age and with it we are shaping a new economic system where we recognize our interdependencies and become customers of each other. The new economy [1] emphasizes the value of knowledge and learning as the primary sources of creation of wealth. In this new economy, most products and services tend to be inexpensive, and have a minimal marginal cost. Last week, while browsing the World Wide Web (WWW), I came across a good review of a software package for the creation of web pages: Internet Creator [2]. Guess what? This product was free for a limited time. So, excited about the current emphasis in electronic commerce, I downloaded the package, and successfully tested its main features. In a matter of minutes I was able to create simple web pages, open a free account with the Internet service provider Hypermart [3], and finally automatically upload the pages to this just opened account. Isn't that amazing? Free software, free commercial Internet account, immediate opportunity to create and upload commercial web pages for any business around the world! Is it true?

Yes it is, and that is because of the new economic world we are living in. In fact, in this new world, most of the best products are inexpensive and their economic value is attached to their integration with other products, services and businesses. This integration manifests itself in the newly developing market place where Internet communities are beginning to compete among each other. Governments and businesses have been tardy in recognizing this new trend of quasi free products and minimal marginal cost; as a consequence, they continued to dig holes into the ground with their obsolete, autocratic, and strategic planning approach to the implementation of management systems [4] [5] [6] [7]

Internet Creator conceptualizes the building of a web site as composed of a book with its pages and paragraphs. All the pages of the web site are hierarchically linked to the home page, which can be interpreted as the cover or first page of the book. Each page is composed of paragraphs, and a paragraph can be a link to another page, an image, a text, a table, a form, a transactional item, an audio or a video file. The transactional item feature is exceptionally well designed and allows the easy building of a sophisticated site for electronic commerce. Internet Creator has received praises from many reviews, and below I provide a couple of them:

"...Designed for small to medium-size businesses, Creator gives you the tools to create, manage, and publish pages that are as simple or sophisticated as you wish... What differentiates Creator from, say, Microsoft FrontPage, is its support for electronic commerce. You can turn your company's Web site into a virtual storefront, where customers can shop for and buy goods and services..."

by Rick Broida, Computer Shopper July, 1997

"...More like a Web-site authoring environment than an e-commerce tool, Forman Interactive Corp.'s Internet Creator 4.0 ($149 list) enabled us to create a Web site--complete with company information, shipping tables, ordering forms, and more--in under an hour..."

by Heath H. Herel (http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/e-comm_prod/rev4.htm)

As I am concerned, one important asset of Internet Creator is the opportunity for consultants to immediately implement electronic commerce for businesses. Further, the low price of this software, allows these same businesses to have this web authoring tool installed into their own in-house system, learn how to use it, and eventually manage their sites independently from consultants [8].

For the next one/two weeks, you may check the provisional web site I created with Internet Creator at http://server4.hypermart.net/desam

REFERENCES

[1] http://www.wired.com/wired/5.09/newrules.html -- "New Rules for the New Economy", by Kevin Kelly, Wired Magazine Group Inc, Issue 5.09 - September 1997 [2] http://www.internetcreator.com/index.html

[3] http://www.hypermart.net

[4] "Intellectual Capital", by Thomas Stewart, Currency Doubleday, 1997, Forward

[5] "Comments on the present management philosophy of centralization of health reform with specific reference to information technology services", by Mario deSantis, DigiCare, June 21, 1995

[6] "Notes: Review of Economic Soundness of the Implementation of the Saskatchewan Healthcare Systems Architecture", by Mario deSantis, DigiCare, June 21, 1995

[7] "Economics of the new Health Services Support Group (HSSG) payroll system through 'Stargarden' software", by Mario deSantis, DigiCare, January 24, 1995

[8] "Coping with changes: an overview of the Learning Organization, Knowledge Economy and current practices in Information Technology applications", by Mario deSantis, DigiCare, July 1997