Way, way back in February 1995, Utah became the first state to pass a law deeming digital signatures as valid, legally, as ye olde John Hancock. Although most states have since followed suit — the tally is up to 44 — Utah’s prescience has given the state a cottage industry in electronic transactions. The state’s payoff for the 1995 law is that some of the nation’s certificate authorities are based here — the USERTRUST Network, Arcanvs, and Digital Signature Trust. And the next generation is being sowed, as application developers such as iLumin build commerce tools that will help digital signatures take off.

But digital signatures are just for encryption geeks, right? Wrong. They are a key missing link for a seamless electronic marketplace. Secure medical records, digital cash systems, protection against identity theft, electronic voting — these near-future scenarios require reliable and digital proof that you are who you say you are. Says Tom Smedinghoff, chair of the American Bar Association’s section of science and technology, “Ultimately it’s going to permeate everything that we do.”

But Utah? OK, the Beehive State seems an unlikely contender. But three quarters of the state’s 2.1 million citizens live in a swath along the Wasatch Front that’s roughly the size of the state of Delaware. This nexus encourages partnerships and networking, and more than half of Utahans are connected to the Internet. Under Gov. Mike Leavitt, an outspoken technology evangelist, the state has been trying to parlay the 1995 law into “citizen portals” through which citizens can interact with state and local governments. The goal of these portals is succinctly expressed by Robert Stewart, Utah’s digital signature administrator: “No one wants to go to the DMV.”

Leavitt has pushed ambitious legislation that calls for all state agencies to be Net-accessible by July 2002. According to Ric Brown, network manager of state-sponsored e-Utah, the state is building Web-based interfaces that will allow Utah citizens to renew motor vehicle and professional business licenses, file business registration paperwork, buy fishing and hunting permits, and other simple consumer and business services.

That’s a start, but the real payoff is going to come in the form of commerce tools and applications. Look no further than iLumin, 40 minutes south of Salt Lake City in Orem. iLumin was co-founded in 1996 by Brent Israelsen, who left Jurisoft and moved to Utah to build a system for filing court documents electronically. The court project is now operational (the first fully digital deed was filed in the Utah County Recorder’s Office using iLumin’s XML application framework, and digital signatures provided by Digital Signatures Trust last September), and the company is talking with the financial and real estate industries, as well as with corporations such as Intel and AT&T, about commercial applications for its technology. Within a few months company officials expect to close the nation’s first fully paperless house sale.

“We couldn’t have done it in California, we couldn’t have done it in New York,” says Israelsen. “It’s a small enough community, we’ve got strong enough leadership that’s technology savvy, and the right mix of people. We couldn’t have done it anywhere else.”

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Informal get-togethers add to the sense of community and give you an opportunity to develop more rapport. Be outgoing and interested in other people. Ask them about themselves and learn something new.

This is also a great time to analyze your database. Reconnect with great customers, prospects, and referral sources with whom you may have lost touch. Spend your social capital, and it will pay you dividends.

2. Spend more time being a resource, a problem solver for clients and referral or strategic partners. Promote your best contacts by highly recommending them. Always ask the question: How can I help you?

In Rosecrance’s new book The Rise of the Virtual State: Wealth and Power in the Coming Century ($26; Basic Books, Nov. ’99) nations are, for better or worse, not going anywhere, at least for the time being. Rather, says Rosecrance, as the networked economy realizes ubiquity, countries will rely for their prosperity more and more on intangible assets and less on physical real estate. Wars over territory and natural resources will therefore become less frequent, although ethnic and religious strife — expressed through acts of terrorism — may continue for some time. (Although it seems a little premature to discount what Rosecrance calls “territorial fetishism” at a time when the tech-driven economic boom has put real estate at such a premium.)

The rich north/poor south economic split that burdens contemporary geopolitics, says Rosecrance, will give way to a new system wherein “head” and “body” nations will exist in a symbiotic relationship; head nations (the United States, European Union nations, Taiwan, Singapore, and the like) providing product design and services, and body nations (China, Russia, and so forth) doing the manufacturing. The most effective states, not surprisingly, will be the ones that embrace a virtual corporate management style.

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It’s so easy to think, “Oh, I already know these people,” rather than, “I wonder what I could learn new about this person,” or “I wonder what went really great for this person this year.” Instead of focusing on those questions, we just let the conversation happen mindlessly. Small talk can make a big difference, but it’s best to create valuable small talk, rather than be at the whim of whatever comes our way.

We don’t know everything there is to know about each other, even people we’ve known a long time. Because each of us is growing and changing all the time, we’re not the same people we were a year ago.

2. Make connections that nurture your heart, your soul, and your spirit. When we’re connected at that level, then everything else will happen more easily and effectively. I have a quotation on my desk that says, “Be with those who help your being.”

So build a strong network of people who are like-minded, where you feel a heart connection, a kindred connection, a spirit connection. And be there for each other in that way. When you have that, you’ll feel more solid, more grounded, and more connected.

Networking is not just about having business connections and growing your business. I can have a great network of contacts out in the world, but if it’s draining me rather than inspiring me, then I’m missing out on an important part of the networking process

Huh? What? Think about it — take the computer-based wired world as found through the Internet, combine it with advancements in video camera technology, add high speed communication links to the home or office, mix in some digital editing and home PC special effects software, and anyone, anywhere will be able to produce their own TV show. Everyone can become a TV channel! Everyone can be a TV producer!

Come to my World Wide Web site a year from now, and I’ll have put on-line the “Jim Carroll Show.” Come and get it any time that you want it — it’s just a computer file, a bunch of digital bits in MPEG format, that you can retrieve by clicking with your mouse. Heck, if you like it, I can do a whole series! If you really like it, I can charge you a small fee to retrieve it.

What’s going on here? High speed links to the Internet will fast become a reality in the next few years — every cable company in North America worth their sense of purpose is testing “cable modems,” devices that provide high speed access to on-line services such as the Internet through the cable wire at speeds up to 50 times faster than a 28,800 modem. Many people won’t use the telephone company fibre-to-the-home networks for video on demand — they’ll use it for fast Internet access. Put a Web server in the home (it will happen — I predict Windows ‘96 will include Web servers as a matter of course) that anyone in the world can come and access, and you will have a lot of aspiring young Steven Spielbergs establishing global TV channels, every one of them jumping at the opportunity to strut their stuff.

500 channels? Heck, no, we’ll have millions. No doubt, some ‘channels’ will be pure crap, but others will be pure gold. The Internet community will let us know which ones are the best — and soon, a new type of Grammy award in the Internet community will be proposed.

The best aspect is that I won’t have to watch what the CRTC thinks I have to watch. Big brother, go away!

The CRTC information superhighway hearings. Shhhhh…..I can hear the dinosaurs waltzing to their favorite tune.

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It’s a typical CRTC hearing — a lot of talking heads from communication companies, and a lot of talking heads from special interest groups, get together to talk about how they plan to pick more from the pockets of average Canadians, who have absolutely n o say in the fact that it’s their money that is being divvied up.

We all know that the regulatory environment in Canada has meant that our pocket has been picked many times in the past. We all know that we will be forced to divvy up once again to help these companies build their TV-based “entertainment super-duper-highw ay.”

We all know that these current hearings are really about nothing more than the question of whether the telephone companies can compete against the cable companies in the television marketplace, in order that both can build us a nice little information sup erhighway by which we can order fried chicken with our TV remote control. Oh, what a wonderful country we have! Long live Keith Spicer!

And many of us now realize that these hearings are really quite irrelevant given that the wired world around us is evolving at such a rapid pace. When I listen to what’s going on at the CRTC, I somehow can’t help but hear the words, “dance of the dinosaur s,” going through my head.

Why? This month, let’s start with the information superdoopeerhighway applications of “video on demand” and the “500 channel universe.”

We are told that the information superhighway will bring us “video on demand.” Yet, every video on demand trial in North America is failing — miserably. This is supposed to be the killer application that will help to build the super-duper-highway. Guess what — people aren’t buying. People in various cities in which the trials are occurring have the audacity to still go to the video store! Imagine! Maybe we need a law, to stop them from doing that! How can we build the highway, if people don’t co-operate !???

The “information super-dooper-dooper-highway” is supposed to bring us 500 TV channels. Thank heavens — this will give me something to do with my life! Why, just the other night I was channel clicking through the 40 some odd channels that I get today, and I couldn’t find anything to watch (except for the Discovery Channel — yay!) It took me only 3 minutes! When we have a 500 channel universe, it will take me an hour to click through the mindless pap we have today — with, no doubt, a sufficient degree of Canadian content! Finally, a better way to waste my time!

There are many significant reasons wherefore a consumer want to purchase a prepaid phone cards but the most important and most frequent cause is that they saves capital.

Hmm…

We weren’t shown their entire conversation, so I can only guess what Clay told Shii Ann. But analyzing exactly what he said, it would appear as though Clay is not including everyone in his tribe in his, “Well, we’ve already said…” statement. Why would they need TWO people to take it all the way?

Right now, it’s 5-5 Chuay Gahn vs Sook Jai. With Jake, that would make it 6-4. They wouldn’t need another person. UNLESS Clay isn’t including someone from their tribe – Jan perhaps, or maybe even Helen. So maybe, just maybe, Clay shared quite a bit of information about Chuay Gahn as well. Maybe it wasn’t a one-sided blab session.

The Joyful Merge
Everyone returns to pow-wow circle. Jeff says, “Alright, so tell me how it went.”

Jake says, “Oh man, we’ve been having a great time. Just visiting, talking about everything, learning about all the other people in the tribes. Just having a great time.”

Jeff asks Shii Ann and Helen to discuss the other camps. Shii Ann gushed about how wonderful Chuay Gahn’s site was. Helen only mentioned not having the cave. Apparently, sleeping and keeping things dry under the cave is like gold.

Jeff explains how Clay, Shii Ann, Helen, and Ken, by choosing their baskets which told them to visit the other tribe, became “official ambassadors for your tribe, because today, something very different is happening.

“The two tribes will now live together on one beach. The four of you will decide for both tribes which beach you’ll move to. Whichever beach you decide to move to, you’ll get a new boat for the last 21 days. The question is, which beach are you going to live on?”

Clay immediately said, “Looks like we’re going to Chuay Gahn.”

“Alright, for the members of Sook Jai, all your personal items will be waiting for you at your new beach. For the members of Chuay Gahn, it is also a new home of sorts, because what was your beach is now everybody’s beach.”

At this point, Jeff did not toss them a new buff. He did not tell them to pick a new name. But he was pretty devilish in that he continued to mislead them to think they’ve merged…

“So, essentially, you are starting over, building a new world, with one big difference – you now have 18 days of education. I think the only thing left to do is exchange hellos with everybody and head out to your new beach.”

I know a lot of people instantly noticed the lack of a new buff and tribe name, but I’ll be honest. I totally missed it. And with everyone in both tribes discussing the merger for many days, I can understand how they missed it as well.

Discovery Channel moment
The next scene opens with a Discovery Channel moment, which impels me to…

Variety is key, as you don’t want to bore your members out of a class. Age-appropriate music is also important. As far as attracting and keeping participants, upbeat, motivating music can help.

Volume should also be considered. Participants should be able to hear the instructor clearly over the music. One of the most common problems in group classes is playing music too loudly.

I think efforts to sell groceries through the Internet are  simply stupid — and so far, spectucularly unsuccesful.

Efforts to sell blue jeans on the Net will ultimately fail with  this generation — and probably the next. I think the mortgage closures in which you have a self-interest would  barely even register as a percentage of total mortgage  closures in Canada. ETrade admits they aren’t happy with  the number of online stock trades for their new service.  People still drive through neighborhoods looking for open  houses, ‘cuz it’s a nice way to spend a Sunday.  My frustration these days comes from the fact that all this  self-promotion of shopping hype by Internet folks, is  causing some innocent folk to invest in some pretty bizarre  online ventures that have a slim chance of success. That  is why I speak out as I do. I am seeing people get ripped  off venturing into some pretty silly initiatives. That, I think,  is a very sad thing.

I think there is a lot of wishful thinking by people that  follows this line of logic. “The technology supports online shopping.Therefore, there will be online shopping.” What  is missing is the fact that for most products, technology  isn’t the issue. Behavior is.

If you are interested in following this line of thought, I  would suggest the book, “Megamistakes : Forecasting and the Myth of RapidTechnological Change” by Steven  P. Schnaars. It does a wonderful job of putting into perspective all kinds of situations in which those in love  with technology failed to get beyond their love to really analyze the likelihood for the technology to succeed.

Figure out the total retail sales in Canada — easily  available. The 1997 Canadian Alamanac shows it at $212 Billion. Figure out –estimate — Internet online shopping.  Maybe a few million, $10 million tops perhaps. $100 million? Whatever. Even at $100 million,it is but 0.05% of  total retail sales. At $10 million, which might be a more real  number, it is but 0.005%.

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Canadian Internet guru Jim Carroll doesn’t believe in Online shopping. “All of this Online shopping and credit card buying stuff is a bunch of silliness–the real potential of the Net is found in business-to-business communications,” he says. In our opinion, he is off-line. The two are not mutually exclusive. He took this view some time ago and refuses to budge from it. Besides the easily quantifiable items like CD’s and books, people are buying mortgages and insurance Online. Online stock trading has become big business and those of us who are doing Internet banking would never switch to an institution that didn’t offer it. So c’mon Jim, get with the program.

Obviously, Jim was not pleased with our comments and he wrote back the following (reprinted in its entirety)

* * *

Tom,

I just bought flowers for my wife a few days ago through the Net. I bought tickets for the Rolling Stones through TicketMaster a few weeks back. I just agreed with a Dell PR flack that yes, they are doing marvels selling computers online. I am just finishing off a book called RRSP’s and Mutual Funds Online which covers the online stock trading phenomena — and will probably sign up with ETrade at some point.

Having said that, I am a huge skeptic of online shopping outside of these few niche markets. And appeared on Canada AM last week saying so, for which a lot of people are complaining.

But the fact fact is this — if you take total retail sales in Canada, and measured Internet sales against that, it wouldn’t even be a blip.

Eatons is investing $100′s of millions of dollars to win back customers. That money — smart money, I think — is going into physical stores and not some silly online supermarket shopping mall Web site. I repeat — I think that is smart money. So do the folks on Wall Street and Bay St. who are financing this rejuvenation plan. You don’t see Eaton’s plowing its ventures into online shopping ventures. For that matter, you don’t see Wall Street and Bay Street plowing much money into any Internet shopping venture, other than Amazon.com.

Consider this — Chapters Bookstores spent their last annual meeting a few weeks back, talking about how they plowing their hundreds of millions of investment $$$’s into big bookstores — not online shopping malls. Are they wrong? I don’t think so — I’d invest my money with them.

I doubt that I, and many other people, will sign on to the Internet to get our pool chemicals to close our pool this weekend. I’ll go to a pool store. (I was in swimming on Monday!) I doubt that when I need to get some bird seed for my bird feeder, I’ll go online. I’ll go to a garden store.

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