Species threatened with extinction due to global warming
?
For the past five years, I've been wondering about the
true nature of communication on the much-heralded
'information superhighways'. Intuitively, like many others,
I can see a bend approaching, and with it a considerable
and lasting change in the nature of the flow of information
in society. But that's not saying much. The problem is
that it's easy to imagine the impact of specific new applications,
but it's much harder to have a global, synthetic and coherent
vision of the problem.
I have therefore carried out a thorough study to identify
the characteristics of communication by computer (interactive
communication) on the one hand, and communication as part
of a network on the other hand (these being two separate
aspects of communication by Internet).
Once this initial distinction is made, it becomes possible
to anticipate the medium and long-term evolution of each
family of applications (cyber-politics, electronic commerce,
interactive arts, distance learning, etc). But let's limit
ourselves to the commercial world.
In this field, the three following characteristics of
the network can be distinguished :
Continuity
Commercial activity takes place in real time, and can
possibly be considered as non-stop, which represents a
fundamental change from the current economy, where commercial
activity is occasional.
Intelligent use of commercial information
The utilisation of information relating to a particular
customer, competitors or the market is set to increase
considerably for three reasons :
n the amount of information gathered about each customer
is greater (the opportunities for contact increase and
the cost of information gathering diminishes) ;
n this information is easily updated, which makes for
dynamic relationships, but also exponentially increases
the amount of information for analysis ;
n the computer has the basic advantage in economic terms
of being able to process data automatically. The increasing
power of computers will mean that this basic data can
be exploited more intelligently (data mining, personalised
marketing ...)
Commercial hypertext
The ease of linking different sites (by hypertext links)
allows companies to develop their partnerships on a world-wide
scale. This is also true of the links which are being
developed between individuals.
Internet is therefore the medium which allows the creation
of an intelligent commercial relationship, partly automated
and in real time, with each of its clients examined individually.
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