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I n t e r n e t T r e n d s

e-Commerce

Jeff Bezos wins Time Magazine's Person of the Year
(pronounced Bay zohs)

Although pleased that the Internet was getting recognition for the world-changing entity that it is, it immediately disturbed me to think that money and e-commerce were the most important things Time could think of for 1999. But, after some thought, I agree. The world has been obsessed this past year with e-commerce, how to join the game, and how to make money off of the Internet. If you missed this issue of Time, or have not been following Amazon.com - Mr. Bezos is the founder of Amazon.com, the bookseller turned supplier of everything to everyone.

This man who had not traded in e-commerce or books before, had a vision, and a loan of US$300,000 from his parents, a great site designer and coder, and the rest is very recent history. He and his parents are billionaires from stock, and Amazon.com has yet to make a profit. According to www.Forbes.com, Amazon.com has lost more than $170 million in the third quarter of 1999. They have spent the money from their 1998 initial public offering and are using money from a $1.25 billion convertible bond offering in February 1999.

But, Jeff Bezos is the person of the year, for seeing the opportunity literally years before the rest of us, having the guts to try it, and then, making it popular with consumers and investors. In this year of little "e" madness, Jeff Bezos and e-commerce, for better or worse, changed the way the world shops.

Internet Taxes

E-commerce brings us to the next big issue on the Internet -- Internet sales taxes. Do we dare to hope that the Tax Freedom Act of 1998 will continue and result in a no taxes law? A recent meeting of the Advisory Commission on Electric Commerce, a US federal commission charged with deciding this issue, resulted in their postponing having to take a position until their next meeting in March, 2000. Their recommendation to Congress is due April 21, and will require a two-thirds vote from the 19 commissioners. It's a complicated issue with extreme and definite opinions on both sides. So far the Commission has agreed there should be no international tariffs, but they did not specifically say no international taxes. And that is all they have agreed on.

The Commission

The Advisory Commission on e-Commerce official site.
Listen to the proceedings on RealPlayer Webcast at the link above.
RealPlayer Plus 7 is currently available, and is free.

Chaired by Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, the Commission members include the president of Gateway, Inc., COO of MCI WorldCom, president of Schwab, president of AOL, president of Americans for Tax Reform, the Mayor of Dallas, Texas, the Governors of Utah and Washington states among others. See the whole list here: Members of the Advisory Commission .

For taxes - the e-Fairness Coalition

The National Governors Association representing most state Governors are for Internet taxes, fearing they will lose revenue for their states to e-tailers without it. They argue that main street retailers and mom and pop stores deserve a level playing field. Of course brick and mortar retail owners feel that not taxing the Internet will give Internet businesses an unfair competitive edge. Wal-Mart, Radio Shack, the International Council of Shopping Centers, the American Book Sellers Association among many others are represented on the for taxes side as part of the e-Fairness Coalition

The Paris, France-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development with 29 member countries weighed in on the For taxes side. Their remarks to the Advisory Commission are available on the Web and require the cumbersome, but free, Adobe Acrobat Reader.

You can vote

You can vote for or against at www.vote.com . U.S. residents can enter their e-mail and zip code and vote.com will send your vote to Congress and the Advisory Commission on e-Commerce. (Vote.com's privacy policy states that "Targeted mailings may be sent to voters who took certain positions on certain votes.")

Against taxes - the e-Freedom Coalition

Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore did not join with the National Governors Association in supporting a tax, but led the fight opposing taxes. Citing the fact that many Internet providers reside in Virginia (AOL, PSINet, UUNet), he wants to "ensure the continued growth of this cutting edge technology." Part of Gov. Gilmore's plan (ZDNet article) would be to compensate states by "ceding over $1.7 billion annually in federal tax revenues to states that simplify their state and local telephone taxes."

Tax opponents have organized the e-Freedom Coalition and include Americans for Tax Reform, Citizens for a Sound Economy, The Heritage Foundation, and the Small Business Survival Committee. They say that local governments should not be allowed to "use the Internet as an excuse to impose their tax collection schemes on companies without a physical presence in their jurisdiction." One presenter speaking against taxes discussed the fact that privacy and anonymity on the Web would have to be sacrificed in order to monitor purchases and assure tax compliance. He also called it taxation without representation, and said that if he is not in your jurisdiction, and can't vote you out of office, you can't tax him.

Send the Commission an e-mail via the e-Freedom Coalition.

Add your name to the petition against taxes.

Virginia Republican Governor Gilmore's proposal to eliminate Internet taxes - on his Web site.

U.S. Representative Christopher Cox (R-California) Web site - the home page for the original 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act. Good information and links, but not updated recently.

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Sources and further reading on Internet tax:

The House of Representatives passes the Global Internet Tax Freedom Act, to expand the original tax freedom act to the international arena - from The Tech Law Journal.

The Tech Law Journal's Internet section includes "News, records, and analysis of legislation, litigation, and regulation affecting the computer and Internet industry."

"Internet Taxes not inevitable" - U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey

Taxation of Internet Commerce - an article discussing the difficulties faced in determining residency for tax purposes, tax avoidance and evasion, money laundering, and crossborder-shopping issues from the Canadian Management Network

Easy reading, short summary articles & links from Wired news:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,33119,00.html
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,33087,00.html

Heritage foundation search of Internet tax articles
USA Today Tech Report article
ZDnet - good article outlining the 2 sides of the issue.

Easy reading analysis of the issue
and an entertaining description of the first day of the recent proceedings, both by an MSNBC reporter.

San Jose Mercury News article on the recent hearings.

The Internet creates a legal conundrum

Although not regarding taxes specifically, but Internet law in general, a comment from the Internet Law and Policy Forum states: "The Internet creates a conundrum in that states trying to regulate Internet commerce within their territory may be viewed in effect as seeking to regulate the Internet worldwide." And, in their conclusions, quoting from an Oregon court decision, "The court in Millennium Music seems to have been correct in concluding that the "imposition of broad territorial concepts of personal jurisdiction on the commercial uses of the Internet has dramatic implications, opening the web user up to inconsistent regulations throughout fifty states, indeed, throughout the globe." Overreaching jurisdiction increases the likelihood of "dramatically chilling what may well be the most participatory marketplace of mass speech that this country -- and indeed the world -- has yet seen." Businesses may forgo the efficiency and accessibility of electronic commerce if faced with the "litigious nightmare" of being subject to suit in every jurisdiction on the globe.

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Politics and Government on the Web

The above discussion certainly demonstrates the trend toward politicians finally trying to use the Internet to speak to their constituents. Although not always successful, and perhaps not yet skillful in using the Internet, many have taken the first step. Yahoo Internet Life has an interesting article on this subject, with the general conclusion that currently politicians are clueless as to how to properly use this technology to their advantage. I give politicians an A for effort, and consider that everyone (except Jeff Bezos) is still trying to figure out how best to use the Internet, not just the politicians.

Voters can now go to U.S. Presidential candidates' Web sites, learn how each stands on the issues, and e-mail them with questions and comments. It has never been this easy to learn about the issues. As shown above, for example, anyone wanting to learn about Internet taxation issues, who's for it, and who's against it, can now easily find more than enough information.

Thanks to the Web, we can quickly read about the issues in the candidates' and officeholders' own words, when it is most convenient for us to do so.

The Web is a nightmare for political writers

An interesting comment in the Yahoo article emphasizes the threat to newspapers as mentioned in Web Street Studios Stuff issue 1 -- "For many political writers, the Net is a nightmare, as it will inevitably erode their monopoly on communicating directly with politicians and presenting politics to the rest of the country." Again, in the author Jon Katz' words because he phrases it so well, " ... the journalists dutifully pass along their endless posturing and fussing about the endangered young and the decline of civilization," - implying journalists' fear of losing their monopoly as the motivation for articles with this spin.

Candidate Matcher

A young Coca-cola employee has put up the 2000 Presidential Election Candidate Matcher! Enter your opinions in a form, and it will tell you which candidate's views match yours the closest. If nothing else, it makes you think about how you really do stand on the issues in order to fill out the form.

USA political links

If you're still not sure if the Web is contributing to politics in America, I offer you just one political links page - out of the hundreds that are out there. A must see page from the New York Times.

Global political links

If you're not sure if worldwide governments are represented on the Web, I leave you with About.com's search page of World Governments, which includes a database site which "contains more than 14,000 entries from 220 countries and territories."

P o w e r U s e r s' C u r v e

MemTurbo

Give your computer that just booted feeling with MemTurbo 1.5 from Silicon Prairie Software. MemTurbo increases your system performance by "making more RAM available, defragging RAM, recovering memory leaks, and flushing unused libraries and DLLs temporarily out to disk." Evaluate it free for 30 days, then purchase for US$19.95. You can purchase via secure server, e-mail, snail mail, fax, or phone. It works on Windows 95, 98, and NT 4.0, and at 750K, download time is 4 to 5 minutes on a 28,800 modem. Read more about it, and download a free trial from www.memturbo.com

After you've run MemTurbo, click "hide" to minimize it on your task bar. If you close it with the X it will exit and not be accessible.

Right clicking in MS Windows opens a whole new world.

Did you know you can right click on any blank spot on a Web page, select create shortcut, and a shortcut to the page will be placed on your desktop? If you are not familiar with many right clicking functions, try it out by right clicking on everything - links, your task bar, title bar, Web page graphics, etc., and see what your options are.

Internet suggestions and keyboard shortcuts

If you have not browsed around Web Street Studios, there are a few tips for Internet Explorer and the Internet in general at www.webstreetstudios.com/school/internet1.htm . There are also some keyboard shortcuts to let your mouse finger rest. (If you've been there, it has not been updated lately.)

In this issue - scroll down or select one and jump.
Internet Trends - Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos and e-commerce changed the way the world shops. Internet taxes. It's not a given. Politics and governments on the Web. Y2K two last minute must see sites.	Power Users' Curve - Download MemTurbo and give your computer that just booted feeling. Right click and keyboard shortcuts.