Esther Dyson is freezing to death. The Madrid morning is one of those that does not finish warming up and the fine pink shawl that has been brought to Spain is not of much use. She shivers a bit as she connects her laptop to the phone line and the flash of dozens of messages being downloaded suddenly lights up the face of the most powerful woman on the Internet. Every day he gets up at dawn to swim, rain or shine. To top it all, he loves Russia and spends long periods in that country. How is it possible that it is so cold in Madrid? It is because there, as she confesses, she goes all day dressed in jeans and a jacket, but today she had to put on her business suit.
–In recent weeks, readers of the economic press from around the world have breakfast every morning with the headlines of some great merger in the information sector. Echoes like those of the Time Warner and America On Line union still resonate. In this mega-business panorama, does the Internet have any niche for modest companies, for the small businessman?
-Of course yes. It is true that newspapers only echo the mergers between giants, but the real fabric of the Internet is small activity. The Network makes a work tool and a business opportunity available to anyone. A small company can access the same information as Time Warner. For example, the company that I run has 7 employees.
Let’s say, instead of talking about the Internet, we were talking about food. Obviously there are restaurants and food stores, there are even a handful of multinational companies that share a good piece of the food market pie. But the vast majority of the pots in which it is cooked and the tables in which it is eaten are in private homes. There are millions of people who buy, cook, process and eat food every day and do not appear in the surveys. The Internet is the same, there are many people creating content, sending e-mails; girlfriends who contact boyfriends, parents who chat with their children … This is the real Internet.
–But it seems that everyone thinks of the Internet to do business …
-Do not. How many people think that the telephone is only good for doing business? It is true that, through it, one can earn money, but it is not only for that. The purpose of the Internet is to do what you want to do. It is nothing more than a tool … It is not something to spend, it is not a product or a means of sale, it is a tool.
–In any case, is it easier to do business with that tool than without it?
-Depends on the business. I don’t think the Internet is necessarily the best way to do business. In fact, the Web doesn’t have to be better or worse than the real world at all. I like more to think that the Internet is part of the current way of doing business, but it is just that: a part. Today I travel to see a client in person, but tomorrow I can use the Internet to study the prices of a product … Both techniques are productive in today’s business, as is using the telephone, reading written documents …
–We have been in the year 2000 for a few months now; It seems that nothing serious has happened and that the famous computer chaos that was predicted has been in borage water … Has it been worth investing so much money in it?
-The 2000 effect was a real danger. Fortunately, there were a lot of people who worked hard to solve it and they did. It was like getting a great vaccine. If you get a flu shot, you won’t get it; if everyone does it, no one will get the disease: but evil will remain a real threat. Fortunately, the same thing happened with effect 2000. Personally, I have met a lot of people who have spent years working very hard to solve the problems derived from the change of digits and I have to say that it has been a good job, an example of how different interests, different people and even different states can agree to solve a common problem. If so much money and effort had not been invested, we would now be talking about a real disaster.
–You claim to be in this business not just for money but out of intellectual curiosity.
-Undoubtedly. The Internet is like a big laboratory. There are so many experiments to do! I usually compare my relationship with the Internet as that of someone who sits in front of a large tray where they serve you hundreds of appetizers that you can try. For example, I do a lot of business in Russia, some prosperous and others not so much, but I keep them because they allow me to continue creating discussion forums on innumerable topics very different from those of my American environment.
–And, it turns out, you may even enjoy doing business like that.
-It’s a lot of fun. Every time I go online I feel the excitement of the day they gave me my first bike. Suddenly I had the power to go where I wanted whenever I wanted … I didn’t have to ask my parents to take me there or wait for the bus. I believe that the Internet has given us citizens the power to choose.
–And does everyone have access to that bike?
-No, there are two major limitations. The first is money. No matter how cheap it is, the Internet will always be expensive for someone. It is a real problem, but easy to solve, since the technologies are becoming less expensive. The second problem is more complicated: it is about education, not everyone has the same opportunities to access digital knowledge. But over time there will be a greater adaptation of Internet content to any type of person. There will be more video, so it will not be necessary to read, computers will be dispensed with, it will be easier to navigate, there will be quality content in all languages …
In short, the Internet is not an egalitarian tool, not everyone can access it in the same way, but it will be increasingly simple and, compared to other technologies, it will be extremely cheap.
–Do you think that governments have a role to play on the Internet, or is it enough that they let it circulate in peace?
-The truth is that governments have very little to do on the Internet. Or, at least it should be. They should be content with simply carrying out the actions that are reserved for other areas of society: promoting education, ensuring the legal use of the Internet, protecting citizens against its potential dangers, … I do not think that special laws are needed for the Internet .
One of the reasons that the US has had a greater expansion in electronic commerce is that people do not wait for permission to do something. It is enough to propose “I am going to start an online business; I am going to do something useful and I am going to sell my product by myself, without intermediaries”. Nothing else is needed. I do not have a license of any kind to do my business. In Europe, however, tradition forces you to ask permission to open your electronic stall. For this reason, the Internet is always on the minds of European politicians who strive to design policies on e-business.
To many this seems a bit absurd. You cannot fragment the Internet with national laws because there are no borders on the Internet.
Take, for example, one of the most universal payment methods. If I have a problem in Brazil, the United States or Spain with my VISA card, I will not call the police or the Government of that country, I will call the central of the entity that has granted me the card and I will send them my complain.
–There are more differences between America and Europe. For example, in the US telecommunications infrastructures are cheaper …
-Yes, it is a very important difference, but it can also be resolved. In the United States, the Internet is a phenomenon mainly related to the personal computer. I think that in Europe it will be more of a phenomenon related to wireless communication. Wireless telecommunications are still expensive, but they are relatively cheaper in the Old Continent.
–And is that going to impose a change in the mindset of the digital entrepreneur?
-Should I do it. In the United States, when a businessman wants to show you what he does, he takes his laptop out of its case, opens it, plugs it in, types in the address, waits for the modem to connect … This process is a job that takes at least A quarter of an hour wait before he can start talking about the product he wants to sell you.
The other day, however, I met a Spanish manager who wanted to show me some of the achievements of his company: he took the mobile phone, turned it on and displayed all the information he needed there. The Internet will be much more accessible in Europe via mobile phone. No wonder everyone wants to join the bandwagon. How many mobile phones were sold in Spain last Christmas?
–Do you think this wireless mentality can also be exported to the United States?
-I’m sure it is. And Europe will be at the forefront of all initiatives taken in this regard. I also believe that this type of application is much more popular, people feel more comfortable using the mobile phone than using the PC.
–These words are going to fall like rain from heaven for all those who have shares in a large wireless communication company … By the way, does the great stock market boom of telecommunications companies have any limits?
-It is clear that Internet-based companies have a great future waiting for them, but I think that some have too high a value on the stock market. In a sense investors are experimenting. And when you experiment, you run the risk of learning by mistake: learning where not to invest.
I personally prefer to help companies before they go on the stock market. This is when they really need the help.
–And at this mega-business show where billions are talked about as churros, the user attends astonished. How will your life really change?
-Well, not much. It will just get things done a little bit faster and access some more information. But when the Internet fever is over, it will have entered our lives quite naturally: we will stop saying with pride: “I sent an email to so-and-so.” It will suffice for us to say that “we have contacted him.” What does it matter if it was online or over the phone!
–And when the user becomes a consumer …? It gives the feeling that electronic commerce is going to revolutionize our lives, when basically it will continue to be simply a relationship between a seller and a consumer with a product in between that has a certain price.
-Yes, but things will never be like now. The main change is that you will have at a single glance much more information than you could ever dream of before. You will be able to compare prices, offers and services … And this gives great power to the individual against companies and against institutions. But, beware, the individual can be a consumer or a producer. The Internet will empower both of you. The classic communist idea of endowing individuals with the means of production, but controlled by the Soviets, has turned 180 degrees. Now, the ideal of the Internet is to give the citizen the means of production and their control. Suddenly, the little sock salesman can communicate with his potential customers at the same level as El Corte Inglés, and even better.
–Does the Internet reproduce the real world with its lights and shadows?
-Undoubtedly, with its opportunities and obstacles
–For example: is the Internet sexist?
-On the Internet it is a little easier not to be a macho because it is not necessary to work with a physical appearance. People have male and female names, of course, but they do not have male or female bodies and faces. In the real world everything is chemistry and many times we work under the effects of chemical reactions. Not on the Internet.
–And is it also easier to be respectful of all cultures, for example, non-Saxon ones?
-Maybe that is one of the biggest sins of Americans on the Internet. The rest of the world is struggling to speak English and track American content on the Web. But Americans on the Internet do not stop staring at their navels. They do not seek information in other languages or content from other cultures. In this also the Europeans have an advantage.
–I’m looking at your tiny laptop … Does this fever to make smaller and smaller objects make sense?
-The technical limit for the miniaturization of the devices is still unimaginable. But there is another frontier: that of practice. We all need something to hold onto, a keyboard that’s big enough for my fingers to use, a monitor that my eyes can see. In the future, screens may be made to fit glasses and keyboards with the texture and size of a piece of cloth in your pants pocket. But users are human beings with certain dimensions that cannot be forced.
It is essential that all kinds of devices be manufactured: the smallest for those who want to use them, but also large and universal tools, easier to use, with fewer barriers for disabled people. On the Internet we do not want a single message, a single language, a single content. In technology we do not want a single machine model.
Jorge Mayor
This interview was published in March 2000, in number 226 of VERY Interesting.
