by Wendell Cayton

Mark Twain once said that rumors of his death had been greatly exaggerated. The same could be said of the dot.com world, despite the calamitous collapse of that economy. Last week I heard an “old economy” stock analyst chortle, “give me bricks not clicks.” But I suspect he is over fifty and without a clue as to what is actually happening.

My sense is that deep within the skeletal remains of what was once the dot.com universe, embers glow that will eventually relight fires and send that Internet technology off on a truly mainstream journey.

Recently I talked with a friend, whose son is about the age of mine. Like most fathers, we spent the first half of our conversation talking about the accomplishments of our offspring. He told me his son is making a living in the dot.com world with a tiny company in San Francisco.

Intrigued, I called the budding entrepreneur to find out about his business. He and several friends, after graduating from a local university, went to work in the “old” dot.com world, where they learned basics and what not to do when building a business. When the “old” crashed last year, they picked up a few pieces, and keeping their wits about them, started a business.

Today, their enterprise employs five and provides technical advice and assistance to business clients who want to make the Internet a more productive part of their operations. They see unlimited potential for their business. This was all accomplished without a cent of venture capital funding or a foosball game in the lobby.

What I learned from him falls in place with what author Michael Lewis, in his recently published book NEXT, refers to when he says the Internet is already spurring much bigger changes than anybody realizes. And it is the young generations who have this figured out.

Lewis contends that in this rapidly changing world, the Internet gives the youth of the world a leg up on older generations, who are slower to change, as they challenge conventional ways of business, authority, culture, and society at large. The Internet has made it possible for people to thwart all sorts of rules and conventions, and nobody knows this better than the youth.

The power of the Internet really lies in its ability to increase business productivity. Already, most large firms use Internet-based platforms to effectively control inventories and the movement of goods and services. My firm is increasingly incorporating Internet usage, not just for communications, but also for web-based applications and data storage.

But I believe that the real power of the Internet will be realized when real-time video makes it possible to routinely use the Internet for face-to-face conversations. Instead of having to fly across the country to meet, we will use the video teleconferencing for a fraction of the cost and for a fraction of time spent. And, we can disperse our work force, allowing them to live and work nearer their homes instead of being massed in huge office complexes in large cities, thereby taking loads off over-burdened transportation systems and reducing security concerns. The enhancements to productivity in our economy will be huge!

Imagine for a moment that you needed a second medical opinion. Instead of flying to a noted specialist somewhere in the world, you could simply be interviewed, your records reviewed and given a cyber-examination. Instead of days of expensive travel, and hours spent filling out forms, the information you seek is immediately available.

This will become reality when our communications system brings broader bandwidth into our everyday world. It is not far off . . . the scary thought is that our children will be running the show!