Sherweb

Forget headshots, demos, auditions, or even writing your own novel… in this day and age, with powerful, easy-to-use networking tools such as YouTube, MySpace, blogs and other social mediums- being seen and heard has never been so accessible, so immediate and reached such a wide audience. Whether it’s actual talent or just appeal to the masses, here are some of the Internet’s most prominent individuals, who have gone from zero to hero (well, maybe not hero but certainly famed status) and their path to success. Read more »

Some said it wouldn’t last, that it would never be able to sustain the amount of users; that eventually, it would crash. But despite doubt and scepticism, the Internet has changed the world as we know it; the way we communicate, find and share information, do business and proven- it is very much here to stay. From being a network of networks to becoming a medium; an information superhighway without geographic frontiers, the Internet has made distances shorter and the world much smaller.

McLuhan’s “Global Village” Becomes Reality

Referred to as the “Oracle of the Electronic Age” in the early 1960’s, Marshall McLuhan predicted that humankind would one day be connected through “electronic interdependence”. Shifting from individualism to a collective identity, what McLuhan coined the “Global Village” couldn’t be more accurate today, thanks to the World Wide Web.

Though McLuhan was far ahead of his time, it would take decades before his theories came close to fathomable. In a Newsweek article published in 1995: The Internet? Bah! Hype alert: Why cyberspace isn’t, and will never be, nirvana, Clifford Stroll argues that “the Internet has become a wasteland of unfiltered data”, “without any pretense of completeness”, “lacking editors, reviewers or critics”. Bold statements that were a little too quick to judge, (meanwhile, his article had at least two typos in it), Stroll’s main concern was that computers would actually work to isolate us from one another, not bring us together.

Companies were also worried about investing time and resources into the Web due to its perceived unreliability. In many respects, their concerns were valid. Had more companies gone to the web, the Internet almost certainly wouldn’t have been able to handle the influx of new users.

But the Internet has come along way since then. In December of 1995, a total 16 million people around the world were using the Internet. As of December 2009, that number rose to 1.6 billion.

The Impact of Social Media on Today’s Business

In earlier days, websites functioned as simple on-line brochures for organizations, with very little interaction or real value for customers. But as technology improved, so did websites. Over the years, websites have become more interactive and it’s common to see discussion forums, e-commerce for on-line retailing and a wide range of other features, which ties back to the idea of a Global Village. Social media networking is the name of the game now, with websites having to hook into social media websites and create communities. Though we are beginning to see more and more attempts by both businesses and governments to control the Internet, the trend will most likely lead to increasing transparency if they wish to thrive in our fast-paced Age of Information. “The greatest changes will occur in the arena of trust and human relations.”

Internet Predictions Through Time

Here are just a few videos that offer a glimpse into how the Internet has been perceived over the last 40 years.

Internet predictions in 1969

Shopping online, online banking, webcams, (but perhaps not exchange hosting services)- take a look at how remarkably accurate predictions of the future were in this 1969 video.

Internet 1981 from print to online

One of the first attempts at a newspaper going from print to online:

Peter Mansbridge on the Growing Phenomenon Called “Internet”

For $200 a year you could be logged on to a computer network called: INTERNET

Interview with an Internet Café owner in 1995

“Ranking up their in popularity with VCR’s, people are now paying their bills, balancing their chequebook, and playing games online with people on the other side of the globe.” Wonder what they would have thought about today’s web based crm software?

SherWeb was recently published on the WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW website. The article gives a good overview on how Windows Sharepoint Sevices can be useful in today’s business environment.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank www.thewhir.com to have included SherWeb in their research.

SherWeb offers a free 100 MB Sharepoint account to all its Hosted Exchange customers. Hosted Sharepoint can also be purchased as a seperate service. Hosted Sharepoint incorporates essential collaboration and communication technologies into a single Web–based environment that integrates easily with desktop applications, such as Microsoft Office. Please for more information please refer to SherWeb’s Hosted Sharepoint section and read this very interesting article written by the www.thewhir.com.

Thank for taking the time to read me!