By: Charles Bowen Covering the 'Networked Economy'
The Beatles' John Lennon was incredibly intuitive about the
collective psyche of his generation. And perhaps his most
insightful observation about our lives and times did not even
come from one of his songs.
In the summer of 1967, Lennon reclined on a couch in his
Weybridge, England, home and told a reporter he was waiting for
"the next big thing." That turned out to be Sgt. Pepper. Well,
that and Yoko Ono. After that, throughout his life, Lennon often
spoke of how he and his contemporaries were fascinated by the
concept of this Next Big Thing.
Boy, did John nail us. Baby boomers and their offspring have been
reared in a "What Now?" culture, evident in everything from
summer blockbuster movies to the fall lineup on television.
Newspapers even have entire sections devoted to trends and
lifestyles, where we predict what everyone will be talking about
in the days and weeks ahead.
And these days, that's not just in entertainment. Technology --
from new gadgets to the rise and fall and rise again of the dot-
coms -- has as much buzz as Madonna and this week's boy band. So,
it seems appropriate that the name of the latest, hottest Web
site to focus on the new digital economy should harken back to
John Lennon's quote.
Meet The Next Big Thing. It's an exceedingly with-it Web site
that covers "the networked economy." In a world in which the
preferred business models change daily, this electronic journal
seeks to help us zero in on what are truly significant trends.
Along with daily news and top stories, the site offers
enlightening interviews with founders and CEOs of successful dot-
coms, not to mention reports on important new Web tools and
services. Need to be in the know about the Net for your readers
and your reporters? Here's where to start.
To use the resource, visit the site at http://www.tnbt.com,
where a cleanly constructed introductory page provides links to the
site's original reports. For instance, at this writing the site
featured stories on the psychological problems arising from
information overload, the new wave of university-based business
incubators for wired startup companies and the people who make
their living chasing down viruses that threaten our digital
infrastructure.
Also on the introductory screen are sections covering:
o Best of the Web, including links to tech stories that are
currently topping assorted online publications.
o Best of the Wire, with connections to the day's top tech news
from wire services. The site's news desk selects insightful
articles from hundreds of outside media sources every day.
o Interviews. These are sit-down sessions with people like
software executives Joseph and Stewart Alsop, former Lycos CEO
Bob Davis, and Jeff Hawkins, founder of Palm and Handspring. Most
of the interviews also have links to "View Highlights," with
video and audio.
o Community, hooking you to top discussions currently on the
site's lively message boards.
Other considerations for using the Next Big Thing in your writing
and editing:
o The site can be searched from the introductory screen. For a
quick search, simply enter a keyword or phrase in the data entry
box in the upper right corner of the screen. Or for an advanced
search, click the word "Search" in that box. On the resulting
display, you can enter multiple keywords connected by AND or OR.
You also can focus on specific kinds of content (features,
interviews, audio, etc.), departments and/or specific industries,
authors, and dates.
o You can view much of the site's material as a first-time
visitor, but for additional services, take advantage of the free
registration. Among the add-ons are free e-mail dispatches,
including The Daily Dose, an afternoon digest of articles from
across the Web, The Friday Fix, a Web week in review, and Our
Next Big Thing, a Monday newsletter about new features added to
the site.
o This site is the media arm of a company called Marketspace, a
professional services firm helping executives doing business in
the networked economy. Marketspace, in turn, is part of the
Monitor Group of professional services firms.
---
Bowen writes columns, articles and books from West Virginia, and is host of the daily Internet News syndicated radio show (http://www.netnewstoday.com).
charlesbowen@compuserve.com
Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher
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