How many people use the Internet worldwide?

I’ve seen numbers as high as one billion plus.

A company called comScore Networks just came in with a much more conservative number: 694,260.  Nothing to sneeze at, but almost half of the Nielsen estimate.

ComScore points out that it excludes traffic from Internet cafes, mobile phones and PDAs. Maybe that’s where the other several hundred million went because there surely is a world full of people who access the Net from Internet cafes and nowhere else.

More numbers to ponder…

(more…)

Comments(0)

Should we let US telecom and cable companies turn the Internet into a two-tier network?

I say "no way."

Here’s why:

The Internet is a medium. You don’t penalize successful players by charging them more because they make better use of a given medium than others.

Do paper companies charge more to best selling authors? Does Dell charge advanced Internet marketers more for their PCs than beginners? Do paint manufacturers charge more to artists whose art works are in the Museum of Modern Art?

The very idea is completely daft, but currently US phone and cable companies are trying to ram the idea down regulators’ throats with the help of an army of high paid lobbyists and venal Congressmen.

The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has come out squarely against the two-tier proposal. He’s currently in Edinburgh, Scotland speaking at the annual World Wide Web Conference.  THE annual conference.

You can read his remarks as reported by the BBC here.

It’s a serious issue.

Comments(1)

System 2006 ended less than 24 hours ago, but comments from participants have already started rolling in…

Click here to read what they have to say

Comments(0)

System 2006 is sold out.

Our seventh big System event since 2002… and our seventh consecutive sell out.  Next year, we’re going to have to move to a bigger hotel.

The next two weeks are going to be a little hectic as we gear up for the biggest Internet marketing seminar and conference we’ve ever offered.

Twenty-three speakers, twenty-five specialized workshops, and attendees from around the world.

Corporate Internet events have certainy hit these numbers and then some, but System 2006 is the biggest conference for what I call "Internet bootstrap entrepreneurs" ever held.

We’re the guys who don’t have venture capital funds, scores of employees or bankers lining up to give us money. We live by our wits and are the source of much of the world’s innovation. Finally, there’s a conference for us!

The faculty for System 2006 reads like a "Who’s Who" of today’s leading Internet marketing experts.

You can read more about them here: System 2006 Blog.

Comments(1)