And yet . . . there is something wonderfully perverse about the Web. It rewards a kind of cranky honesty while eviscerating the insincere and calculating, no matter how slick the presentation. In this cyberreality, companies that answer the siren call of selling out to advertisers may exchange short-term gain for long-term oblivion.
Meanwhile, attitudes like Mitch Gelman's, which might seem an anachronistic remnant of another medium and another time, may prove to be the defining difference between success and failure for companies like Starwave. For one thing, Gelman takes seriously his role as mentor to the new generation of reporters enrolling in the new medium. "We can learn from them how to do this business, and we can teach them what to do in terms of accuracy and ethical standards," he says.
And that suggests one final convergence. Beyond technology and people, success on the Web will also depend on a convergence of philosophies between those pursuing technology and those chasing commerce, between the desire to break barriers with the new medium and the need to retain lessons learned by its predecessors. Defining how business should be conducted on the Web may be the first requirement to defining what it means to be the first Web-based business.
Michael S. Malone (msmalone@aol.com) is one of Silicon Valley's most respected journalists.
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