1. Cyberspace is a veritable heaven for those looking for something for nothing — or nearly nothing. FreeStuff-Net.com provides access to an assortment of sites offering handouts. There’s “Just Free Stuff,” “Freebie Land,” “It’s Free 4U,” “Planet Freebie,” “Free Love,” “Free Samples,” and “Free.com.” Beware — the goal of many such sites is simply to get your name and address.
对于那些不需要支出—或者支出很少就能找到所需东西的人，网络空间是名副其实的天堂。FreeStuff-Nut.com能够和各个免费发放宣传品的网络相连接。比如“Just Free Stuff,” “Freebie Land,” “It’s Free 4U,” “Planet Freebie,” “Free Love,” “Free Samples,” 和 “Free.com”。小心啊 — 这些网站的目的就是为了获得你的名字和地址。
2. It would be unfair to leave the wonderful world of free stuff without mentioning Blue Mountain Arts Publishing, launched by two former hippies as a “spiritual and emotional center for the Web.” Their stroke of genius was to give away billions of online greeting cards in nine different languages, absolutely free. This concept was so exciting that the owners of the Excite#064; Home Web site agreed to pay about ＄1 billion for the company if it met certain sales targets during the holidays when most greeting cards are sold.
提到琳琅满目的免费品世界，就不能不提蓝山艺术出版中心，作为网络的精神和情感中心，它是由两个嬉皮士发起的。他们奇异的设想就是免费发放九种语言的电子贺卡。这一想法实在太神奇了，Excite#064和Home Web网站的投资人做出决定，如果在假日里卖出大多数贺卡，实现了销售目标，就支付一百万给这家公司。
3. But why would any serious business agree to give away so much stuff? The answer is that the bluemountain.com site gets about a million hits a day from people ordering free cards for dozens of occasions, and most of them also order flowers, candy, and gifts, which is where Excite#064; Home sees a potential gold mine. It’s even introduced a new high-tech card that can be used to send loved ones electronic flowers.
为什么公司同意免费发放？答案在于蓝山网站免费贺卡订购的日点击量为一百万次，人们还会订购鲜花、糖果和礼物，这正是Excite#064和Home所看到的潜力所在。有一种新发明的高科技贺卡，被用来向心爱的人发送电子鲜花。
Experts Online
网上专家
4. From time to time, we need an expert. In such situations, the Internet has been like a gift from the gods. In the old days, authorities were near at hand for expert advice: the village seamstress on how to make a buttonhole, the blacksmith on how to take care for a horse’s hooves, or the apothecary on what to do about warts. On the Internet, advice and answer sites are popping up all over the place, with self-proclaimed experts at the ready.
我们经常需要向专家咨询。此时因特网就像上帝送来的礼物。以前很容易就能得到专家的建议：向乡村女裁缝询问如何做衣服，向铁匠询问如何护理马厩，向药师询问如何治疗疣。在因特网上咨询和解答问题的网站纷纷涌现，自称专家的人时刻准备着解答问题。
5. Exp.com claims to have “tends of thousands of experts who can help you,” while the more restrained Abuzz.com, owned by The New York Times, limits its pitch to “Ask Anything! Real People. Real Answers.” It’s said that expert sites or knowledge networks represent the latest stage in the Internet’s evolution, a “democratization of expertise.” However, if your question is about something other than “Who invented the light bulb?”, the answers are likely to be a wild potpourri of personal opinions. Exp.com
声称有“千千万万的专家向您提供帮助，”纽约时报旗下的Abuzz.com网站宣称“你可以问任何事！真实的专家，真实的解答。”据说专家网站或知识网站代表着因特网发展的最新阶段，是“专业领域的民主化”。然而如果你的问题不是“谁发明了灯泡？”之类的问题，答案可能是五花八门，都是个人的见解。
Online Education
远程教育
1. Top colleges and universities are rushing into online education, but the big news is the proliferation of a new breed of for-profit online institutions bringing Internet education to the masses. “The Internet will probably be the single most democratizing force in education,” says Columbia Business School Dean Meyer Feldberg, who envisions educational programs being routed through the Net to hundreds of millions of people.
一流的学院和大学都在纷纷开展远程教育，但最大的新闻却是全新的网上院校的增加使远程教育贴近大众生活。哥伦比亚商学院主任梅亚菲尔伯格预测，教育项目会通过网络传送给无数人，在“教育方面，因特网也许是唯一最民主的力量。”
2. The largest online institution is the University of Phoenix (), with some 6,000 students today and hopes of reaching 200,000 students in 10 years. The University offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in business management, technology, education, and nursing. The institution boasts that if you’re a student “you can earn your degree via the Internet whenever and wherever you want.” The University notes that its degree programs cost far less and may take some students far less time to complete.
最大的网络院校是凤凰大学，目前有6000在校生，预计在未来的10年会达到20万人。学校提供工商管理、技术、教育和护理专业的学士学位、硕士学位和博士学位。学校鼓吹说，“如果你是一名学生，你可以在你想要的任何时间任何地点通过因特网获得学位。”学校声明他的学位课程费用较低，而且完成学业的时间也较短。
3. On the other hand, a Business Week survey of 247 companies found that only a handful would consider hiring applicants who earned their MBA degrees online. Whether that will change as for-profit online universities improve their offerings — and graduates prove their worth — is anyone’s guess.
另一方面商业周刊在调查了247个公司之后，发现只有少数公司会考虑录用从网上获得MBA学位的应聘者。人们据此猜测，以营利为目的的网络学校是否会因此而改进他们提供的服务 — 由毕业生证实他们的价值。
“Old” Economy Greets the “New”
旧经济迎接新经济
4. Corporations have suddenly awakened to the fact that the Internet can save them billions of dollars in conducting their everyday affairs, with some of it showing up in lower prices for the consumer. And it’s only the beginning. “Where do you think we are as an economy as far as e-business goes?” Fortune magazine recently asked General Electric’s legendary CEO Jack Welch, who immediately replied, “First inning.”
企业突然意识到因特网可以使他们在日常经营中节省上亿的资金，有些公司以此为基础，以较低的价格向消费者提供产品。这只是刚刚开始。财富杂志最近采访了通用电气公司的传奇人物杰克韦尔奇，“您认为电子商务目前发展到何种程度？”韦尔奇立刻回答“第一阶段”。
5. How right he is can be seen in a two-story brick building on Chicago’s industrial South Side, home to the Corrugated Supplies Corporation, which manufactures corrugated sheets for boxes and other products. Despite the company’s low-tech image, owner Rick Van Horne may have moved e-business into a second inning and then some: The computerized production system that he built by hand can fill customers’ orders — to their exact specifications — and deliver the goods in less than 24 hours, with a 35% reduction in waste.
韦尔奇的这一观点在芝加哥工业区南部的二层砖瓦小楼得到了验证，这里是皱纹纸供应公司的所在地，这家公司主要生产盒子和其他产品所用的皱纹包装纸。尽管该企业给人的印象是科技含量很低，所有者瑞克凡霍恩将电子商务推进到第二阶段以及更远。他建立的自动化生产系统能够完成顾客的订单 — 按照顾客要求的最精确的规格 — 并且在24小时内运送货物，从而节省了35%的损耗。
6. This success hiked Corrugated Supplies’ sales from ＄40 million in 1997 to ＄100 million in 2000. Van Horne is now offering to teach other companies everything he knows about building high-tech factories.
这一成功使该公司的销售额从1997年的4千万美元增加到2000年的1亿美元。凡霍恩正在将建立高科技工厂的经验传授给其他公司。
7. The billions of dollars a year that American companies are saving thanks to the Internet’s ability to slash their cost of doing business is making them even more successful competitors on world markets. This is reflected in better prices for their customers and increased profits for themselves, with much of it coming from greatly improved ways of cutting costs.
因特网的使用大大降低了贸易成本，从而使美国公司每年节省数亿美元，这样就使和它们在世界市场上更具有竞争力。这表现在给顾客更低的价格，并使自己增加利润，利润更多的来自于费用的大规模降低。
8. Ford, General Motors, and Daimler Chrysler, among others, have created Covisint, a ＄300-billion mega market for buying auto parts. It’s a new world out there, with companies large and small banding together to force suppliers to trim their prices or lost the business. Still others are doing this on their own, such as the big air-conditioner parts manufacturer Trane Company, which set up its own private online exchange that forced its 5,000 dealers to continually bid against each other for its business.
福特、通用汽车和戴姆勒克莱斯勒汽车公司建立了一个3千亿美元成交量的大市场Covisint, 以供买者选购汽车配件。这是一个全新的世界，大大小不的公司联合起来，促使供应商降低价格，否则就会丢掉生意。也有一些公司自已做，比如最大的空调配件生产商特瑞恩公司，建立了自己的网上交易所，5000代理商纷纷竞价。
Where Do We Go Next?
接下来我们的方向在哪里？
9. The rest of the world is moving into cyberspace more slowly than the United States, and, in the developing world, the Internet has hardly penetrated at all. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is determined to change this through the United Nations Information Technology Service, which will train large numbers of people to tap into the income enhancing power of the Internet. Annan is also proposing an Internet health network that will provide stat-of-the-art medical knowledge to 10,000 clinics and hospitals in poor countries.
世界上其他国家在网络方面要比美国发展得慢，在发展中国家因特网甚至很难传播。联合国秘书长科菲尔安南决定通过联合国信息技术中心来改变这一现状，该机构将培训大量的技术人员去开发因特网在增加收入方面的潜力。同时安南提议建立健康网络，为贫困国家的1万个诊所和医院提供专业的医疗知识。
The onrushing Cyber Age has given newfound power to us all, as seen in Jody William’s one-woman organization using e-mail to promote a global ban on land mines. Yet, this is but a glimpse of what’s ahead in the minds of those immersed in this great and accelerating transformation.
快速发展的网络时代带给我们新发现的力量，这在卓迪威廉身上有所体现，她成立了单个女子机构，用电子邮件的形式，呼吁全世界禁止陆地采煤。其实这仅仅是那些沉迷于网络的人头脑中的一小部分，这场变革是伟大而迅速的。