In Net Attitude, I wrote quite a bit about the importance of talking to teenagers. They hold many of the clues as to what the Future of the Internet will be like. The kids totally get the Internet and studies have now proven what may be the obvious -- nearly 90% of teenagers in America (and a growing percentage around the world) use the Internet as their preferred way to communicate. Email is prevalent, of course, but instant messaging is more the modus operandi, as I described in the book. (read more)

People in the Know

On November 27 I was privileged to be able to give a talk at the Silicon Valley World Internet Center. They are the nicest people and they do a great job of creating community and serious business discussion around key Internet topics. (read more)

How to achieve 100% in life

Not sure of the original source of this. It came to me via an email from a friend of a friend and I thought it was worth sharing. It is all about how to achieve 100% in life. (read more)

In a story entitled Fujitsu Tests Optical WDM Communication Spanning 7,400km at 2.4Tbps, published by Nikkei Business Publications, Inc., we see some impressive but not unexpected news. In Net Attitude, I talked quite a bit in the chapter called Fast about how we would have "Bandwidth Galore". (read more)

We arrived in Calgary on Sunday and rented a car to drive to Banff which is about 80 miles west. It is a beautiful ride through the Canadian Rocky Mountains. We stayed overnight at the Banff Springs Hotel and on Monday took a ride further west to Lake Louise. It is absolutely beautiful country. A shame to be such a short stay but it was time to head back to Calgary to participate in an IBM e-business conference. (read more)

Borders Online got the idea to do a "duelling emails" piece in late 2001. It was sort of a "point, counterpoint" thing between Christopher Locke and me about our respective books which were just coming out. (read more)

My thanks to Fitzgerald Communications and Truste for hosting a book party in San Francisco on Monday night October 22. I have never been to a book party before, let alone be the one whose book was the subject of the party! (read  more)

This past Sunday was a beautiful day for a motorcycle ride. The leaves were in full color and the temperature was in the low seventies. Hardware stores are among my favorite places. One of them had a room full of incredible collection of hinges and cabinet pulls. I was fascinated by one of them and went to the counter to ask where I could find the price. (read more)

Net Attitude has shipped from Perseus to the retail channel. Now that the book is out I will be using the web log as a way to communicate and let readers provide feedback. On Friday 10/18 I will be going to Tampa, Florida to give a talk about Net Attitude and from there to California, Paris, and Calgary, Alberta, Canada. (read more)

Nick Philipson, executive editor at Perseus books, overnighted me the first hardbound copy of Net Attitude on September 28. It was a joy to see a real book after all these months. My thanks go to all the great people at Perseus who did the design work for the art, pages, and fonts. Also, to the marketing and public relations people who have been busily preparing for the distributors and retail channels and making the press aware. Between now and the end of the year I will be very busy talking to reporters, giving talks, attending book signing affairs, and generally sharing everything I can about Net Attitude. I will be starting with a talk in San Francisco on October 22 and then at a Garage.com conference in San Jose the next day. Then I will be going to the Agenda conference in Scottsdale and from there to Paris for an IBM conference. On November 1 I'll be speaking at the Ridgefield Library in Connecticut. Most of my past and upcoming engagements are listed here.

Monday September 24 was my first day in New York City since the tragic Attack on America. Driving (from Connecticut) down the West Side Highway and not seeing the familiar twin towers produced a very uncomfortable feeling and my heart filled with sadness for those who were lost there. Heading across town to the Hilton Hotel took a long time -- traffic was extremely heavy. I can't say I am an expert in what is "normal" in midtown but there was definitely a lot of activity. My purpose to be in town was to give a speech at the LegalTech Conference. More than 800 people registered for the conference after September 11 so perhaps the attendees were mostly those who did not have to travel. There were many booths showing off technology for the legal industry. You didin't hear much laughter and the normal "buzz" of an industry conference but I think most were happy to be getting back to business.

Net Attitude was printed last week and should now be shipping to the various distributors and from there to the book retailers. Within three weeks I expect Net Attitude to be generally available. I have been thinking about how I can help the marketing efforts to maximize a successful book launch. The publisher is doing quite a bit to promote the book with the retailers and they are also arranging press interviews for me with radio stations, newspapers, and TV. A couple of early reviews are posted here on this site. Beyond those activities though, I think I can probably do a lot myself through email. My address book has over five thousand names of family, friends, colleagues, and acquaintenances. I don't want to send anything that would be perceived as "spam" or in any way invade people's inboxes so I am thinking a lot about how or even if to do this. Seems to me there must be a tactful way that I can inform people that they may appreciate. Any reactions or suggestions on this are more than welcome.

I was going to post some this week about the status on Net Attitude and some other things but given the events of Tuesday I decided to wait on that. Instead I am taking the liberty to post something written by Leonard Pitts, Jr., a columnist for The Miami Herald. It was sent to me by a friend named David Hoffman. It captures a lot of things I feel and that I have read from others. I certainly could not do better in expressing the feelings I suspect that many of us have. (read more)