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Wiring Anytown USA
by Kent Lewis

While visiting a small Midwest town on business, I decided to explore local shops and find out how the Internet has impacted their lives. What I found was quite surprising, or maybe not.

Perhaps it’s my limited experience with small town life, but I was still a little shocked to hear that many small businesses were not wired, and the ones that were, didn’t have much in the way of e-commerce capabilities. I figured the Smokey and the Bandit Days were history, and that The Matrix was the gospel everywhere. Oops.

A few conversations and a little research revealed that it’s not so much the size of the town or company, the geography or even demographic layout. The degree of Internet savvy was more dependent on the town’s history, specifically business and economics. A greater number of technologically advanced companies in town directly relates to a higher level of interaction with the Internet. Indirect factors may be education and economic status.

Within this town, Internet access (primarily dial-up) was slow and unreliable. A sluggish Internet experience can greatly impact the overall perceived value. Local Internet-related services and content were sparse at best, which can also impact perception.

The local businesses were using the Internet for basic functionality: email, file transfer and some marketing. Two sample conversations help illustrate the overall feeling in Anytown USA:

"I don’t have the time to surf the Web and sell product," said a local pawnshop owner.

"I’m not sure if we have a Web site, I think we do," stated a local flower shop employee.

"I’ve had one lead from my Web site in the past two years," indicated a local sash & door manufacturer.

I didn’t have the time to explore in detail, but the desire to sit down and educate these people on the power of the Internet, and the missed opportunities was overwhelming.

It’s doubtful any of these locals were aware that they could build a Web site with e-commerce capabilities for free. Even more important, the local businesses could use free resources to promote their site to search engines, directories and industry sites, virtually for free.

I wanted to grab the pawnshop owner, drag him to his computer, set up an eBay account, and get some of his guitars and boomboxes online. Why sell to an audience of a few dozen when you can sell to a few million for virtually no additional cost? It would have only take a few minutes to get him in the money. I elected to save it for another day though. Education and training is going to be expensive and timely, so I’ll let the well-funded companies handle that.

On my way back to my hotel, a local teenager with his sister/girlfriend burned rubber out of a gas station in his 85 Pontiac Firebird. I could almost see the smile on his face before the fuzzy dice blocked my view. I guess some things never change.