To Web or not to Web, that is the question. Actually, that isn't really the question anymore because in case you haven't noticed lately, everybody and their dog and sister's brother's cousin's uncle has a home page on the World Wide Web.
Basically the web has invaded our lives. It's become fashionable to whip out your laptop on planes, trains and automobiles. Frequent flyer miles are quickly being replaced with website "hits," and "I got more than you did."
Yes, friends and fans, even we here at good ol' National Real Estate Investor have an award-winning website, and it's pretty amazing what you can learn from it, real-time so to speak. Our home page is updated every day with the latest news of what's happening in the commercial real estate world ; transactions, leases, new developments, executive moves, mergers and acquisitions, etc. And best of all, it has input from four of the leading real estate trade magazines around ; NREI, Shopping Center World, Commercial Real Estate South and Midwest Real Estate News.
In fact, we believe so strongly in our Web presence that we've actually hired our own online Web editor. Her name is Kelly Angell, and she is part of the Intertec real estate group's editorial team. Consider Kelly your fastrack to the Web. If you have breaking news and information, e-mail it to her. Likely it will be posted before you know it. And every week she is interviewing leading industry figures to get the low-down on who they are and what drives them.
So now, The Question: Am I worried that electronic publishing will eventually replace the written, printed word? The renowned author/commentator extraordinaire Ken Auletta, who has a new book out on technology pioneers called The Highwaymen, told a recent press conference on C-SPAN that, in not so many words, all journalists are worried about their jobs.
He did say at least one thing that I agreed with, though, and that is the fact that too many technophobes ("geeks" he called them) far overshot the mark on how quickly Joe and Josephine Average Person would embrace the new technologies. Today, technology is such a moving target that the only people who may have it right are Microsoft and Intel.
Perhaps it is best to remember that many of the people who are creating new technologies are engineers. They aren't Real People. They live in boxes and invent things that nobody really needs but they have cool-sounding names and make lots of noise.
Where it all will end I just don't know. But for now, I do know we're making a substantial investment in our Web presence, which will reap future dividends. We will continue driving readers to our website, and vice versa, because we believe there is room for both mediums.
Ultimately we might all agree that it is not this generation, but either the next or the next after that, which will use technology in earnest. Why just the other day my three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Alexandria, asked for my e-mail address so she could send me a "wuv wetter" ...
Here are our important Web addresses: Intertec real estate group home page: www.internetreview.com Ben Johnson:-;[email protected] Melanie Gibbs:-;[email protected] Carrie King:-;[email protected] Tracy Heath:-;[email protected] Kelly Angell:-;[email protected]