Marc LaFontaine's sports shop has a reach that far exceeds
its presence in the heart of Ottawa.
Sportable Ltd. ships bicycles as far away as the Northwest Territories,
keeps local cyclists tuned into area events and displays the latest
selection of cross-country skis -- all through an electronic address known
as www.sportable.com.
The savvy little store on MacKay Street is wheeling into the
multibillion-dollar marketplace of the World Wide Web, following the lead of
businesses around the world. Sales through electronic commerce may make up
only a modest portion of his business, but Mr. LaFontaine is gearing up to
make the Internet a key sales component. Like many merchants, however, Mr.
LaFontaine wants to first make sure a crucial hurdle is cleared.
"I think the consumer is less willing to commit to purchasing over the Net
because of their security concerns," he says. "Until I feel the consumer
is completely ready, which will probably be another year or so, I will use
the Net more as a mail-order-type system."
As fast as the Net is growing, its potential is even greater. And the
bigger it gets, the more talk there is of needing some kind of regulatory
standards.
Throughout Canada, more than 800 Internet service providers have connected
thousands upon thousands of households. The Canadian Association of Internet
Service Providers alone represents 120 companies with a total of two million
subscribers.
Technology is trying to keep pace. The cable industry and soon wireless
systems are adding super-speedy access to a global network of resources.
The Internet, created as a surreptitious communications device for the U.S.
Defence Department, has become as ubiquitous as the telephone in businesses
from St. John's, Nfld., to Victoria and as far north as Iqaluit on Baffin
Island.
In Canada, ever-widening applications for the Internet are fuelling
economic growth.
"By linking two computers together, we're only limited by our imagination
on what those two computers can do," says Margo Langford, a lawyer
specializing in Internet issues, and chair of the Canadian Association of
Internet Providers. "We see it with medical procedures. It's a bank, it's a
hospital, it's a post office, it's a business storefront, an education
facility at all levels -- continuing ed, university enhancement, at the
child level. It's so many things and just from two computers talking."
"You can use it for absolutely any purpose, so it is obviously a
reflection of society -- and it's got its dark side, too."
As Mr. LaFontaine can attest, one of the fastest-growing areas of this
communication workhorse is commerce. The relatively small number of
transactions in 1997 -- only about $4 billion worldwide -- will explode to
nearly $400 billion by 2002, provided consumer confidence in the security of
information continues to grow.
In Canada, Internet transactions are expected to reach $13 billion in the
same period as enterprises ranging from small, rural candle makers to major
banks and high-tech corporations conduct business over the Web.
So quickly is this evolving that governments are getting involved -- and
one of the biggest and most important meetings is in Ottawa this week.
Ministers from 29 member states of the Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development are here with business leaders and
representatives from international organizations to prepare global action on
several fronts. Their main goal is to create international standards where
computers can talk to each other in the same language with universal
security precautions in place to erase fears of fraud and tax evasion, and
ensure that consumers feel more confident in the processing and
certification of cash transfers.
"Those issues have to be dealt with," says Michelle D'Auray, executive
director of the Federal Task Force on Electronic Commerce. "By bringing all
these people together, you get a snapshot of what has to be done and who is
going to do it."
As private industry presses ahead with new technologies eliminating
barriers to e-commerce, international bodies and governments must lay down a
common framework.
"What you can't have is a whole mishmash of conditions and standards,"
says John Reid, president of the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance.
"The corporations that are developing these technologies are very much
global in vision, so we all benefit if there are as few obstacles as
possible."
The Canadian government is using the OECD meeting as an opportunity to
demonstrate the country's Internet initiatives. A Virtual Trade Show,
available through Industry Canada's mega-site Strategis, is giving industry
and businesses that won't be in Ottawa for the meeting a chance to display
their wares.
These companies are part of an army of Canadian high-tech entrepreneurs and
corporate players who have honed an expertise based on the Web: distance
learning, marketing strategies, electronic job recruitment, Internet
intelligence and analysis, content and programs for webcasting, and software
to cache (sort and stack) the gazillion pieces of information. That's just
for openers.
One of the most progressive places in pioneering Internet use is Lanark
County, west of Ottawa. Rural residents, business leaders and community activists made a
co-operative effort to build a community broadband service to bring every
facet of their world online. It's a work in progress -- many programs are
still being designed around upgraded communications networks with support
from Bell Canada and Industry Canada.
A massive billboard in the county sums up the local philosophy: 10 seconds
to Tokyo, 10 minutes to the cottage. What a life!
One of the programs is the Community Storefronts E-Commerce Pilot Project
with a virtual shopping mall of businesses. Created by Industry Canada and a
consortium of private companies, the program was designed to introduce
e-commerce to smaller Canadian web merchants. Legal services, cottage
industries and farms can market and sell over the Internet. The community
storefronts are also accessible through Strategis, Industry Canada's web
site, which holds 60,000 pages and two million documents. "We made the
decision in 1994 to develop a serious online information service," says Tim
Garrard, chief information officer for the department. "We're very hard at
work now introducing electronic commerce on Strategis. Strategis will be the
primary vehicle for the delivery of electronic-commerce services."
As the Internet is integrated into daily domestic life, the technology is
still maturing for the folks at home. Most people -- an estimated 95 per
cent of consumers -- still use a dial-up modem. Zippier services such as
ISDN and ADSL have emerged, but their higher monthly rates shut out the bulk
of household web runners. Rogers Cable introduced its @Home service via
cable this summer and so far is ranked by some consultants as hot stuff that
is affordable.
As technology evolves and the demand for faster, cheaper Internet services
increases, the basic bread-and-butter web user is being invited to feast a
little at a bigger buffet table. The post office, for example, is embarking
on a test for an electronic post office box. Trials later this year will
involve a handful -- maybe more -- of major mailers such as a large
retailer, a provincial utility and a communications service.
Households suitably equipped would be able to receive and pay their bills
and fill out paperwork such as insurance forms -- all electronically.
"Our service is not designed to serve the needs of just large business,"
says Bill Robertson, general manager of electronic commerce for Canada Post
Corp. "We plan a whole range of service offerings. Based on the research
work and private discussions we've had, we think the market is ready and now
we're going to go out there with a service that people can test and try
on."
As the machinery takes holds globally, private industry is grappling not
just with advancing the quality of its wares but also its public image.
Ms. Langford's "dark side" of the Internet -- pornography, hate material,
issues of privacy and the potential for fraud -- are real concerns within
industry. Industry spokesmen say they are moving to draft codes, principles
and work co-operatively to curtail the inevitable illegal and offensive
activities on the Internet.
Internet service providers have agreed to a code of conduct. CAIP has also
released a comprehensive privacy code, with guidelines outlining how its
members can protect the privacy rights of its customers while ensuring
co-operation in the legal process. The Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance
has partnered with the American Electronics Association to create a similar
set of principles on privacy and security.
Gaylen Duncan, president of the Information Technology Association of
Canada, says industry wants to regulate itself. Government's role is to help
establish international standards to facilitate the work of industry, but
then end it there.
"Now, hands off. The existing legal regime, properly applied, seems to
work in every case. The concept of imposing new regimes to achieve new goals
is not the right way to go. Yes, we are opposed to pornography and hate
literature. There are ways of using the court system to get at that."
Legal experts and the government are confident that laws in Canada
generally are flexible enough to cover Net crooks. "In many respects,
current laws do apply," says Ms. D'Auray of the Federal Task Force on
Electronic Commerce. "If you are looking at pornography or some extreme
forms of hate material that is considered illegal, it is considered illegal
no matter the medium."
Andrew Foti, an Ottawa lawyer specializing in high technology with Ogilvy
Renault, agrees. "There's been a lot of fuss and bother about this being a
totally new medium, and everything changes. The answer really, is that
that's not true. There is lots of good existing law. We managed to get past
the railroads, the television, telecommunications and faxes and we'll get
past this one, too."
In Canada, the time for talking is not over yet. The Canadian
Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which oversees telecom
and broadcast policy, is holding public hearings into its role vis-a-vis the
Internet. The hearings are meant also to serve as a wider forum to discuss
other issues involving the World Wide Web.
Industry has been waiting for the regulatory agency to clarify its
intentions in several areas. The most complicated involves the Broadcasting
Act, under which Canadian content rules are established. Think of Canadian
content obligations for the big television networks. Then tack on web-based
program creators, web-based broadcasting entities that buy and offer these
programs, and service providers that transmit Web-TV programs. Are they
required to follow the same rules as television networks? Should they have
the same rules in order to encourage more Canadian programming? Or, as
industry wants, should these be exempt under the Broadcasting Act?
"We would welcome that kind of clarity," says Ms. Langford. "That is
what industry asked for as many as three years ago."
As Internet pioneers proceed on their voyage through cyberspace, they are
focusing on the next generation of digital masters now being groomed in
schools across the country.
Again, Industry Canada has served as a patron by helping with
infrastructure and equipment. SchoolNet provides a range of online learning
resources, help in getting connected to the Internet and ensuring every
spare piece of computer equipment finds its way into a school under
Computers for Schools. One project aims to connect all First Nations schools
under federal jurisdiction to the Internet.
Many teachers welcome the experience of incorporating multimedia and
web-based programs into the curriculum. One local elementary school has
initiated several projects that reach out to other classrooms around the
world and across the country via the Internet.
Other classroom guardians fear that education and the human soul that
guides student learning may be forsaken for too much high technology.
But as far as Sportable's Marc LaFontaine is concerned, there can't be too
much.
Sure, he's going to update his web site, and no doubt he'll soon get into
electronic payment, but his ambition goes much further.
He wants to allow customers from across the Internet to tour the shop with
him before placing orders.
"We are looking at a system right now where it will be live shopping. A
customer will be able to come in and shop the store, with a hand-held unit
that I'll have in the store. I'll have a computer on the sales floor, and it
will ring just like a telephone. I'll answer it and take the customer
through the store with a hand-held camcorder that will be in place before
2000."
The greatest advantage to Internet commerce, he says, is "it's rent-free.
You don't have to pay $25 a square foot. ... You have to grow beyond your
boundaries, and the way to do that is on the Internet."
