Seidman's Online Insider - Vol. 5, Issue 8

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               Seidman's Online Insider - Vol. 5, Issue 8

 Visit the Online Insider on the Web for additional content and access to

  the Insider Talk discussion forums.  A new Seidman's 25 is now up!

                     < http://www.onlineinsider.com >

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Copyright (C) 1998 Robert Seidman.  All rights reserved. May be reproduced

in any medium for noncommercial purposes as long as attribution is given.

IN THIS ISSUE

- What's Happening In Insider Talk

- Editor's Note

- So You Want to be an Insider?

- Corrections/Clarifications from Last Issue

- Subscription Info

- Stock Watch

What's Happening In Insider Talk

================================

Will MSN sell it's dial-up subscriber base?  I think it will.  If so, to

whom? Find out what Boardwatch Magazine columnist Durant Imboden, David

Simons, Managing Director of Digital Video Investments, independent

software consultant Bill Pytlovany, yours truly, AND others have to say in

the online conference:

< http://www.wellengaged.com/engaged/seidman.cgi?c=online&t=32 >

--

Tenagra Corporation's President and CEO, Cliff Kurtzman and Penthouse

Magazine, Sr. Editor, Gerard Van der Leun exchange thoughts on SPAM in the

Policy conference. Some of the best message posts I've ever seen and it

raises the question of whether Mining Company CEO Scott Kurnit is a

spammer!

< http://www.wellengaged.com/engaged/seidman.cgi?c=policy&t=9&q=41>

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Is the Internet to U.S.-Centric?  If so, what consequences does that have

on e-commerce?  Find out what Nick Gassman, an Internet Consultant and

Technology Manager for British Airways, Tobias Gartner, an Account Manager

for b.a.s. interactive in Germany, former CompuServe technology chief

Barry Berkov, and others have to say on the subject in the e-commerce

conference:

< http://www.wellengaged.com/engaged/seidman.cgi?c=ecommerce&t=11 >

--

Will AOL be reborn as a Media Company?  Find out what Fontbank, Inc.

President Jerry Saperstein, Fun Online Executive VP, Ron Luks, and others

are saying:

< http://www.wellengaged.com/engaged/seidman.cgi?c=online&t=30 >

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Will AOL continue to get multimillion dollar deals (it just got another

one with Bloomberg)?  Find out what softERware President, Earle Robinson,

David Simmons, Ron Luks, Jerry Saperstein, and I think in the online

conference:

< http://www.wellengaged.com/engaged/seidman.cgi?c=online&t=26 >

--

And of course, thoughts on AOL's rate hike.  Join most everyone mentioned

above, Lee Fleming an Editor & Analyst with Digital Information Group, and

Cyrus Afzali a writer for CNNfn Interactive in the online conference:

< http://www.wellengaged.com/engaged/seidman.cgi?c=online&t=25 >

Editor's Note

=============

Some of you may be wondering: "Hey, what's with this issue -- you're

supposed to be publishing only on an every-other-week basis now!"  Well,

consider this a bonus issue.  There are two reasons for this issue.  The

secondary reason is that a lot of you wrote to say "If you go

every-other-week, I won't get my weekly stock watch!"  Although people can

get this information directly from a few sources now (including Infobeat,

who provides the quote data used here), I'm flattered some people wish to

receive it directly from me.

The primary reason is to promote the Insider Talk discussions which is

finally becoming the excellent companion to the newsletter that I always

thought it would be.  I hadn't been promoting it much lately.  To be

honest, this was because there wasn't much traffic there, which I

correlate directly to the amount of effort I was spending on it (in other

words, not very much!).  But that's changed, and even in the last week I

have seen great strides in the quantity of messages and the quality of

discussions.  The quality of individual messages themselves had always

been pretty high, in my opinion.

I'm very thankful to all of you who loyally and regularly read the

newsletter.  I really appreciate it and it's a very nice feeling for me.

But the newsletter is my perspective beamed out to thousands of e-mail

addresses.  You get to know what I think.  A lot of you write back to tell

me what you think.  And sometimes, what you think is really, really cool.

So, I know what you think, and you know what I think.  But the rest of the

people who receive the newsletter don't get the additional perspective.

That's probably okay because I'm pretty sure that not everyone on the

distribution list would want to be copied on all my e-mail exchanges!  But

there's a lot of people who I am betting would benefit from the additional

perspective.

So, Insider Talk was born.  Now, some probably don't like that it is sort

of an exclusive group, in the sense that not everyone can post.  I limited

posting to those actually working inside the industry as a way of having a

very high signal-to-noise ratio and provide maximum value to most users.

In this case, I think that formula works.

If the current trend keeps up, and I hope it will, I will likely, during

the off-weeks of the newsletter, send out an update of what is transpiring

in the forums.  These updates will of course, include the "Stock Watch"

section!

I encourage you to check out the discussions -- some of which will be

showcased below.   I'm sure you'll find them insightful.

So You Want to be an Insider?

=============================

If you're an industry insider -- that means, someone who works within the

industry or works for a company that isn't in the online or Internet

"industry", but has an online presence (say the Web team for Barnes and

Noble, Ford, etc), I'd love to have you join the group and participate!

Unfortunately, other than great exchanges of information, great thoughts

and great ideas, I don't have a lot to offer.  No membership cards, no

secret handshakes, no retreats in Tahiti or anything like that, at least

not yet. But if you think you'll come to the web and post from

time-to-time, I really hope you'll join.

As you may have noticed above, we're particular strong in the online area.

I'd like to get more going in the Web, Intranet, Infrastructure, Policy,

e-commerce and advertising conferences, but if you just want to talk about

AOL, AOL, AOL, well, that's all right too. ;-)

All you need to do is send me information containing your name, your

company name, your title and your contact information.  If you have a

specific request for user ID and password, let me know that too, and I'll

try my best.

Corrections/Clarifications from Last Issue

==========================================

Last week I wrote that AOL did not offer flat-fee service outside the US.

That was incorrect.  A flat-fee plan is also offered in the UK and in

Germany, but apparently AOL does not promote the flat-fee option in

Germany (but will make it available if you ask for it).

Some of you continue to misunderstand my position on what AOL will do with

CompuServe, and the only reason for that I can come up with is that I

haven't made myself very clear.  So, to be clear: I think AOL will not

ultimately keep two completely separate systems.  As long as CompuServe

has lots of subscribers (and over 2 million is still a lot) it will be its

own brand.

I think you can interpret AOL's statement it will take the technology

for "C" and deploy it to all CompuServe members to mean CompuServe

subscribers will wind up on an AOL-type client (likely with access to all

of AOL).  This AOL-ized CompuServe would access "CompuServe" via the Web

using the technology for "C".  Don't be surprised to see an interim step

where CompuServe subscribers get a client that isn't based on AOL's client

software that also gives access to CompuServe forums via "C".

See you next week with a regular edition of Online Insider!

Stock Watch for the Week Ending February 27, 1998

=================================================

Courtesy of InfoBeat's CLOSING BELL < http://www.infobeat.com >.

                                      52 Wk     52 Wk    P/E     Week

SECURITY                    CLOSE     HIGH       LOW    Ratio    CHNG

---------------------------------------------------------------------

AT&T Corp................   61       66 1/2   30 3/4      21    -1.6%

Amazon Com Inc...........   77       73       15 3/4           +21.7%

America Online Inc.......  121 3/8   125      36 3/4      467   +1.6%

Apple Computer Inc.......   23 5/8   29 3/4   12 3/4           +18.1%

At Home Corporation Ser A   34 1/8   37 1/2   16 5/8           +17.1%

C/Net....................   36 1/4   46 1/2   15 3/4            -3.3%

CMG Info Svcs. Inc.......   47 7/8   44 5/8   10 7/16          +10.0%

Cendant Corporation......   37 1/2   38 11/16 19 1/4      625   -0.6%

Cmp Media Inc Cl A.......   23 5/8   29 3/8   13 3/4      32     0.0%

Concentric Network Corp..   14 1/2   16        7 7/8           +19.5%

Cybercash Inc............   13 5/8   24 1/4   10 1/8           +11.7%

Earthlink Network Inc....   49       54 1/2    8 5/8            -2.4%

Excite Inc...............   47 1/4   49 3/4    7 1/2           +11.1%

FTP Software Inc.........    2        7 7/8    1 1/2           +18.5%

GTE Corporation..........   54 1/8   55 3/4   40 1/2      19     0.0%

H & R Block Inc..........   47 1/16  47 3/8   28 5/8      15    +4.1%

Hewlett Packard Company..   67       72 15/16 48 1/8      23    +3.1%

IBM......................  104 7/16  113 1/2  63 9/16     17    +1.7%

ICG Communications Inc...   33 5/8   30        8 5/8           +27.7%

Infoseek Corporation.....   16 7/16  15 7/16   4 3/8           +19.5%

Lycos Inc................   41 1/4   43 3/4   11 3/16           +4.7%

MCI Communications Corpor   47 13/16 48 7/16  27 5/16     48    -0.9%

Mecklermedia Corp........   27 1/4   30       16 1/2      50    -4.8%

Microsoft Corporation....   84 3/4   85 11/16 43 3/4      58    +9.2%

Mindspring Enterprises In   48 3/8   51 1/4    6 5/8            +5.7%

Netmanage Inc............    2 41/64  5 1/4    2 3/32           -5.5%

Netscape Communications C   19 3/8   49 1/2   14 7/8            -2.5%

Network Solutions Inc. Cl   20 1/4   26 3/4   11 3/4      65    +4.5%

Newsedge Corporation.....   11 1/8   16        5          28   +12.3%

Onsale Inc...............   28 11/16 35 1/4    4 5/8           +21.4%

Open Market Inc..........   16 1/2   17 3/8    6 1/2            +7.3%

Oracle Corporation.......   24 5/8   42 1/8   17 5/8      35    -1.9%

Psinet Inc...............    7 23/32  9 3/4    4 1/4            +1.2%

Quarterdeck Corp.........    2 9/64   4        1 3/16           -9.2%

Realnetworks Inc.........   15       19 3/8   13 1/2            +1.6%

Security First Network Ba   10 7/8   14        5 1/4            +6.0%

Silicon Graphics Inc.....   15 1/16  30 5/16  10 15/16    94    +7.1%

Sportsline Usa Inc.......   23 1/2   25        7               +22.0%

Sprint Corporation.......   66       64 3/8   41 7/8      30    +8.1%

Spyglass Inc.............    8 3/8   12        4 1/16          +17.5%

Sun Microsystems Inc.....   47 5/8   53 5/16  25 7/8      26    +2.9%

Vocaltec Communications L   23 1/8   33 1/4    5 15/16         +17.0%

Worldcom Inc.............   38 3/16  39 7/8   21 1/4      95    -2.0%

Yahoo Corporation........   73 3/16  71       14 41/64         +14.1%

Dow Jones 30 Industrials. 8,545.72                              +1.5%

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