Where were you when the Internet began? This question may be one of those asked someday by your children or colleagues. For me it was in Dallas communicating with my daughter attending college in Connecticut. I remember having to go to the computer lab (having no computer in my office) and use a primitive command-line system to sort out an actual message like "Send money."

For years the Internet was text-only: e-mail, Telnet, and FTP. Then I remember first using a browser in the Fall of 1994 here at Iowa and thinking that this innovation, the World Wide Web, would be the quantum leap for information, entertainment and commerce. It was, of course, and now the question is simply how far we will go.

I am not a Pollyanna. Indeed, I am skeptical of much of the Internet hype that today passes for informed commentary. But there is no question that Internet commerce will change the way business gets done. It already has. At the University of Iowa, we plan to be at the forefront of these changes. Our students will be prepared to participate in Web-based business because we will give them the opportunity to learn by doing.

Web Business Strategy is a course where students can create value in a way that is or parallels the way businesses create value. I'm not sure who will be the next big Web entrepreneur, but there is a decent chance it will be someone who takes this class.

Randall L. Schultz
Professor of Marketing
January, 2000

The original Web Business Strategy Web site had a safari theme.