Overview
Electronic information communication, facilitated by the Internet and the World Wide Web, is experiencing explosive growth. Beneficiaries of the Internet include university researchers, government employees, trade associations and consultants among others. In addition, companies are conducting business solely on the Internet while tens of thousands of additional companies are discovering electronic markets as a means for promoting and selling products and services. Electronic based communication on the Internet can afford participant organizations, regardless of size, the opportunity to communicate and exchange information nationally and internationally.
The purpose of this paper is to examine implications of the Internet for the forest products community and to discuss the role that the Forest Products Society may play in the process.
The Internet
The Internet was born about 20 years ago, out of an effort to connect together a U.S. Defense Department network called ARPAnet and various radio and satellite networks (Kroll 1994). Demand for networking applications quickly increased with other government agencies, universities and others seeking a means to communicate in an Internet Protocol (IP) environment. As such, networks proliferated and today the Internet has evolved into a mass array of computers and servers which talk to each other all over the world.
Estimates of the size of the Internet are difficult to make due to explosive growth. In March 1994, some 10,000 networks were part of the system and by July of the same year, there were over 14,000. By 1993, the network reached 75 countries with full service, while computer owners in 77 additional countries were able to send and receive simple Internet E-mail (Allan 1993). In the first six months that it had been available in Russia, more than 6,000 host computers joined, says John Quarterman, editor of Matrix News, a newsletter that tracks the network's growth (Antilla 1992). The Internet's growth will inevitably slow; at current rates, everyone on earth would be connected by 2002. The Internet which continues to double in size each year currently has 20 to 30 million users with a reasonable estimate of 200 million people using the system in five years.
The World Wide Web
The Internet global network is akin to a sanctum of information and commerce with the World Wide Web as the
means to enter this domain. The World-Wide Web: also known as WWW or just the web, is a network
of servers, talking across the Internet, that know how to display text and graphic information to a variety of
desktop clients (predominantly PC, Mac, or Unix). Much of the Internet's growth over the past two years
can be attributed to the proliferation of Netscape, the best known desktop client and it's predecessor,
Mosaic. Capable of displaying formatted text, graphics, and hyperlinks to other pages, a web page
provides the most visual presence possible on the Internet. In addition, web clients can also
communicate with other Internet-based services, such as Gopher.
Gopher sites, (originally created at the University of Minnesota), are servers that facilitate
presenting hierarchically organized textual information. Along with WWW clients, there are many
software packages available for the major desktop platforms that know specifically how to
communicate with gopher servers, and these are available for the major desktop platforms.
The Web, which has only been in existence only for a few years takes advantage of the global
telecommunications infrastructure that is already in place (Abate 1993). The Web presents the first
tangible example of the world of the future with information just a click away and low barriers to entry
for information providers. Web home pages on the Internet can generate substantial
customer interest for companies and general interest for researchers. For example, an average
company can receive 1,000 to 2,000 "hits" a day, while well-known companies can get more than
100,000 hits a day (Boisseau 1992). A hit means someone has entered your home Page.
The latest numbers show Web use doubling every couple of months (twice the rate of overall Internet growth), as literally thousands of new businesses, government agencies and other groups of all sizes and types have opened up Web Home Pages in the past year.
Considering that there are more than 7 million current Internet users and more than a million Web browsers up and running, having a Web Home Page is becoming a potentially important competitive necessity for conducting business and information dissemination.
The Internet and the Forest Products Community
Hundreds of forest products related WWW home pages currently exist on the Internet, none of which existed in cyberspace a couple of years ago. There is a wide spectrum in the quality of these sites and the information contained in them. Some sites simply have an address and phone number, while others have elaborate multi-layered home pages with rich color photographs. A number of companies have price lists and interactive methods to make inquiries about company products and services while government agencies and others supply a wealth of statistical and other information.
All "hits" to a World Wide Web home page can be electronically tracked. This Information can be used to track the effectiveness of having a home page. In addition, a survey that could also reside at a WWW site can help to understand the profile of the individuals who are accessing the site and their opinions about the company or agency and it's products or services. Survey information can also be analyzed to provide a demographic profile of the potential customers and in determining the product mix which is likely to benefit from advertising on the Internet.
As is the case with the pattern of Internet use by corporations in general, forest products industry presence on the Internet will expand exponentially in the foreseeable future.
Where does the Forest Products Society Fit In?
The Forest Products Society (FPS) recognizes the need to be a leader in the application of electronic communication technologies to the forest products community. Accordingly, in 1995, the Society established the Electronic Information and Communication Technology committee to do two things. First, the committee will conduct a forum at the annual FPS meeting to allow members to share current information and issues in this area. Second, the committee was charged with conducting a survey of the membership to discern what the FPS could "bring to the table" with regard to providing electronic communication and Internet member services.
The results of this survey are very enlightening and will serve as a road map in guiding the Society's efforts.
Profile Of Respondents
Geographic locations for 361 respondents were determined by using return envelope postmarks. Figure 1 shows that the majority of study respondents for live in the United States (83 percent) followed by
Canada (10 percent) and Europe (4 percent). Respondent affiliation was represented, in decreasing
order by industry, universities, government, consultants, retirees and trade associations (Figure 2). Nine
surveys in a diverse "other" category were not used in subsequent member segmentation analyses. This profile of respondents
with regard to geographic location and employment classification corresponds very well with the profile of the entire membership of the society, which indicates that the respondents quite accurately represent the membership. For example, 78,13 and 3 percent of our membership reside in the United States, Canada and Europe, respectively, compared to 83, 10, and 4 percent of thre respondents. The employment classification comparison for the total membership versus respondents, respectively,
is: industry(46% vs 43%), university(25% vs 28%), government (6% vs 12%), consultant (12% vs 12%), trade association (3% vs 2%), and retired (7% vs 3%).
Respondents also indicated their primary area of responsibility on their respective
organizations. Figure 3 shows that over 50 percent of respondents are either involved in research
(32 percent) or industry or association management (21.9 percent).
Use Of The Internet
Questionnaire items assessed general use of the Internet as well as specific functions and listservers
( special interest bulletin boards ) used. Figure 4 shows that the university respondents use the internet most (91%), followed by government (81%), and trade association (64%) repondents. On a weighted
average basis, 59 percent of respondents are current Internet users.
Figure 5 shows the percent of all respondents and number of respondents by affiliation that use various
Internet functions. The two most used Internet functions are E-mail (58 percent of Internet using
respondents) followed by the World Wide Web (46 percent). To a much lesser degree, respondents
use Gopher, FTP, News bulletin boards and special interest listserver bulletin boards.
Figure 6 shows the number of respondents by affiliation that use various Internet
functions. University respondents account for most use of all Internet functions listed except News
bulletin boards which are used slightly more by industry respondents.
Listserver, typically special interest bulletin boards, are often used to communicate with like-minded
people. Although there are a number of listservers available to the forest products community.
Figure 7 shows the three most prevalent ones (Wood Science, Wood Net and Forest Net). Even though
listservers can be an efficient way to gather information and communicate only a third of Internet user
respondents are using this function.
