June 2010

Dear Client,

Fifteen years ago this month a small company in Orange, California opened it’s doors with the goal of providing Internet service to customers with the belief that the Internet would become important, and giving clients a high level of service would pay off.

At that point in time almost all aspects of Internet related activities were difficult.  Getting online was a bear.  Getting a domain name was hard, as was setting up email and a web site.  Even keeping a computer running reliably enough to get online wasn’t easy.  Most folks who did used Windows 3.1 and Trumpet Winsock to connect.

Fifteen years ago there was no Google, or eBay, or Yahoo for that matter.  We didn’t even have a real billing system in place—we used QuickBooks and did the best we could.  It wasn’t a certainty that the Great Internet Experiment would even work with significant growth.

Things have changed a lot over the years since then.  Online access is far easier (and faster!) now.  Email has flourished (all too well at times) and websites have blossomed into really useful tools.  In fact, entire industries have been spawned due to their creation.

The growth of the Internet and those services it provides have become essential to our lives as well as had a major impact on them.  Many of our clients have made fortunes (and some have lost them) in part due to the impact of the Internet.  In terms of governance, we have far greater control over how we are governed than we ever had before.  And we can often see events happen in real time without the interpretation and packaging provided by major news organizations.

While we have gained much in terms of instant communication, it has come at a cost—the biggest one being a loss of privacy.  It is trivially easy and inexpensive now to obtain a complete profile on someone in just a few minutes.  Where we browse on the Internet is tracked and cataloged, and our behavior tracked in ways that would make George Orwell blush.

Criminals have also taken advantage of the Internet.  While the activities are the same (cons/identity theft/etc) the speed with which they can occur are orders of magnitude faster.

Throughout these changes, we have tried to lend a hand along the way with our advice and guidance, and suggested ways you could take advantage of the technology as opportunities arose.

We appreciate the trust you have given us and in many cases, the friendships that have developed.  We have gained much more from the journey than we originally imagined.  With any luck, it will continue for some time to come.

Sincerely,

Ben Conner