BETTER, FASTER, PRETTIER - Many companies are discovering that a well planned and executed e-commerce presence is crucial to overall business success these days. International Data says U.S. companies will spend $7 billion this year on Internet consultants, up from $2.9 billion in 1997. Also, Zona Research says 26 percent of CEOs are acting as chief e-commerce officers as well, deciding Internet success is too important to be left to subordinates. Consultants such as Scient's Nicholas DiGiacomo say the first step to e-commerce success is honest and detailed planning. A firm needs to be clear on what it expects to gain from its e-commerce initiatives. Firms must ensure they have adequate infrastructure, appealing visuals, fast downloads, current content and a large product line. IDC says U.S. businesses will spend $85.7 billion this year on their Internet capabilities, 39 percent more than last year and predicts that Internet spending next year will reach $120 billion. (Wall Street Journal 11/22/99 - Edupage 22 Nov 99)

CISCO CEO SEES e-LEARNING AS NEXT WAVE - eLearning is now positioned to become the next major target of Internet applications, narrowing the digital divide between rich and poor, said Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers in his keynote at Comdex on Tuesday. "Education and the Internet must go hand in hand," Chambers said. "It will serve as one of the great equalizers." Chambers showed a video on schools such as UC Berkeley that incorporate the Internet into the learning environment, for example, by offering Web sites for each individual course. Although the technology to transform education is already available, barriers such as teacher reluctance to embrace the Internet must still be overcome, Chambers said. Over the next two years education will evolve into more of a lifelong process as companies turn to the Internet to train employees. (InfoWorld Electric 11/16/99)

A TOP-DRAWER EDUCATION ONLINE - UNext aims to offer top-shelf business courses online with content provided by the faculty of top schools such as Columbia, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics by early next year. Course content for the curriculum, which will be marketed under the name Cardean, will be controlled by the partner schools, thus ensuring the schools' respective "brands" will not be tarnished by substandard content. UNext eventually plans to offer a Cardean MBA. Donald Norman, president of Unext and professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California at San Diego, calls the Cardean teaching method a "constructivist" one that will require students who are self- motivated to learn by doing. The courses will be aimed primarily at corporate middle managers seeking more training in business topics such as corporate finance, marketing and financial accounting. (Wired News 11/12/99)