The World Wide Web: Early In The Product Life Cycle

The Internet has moved from infancy to adolescence and is now growing into adulthood.

The Conception

The Web was a vision for an interconnected, global and ever-growing network over which information could flow. In the early days, the Web was not exactly the information superhighway that we have come to embrace but rather a mish mash of independent sites that were largely in the clutches of the Pentagon. After years of tinkering, the World Wide Web began to gain steam in the 1990s and crossed over to mainstream culture. To stay abreast of its development, follow its founder, Tim Berners-Lee at the World Wide Web Consortium, or online at www.w3.org.

The Infant

Many would consider the turning point of the Internet within mainstream culture as the day when Netscape went public. On that day, the company that served as the real ''windows'' to the world hit the capital markets. When founder Marc Andreesen woke up in the afternoon and noticed that the share price for a stock of Netscape had risen from $15 to $72, he knew that he was rich, but he also knew for good that the world as we knew it would never be the same.

What resulted from the fallout was a race to change the world and become a billionaire as fast as information could travel from New Zealand to New Mexico.

As more and more contestants entered this information race, some made fortunes while others lost some. Initially, no one really cared about what this creation would one day do or look like. Most were simply happy to see that their creation was alive and well.

The Toddler

Once the infant was crawling, more and more people wanted to choose the shoes, pick out the socks, sow the pants and emblazon their logos on the child's shirts. The problem was that all of this special attention was making the toddler to be one spoiled, rotten kid.

The Adolescent

By the time that the toddler had hit adolescence, something was starting to smell fishy. After all, this child felt that there was no such thing as ''no.'' Accountability, responsibility and common sense were not part of the glossary either.

As this adolescent was happy basking in the oasis of pleasure, a shocking reality began to emerge. The parents had raised this child based on lies, borrowed money and hype. In their excitement for this child's potential, they totally disregarded what had made previous children turn out to be model citizens.

What made matters worse, far worse, was that this was not a typical child that was raised by two parents. This was a child that was indeed brought up by a village. A global army of mercenaries: computer programmers, engineers, financiers and marketers had been busy building the World Wide Web. Sadly, they did not fully consider the cost, time and energy that was put in and the added resources required to sustain it.

When the child was awakened to the blunt reality, the house was foreclosed, the car repossessed and the espresso machine auctioned off on eBay. To make matters worse, the child found out by visiting a famous site that was inspired by Fast Company magazine.

The Young Adult

Once the original group of people that had served as the parents had disappeared and returned to traditional lines of work, the adolescent had no choice but to turn a page and try to make ends meet. After all the worst was over.

The first step was building the infrastructure over which the Content of the Web would travel; laying the network that would enable Communities to prosper; and establish the systems that could enable Commerce.

The hits and misses that occurred are normal in times of radical discovery. From there, a flight to quality follows and the line is drawn once and for all between the winners and losers.

Where is this young adult going to go from here? Where do you want it to go?