     The Online World: How to Profit from the Information Superhighway
                            Review by Judy Litt

        The "information superhighway" is a vast treasure house of
information. Finding exactly the information you want from it can be an
exercise in frustration. It is appropriate, then, that the book The Online
World: How to Profit from the Information Superhighway has the same
characteristics.
        The dictionary defines the word profit as "an advantageous gain or
return; benefit." The subtitle of this book stretches that definition a bit:
the main benefit you'll have after reading this book is a much better
knowledge of what is out there online and how to get at it. If you want to
know how your business will profit from the information superhighway, as I
did, you'll need other resources.
        I've been on the Internet for a while, via America Online and Fido
Net. I've been sending e-mail, reading newsgroups, and downloading by FTP
(if any of these terms sound Greek to you, The Online World will define them
for you). After reading this book, I had a much clearer idea of some of the
resources I didn't know much about: mailing lists, UUencoding, FTP by
e-mail, etc.
        There are four parts to The Online World: An Online World (an
introduction aimed at beginners or newbies); Applications, including
hobbies, work, home, education, news, databases, and more; Working Smarter
(how to automate tasks and cut costs); and the Appendices - list of selected
online services, frequently used terms, books and articles for further
reading, important Internet tools and pointers, and list of services
offering access to the Internet.
        One of the things I love about the online world is the ability to
communicate with people all over the world in literally minutes, or even
seconds. Yet when I think about the online world, I think in terms of the
United States, my own country. It was an eye-opener to see that this book
was written by a Canadian and a Norwegian. This brought home to me, quite
forcefully, the international scope of the information superhighway, and how
it facilitates working together when you're separated by thousands of miles.
        One of the strengths of The Online World is its clear, easy to
understand explanation of many of the mystifying parts of the online world:
downloading and uploading, addressing e-mail, modems, file transfers, etc.
One of the weaknesses of The Online World is its organization. Off-line
readers are discussed before they're explained. Most of the discussions are
easy for anyone to understand, even a newbie. But some will bewilder those
new to the online world, such as the in-depth discussion of file transfer
protocols.
        Some of the information I found to be questionable. Perhaps XModem
is the most used protocol in other countries, but not, to my knowledge, in
the United States. The authors call the forums on CompuServe "chat areas."
Chat areas, to my mind, are where people communicate online in real time.
The forums on CompuServe are basically message areas.
        There are two things I'd like to see in The Online World: screen
captures and an index. In many instances the authors do take you step by
step through some online process. They simulate the process by using a
typewriter-like font and indenting. I'd love to see some actual screen
captures. There is a lot of good information in The Online World, but it
doesn't seem to be organized very well. An index would make getting to
specific information quicker and easier.
        Don't buy The Online World because you want to make a million
dollars off the Internet. Don't buy this book if all you want to do is learn
how to market your business on the Internet (I'll admit that's the vision
that came to my mind when I first heard the title). Do buy The Online World
if you'd like to learn more about the information superhighway.

SRP:    $47.00, which includes shipping & postage
Title:	The Online World: How to Profit from the Information Superhighway, by Mike Weaver & Odd de Presno
ISBN: 	0-920847-89-7
Pages:	300

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